EBay Magnatilla Restoration Log

[flyeruk]

Nice to see it in the air.Im hoping your comment,recommending a Magnatilla to anyone who could already manage a basic trainer.applies to me and my Hannibal. I think,as far as im aware,that they are pretty much the same apart from the Hannibal being bigger.

[David Davis]

I'm sure your Hannibal will be a lovely flyer.

 

[David Davis]

Sometime ago someone put up a post asking us that if we could only have one model, what would it be? My answer was a WOT 4 but now having flown the Maggy, I'm not so sure. Oh the WOT 4 is a better flying machine and is iconically British but it lacks the charm of the Magnatilla.

 

Added to that, the Magnatilla is available as a kit which is easy to build and which would be an excellent choice for someone who can fly but who wants to build their first model, an increasingly common route in these ARTF-dominated days. It is also suitable for customising, as a sort of practise piece for more demanding scale subjects to follow. I've seen them with dummy wing warping wires, as two-seaters with a rear gunner and in German, British, French and now Austrian markings. If it had not been for the fact that someone had already put an iron cross on the fin, I would have been tempted to finish it in inter-war American colours with chrome yellow wings and a blue or dark green fuselage. Have I planted a seed?

 

Finally I note that there have been over 1000 visits to this thread which must prove that there is still considerable interest in these old things.

 

I have just put a 2.4 receiver in mine and range checked it in the back garden. I can't wait to fly it again once I've sorted out the engine side thrust.

 

Happy Landings Gentlemen!

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Regarding the crosses, I have done a similar method to you David but with a few mods.

 

First I downloaded my cross from the internet getting a nice hi-res image I could scale. Then inserted it into WORD and played about until it was the right size.

 

I then printed it out and stuck it to a piece of card. The cross was then cut out from the card using a scalpel.

 

Now at this point I initailly tried to do what you suggested David - ie use the cut out cross as a template - but I actually found this quite awkward, its difficult to align the template and hold it accurately in position.. So I hit upon an alternative, instead of using the cut out cross use the remainder of the card with a "cross shaped hole" in it. This of course has a boarder and so can be taped in place using masking tape, used so as to not damage the white background, and then (this is the bit I'm quite pleased with!) use a black "Sharpie" pen to draw around the inside boundary.

 

You can then remove the card and paint the crosses - you only have to paint up to the inside of the Sharpie line as it is already black - fast and easy.

 

I agree this will have all the "Lords of Scale" in fits of laughter at its Heath Robinson nature - but it enabled me to paint 4 perfectly passable big black crosses on the upper and lower wing surfaces in about 1 hour and at no real expense.

 

BEB

Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 23/11/2011 13:21:54

[Stephen Grigg]

Ive dittoed you David .My first build was a Magnatilla and after a couple of flights i lost signal and it was written off in a tree.Always missed it so I bought one from E bay last week.Its only needing a checkover.It looks good.The only fault I can give it is its crosses are much to small.I fitted a receiver yesterday so its ready for the field.

Edited By Stephen Grigg on 01/07/2012 16:27:20