Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 From tiny acorns mighty oaks grow - and boy has this idea grown! From an idea original born on Christmas Day 2010 this has become a large activity on the forum. New people are still coming along and showing interest in being involved. But what's it all about? What's the background. What are the "rules"? Well this thread is designed as a starting point and a guide to the event for those just joining. You can just pick up the basics here - or if you wish you can follow the links given and read the unfolding story of the 2011 Charity Mass Build! It all started on Christmas Day. Stephen Grigg - a regular poster on the forum - had established a tradition that he built an ARTF in one day, from begining to flight-ready, on Christmas Day and he would run a one day blog on this. Stephen's original blog can be found here. Whilst we were all sitting digesting our Christmas dinner and following Stephen's build (and incidentally setting the record for the most number of posts on one thread in one 24 hour period!) David Gilder came up with a question; "What's the most number of models that have ever been built in one day?" Now maybe we'd all had a bit too much "Christmas cheer" I don't know, but from this question the idea of running an event in which we all built the same model at the same time was born! Continues.... Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 20/01/2011 11:18:17Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 20/01/2011 11:45:36 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted January 20, 2011 Author Share Posted January 20, 2011 OK so, we have the idea. Next up was to discuss what we were going to build. After a long discussion, which you can find here, we decided that the model had to have certain characteristics: it had to fairly low cost - this was just a bit of fun so major investment wasn't on the menu. It had to be a "traditional build" - it was felt unlikely that enough examples of any ARTF could be found in the UK in time. And anyway trad kits keep the price down and a make encouraging building a by product of the project. it had to be able to be electric or ic. After some discussion 4 candidate models came forth. The WebBIT, the Pinto, the Wasp and the Stick. The only way to decide was to have a vote! The voting thread can be found here if your interested in how it went. The results of the vote are here and as you can see the WebBIT won by a clear margin. Continues.... Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 20/01/2011 11:19:39 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted January 20, 2011 Author Share Posted January 20, 2011 OK so we had the model sorted. But when were we going to do this. Being a democratic lot - or more honestly just wanting make sure the maximum number of people took part - we decided to debate this and you can read all the views about different dates and durations etc. etc. here. The long and short of it is that the following set of "rules" were adopted: The Charity Mass Build Timeframe. The event would start on Friday 1st April (how appropriate!) and finish onSunday 15th May 2011. This means it would last 6 weeks. We feel this is a reasonable time, and is acompromise between one month and two months. It also includes two Bank Holidays, Easter and May Day - so gives an opportunity to those who need that time. If, due to personal circumstances, you can't fit in that period - DON'T WORRY!You wont be excluded! If you really need to start your Webbit before 1st April that's OK. But we will ask you one thing - if you want to make a build blog (and we hope you will) please don't post it until the main event - i.e. after 1st April. This is to ensure that no one "steals the event's thunder" as it were! Similarly, if you can't finish your Webbit by 15th May - DON'T WORRYYou wont be alone and of coursethe build blogs can run on for as long as you want and I'm sure we'll be encouraging you along! Continues... Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 20/01/2011 11:15:50Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 20/01/2011 11:20:39 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted January 20, 2011 Author Share Posted January 20, 2011 The adoption of the WebBIT added a further dimension to the event. Steve Webb,supplier and designer of the WebBIT via Steve Webb Models, made the offer that for every WebBIT sold through the project he would donate £5 to the charity Arthritis Research. So the "Mass Build" became the "Charity Mass Build"! We now needed to get ideas of how many people would be building WebBITS. So a Signing-Up thread was set up where people could declare their intention to build a WebBIT as part of the Charity Mass Build. If you would like to become involved then we would very much like you to register on this thread - so we know how many kits will be needed and so on - and you can find the Signing Up thread here Continues...Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 20/01/2011 11:49:55 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted January 20, 2011 Author Share Posted January 20, 2011 But if we're all going to build a WebBIT, wouldn't it be fun if there was an opportunity to meet up and see them, and fly them, all together? Of course it would! And so, as a sort of extra, there will be a mass WebBIT presence at the Greenacres/RCM&E summer fly-in on 25th-26th June 2011. If you sign up, and build a WebBIT, why not come along and join the fun. You can find out more about this event here. Continues....Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 20/01/2011 11:35:11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gilder Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Fantastic Explanation BEB Maybe there will be more to add to it in the near future!!! (Heading to the printers after lunch!!) Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted January 20, 2011 Author Share Posted January 20, 2011 So there we have it. The whole story so far. Obviously lots of lively discussion continues. Now that you are "up to speed" on the history, why not join the current discussion going on at the Charity Mass Build Chat thread here. Or if your interested in finding out exactly what's involved in building a webBIT then visit the WebBIT Wisdom thread here where you will find tips about building the WebBIT as well as useful lists of additional materials required to complete model etc. Finally, we hope this has explained the Charity Mass Build idea for you. If you do have any questions please feel free to ask them on the Mass Build Chat thread or you can PM either of us and we'd be happy to help if we can! So, what are you waiting for - the signing up thread is here! David Gilder & BEBEdited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 20/01/2011 11:52:18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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