Den Parky Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 What seemed like a good idea at the time, is now starting to look like a complete nightmare. I was in my local model shop the other week and saw this kit for a Aviomodelli 88" Storch. Inside the box, the kit looked impressive, so I forked out £140+ and came home with it. On the way home, I got a shock.. In small print, there was another name..Mantua!! Thats when alarm bells started ringing.. Last year, I started building a Mantua HMS Victory, and after about 2 weeks, it went in the bin! Terrible plans, badly fitting joints and really poor quality wood, meant it was almost impossible to build it. Earlier on today, I thought I would bite the bullet and make a start on it. Most of the instructions are in Italian, with small sections badly translated into English. It turns out that Mantua's idea of building a model plane, is to build it the same way you build a boat. Basically a keel, with ribs attached. See the pic below:- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Den Parky Posted March 9, 2013 Author Share Posted March 9, 2013 To build this storch, you need to build it as if you were building a boat. Clamping the keel in place to keep it straight and true, and then gluing the ribs in place, using a square and clamps to keep the ribs at 90 degrees with the keel. As per pic below. Thats when I had my first problem with Mantua quality. While pinning the balsa blocks in place to hold the keel straight, the keel snapped clean in half, two thirds of the way from the front. Not to be put off, I epoxied the broken keel together and all seemed well until I put all the ribs in position and put the top keel in position on top of the ribs.. The top keel snapped in half as well. The top and bottom keel, along with all the ribs, are made out of a very soft plywood, which is of really poor quality. Time for a very large Jack Daniels I think, before I carry on with this nightmare! Edited By Den Parky on 09/03/2013 23:37:03 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsay Todd Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 A freind of mine built one of these some years ago, I can't recall the kit quality but it did fly nicely so maybe thats a degree of comfort at least. Linds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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