Building from scratch

[Reg Ball]

I'm having problems with fragility with kits. I need a simple plan for sbeginners

[Tim Mackey]

Hi Reg...I think we might need a little more info on what exactly it is your after - scale - funfly, large, small etc.

Also what building experience do you have, and what materials are you comfortable with? Dont write off the tougher foams and so on without consideration.

[Reg Ball]

Hello Timbo, i@in the process of making Puss moth 1/18 scale , and the Spifire 22-24 1/18 as a begginer I'm pretty ignorant as to what is required skillwise,and what plans to go for thankyou Reg

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Fill in your profile Reg and tell us a bit about your flying skills, the more you tell us the more we're able to help.

[Reg Ball]

Hello David, flying to Ireland mostly,wife is Irish,and I like fishing.Beginner at evrything,models flying. I thought I already compleated my profile Thanks Reg

[birdy]

Hi reg! The build: IC or 'leccy, How big, and is a CNC kit or something of that kin needed?

[Doug Ireland]

Hi Reg and welcome aboard! Just looked at your profile and noted your woodworking skills. Model Aircraft building should not present any probelms as long as you think about the small scale and softer materials involved; just takes a bit more patience but the results are so rewarding! Looking forward to your first build blog! Doug.

[Mark Lubbock]

Hi again Reg,

I assume that you are building the West Wings kits of the Puss Moth & Spitfire?

You have chosen arguably one of the most difficult disciplines of aeromodelling in small scale rubber power. The old KK & Veron Flying scale series models were very popular in their day, their low price & attractive subjects appealed to beginners, but probably put more folks off modelling than they attracted as they were fiddly to build as you have found & the grade of balsa invariably too hard. This, coupled to dodgy build quality, a good heavy coat of paint & the tiny props supplied means that very few actually flew.

Carefully built & with a lightweight finish & a bigger prop/proper rubber they could fly very well & the real experts copied the parts onto quality 'indoor' balsa & binned the kit-probably the best thing to do now (except binning!) if you come across an original kit given the prices they are fetching.

You should be able to get the Moth to fly OK, but the Spit will always be a little tricky-my KK example did fly OK with the above mods but was difficult to trim (better with the wheels on!). The best thing for now would to build a none scale simple model such as KK Ajax, Achilles, Senator or West Wings Sapphire/Topaz if you want a kit & learn the techniques with them-I may have a spare Replikit plans CD & other plans -send me a PM. if you want any. Back issues of Aeromodeller are also a good source of simple rubber plans.