Joe Collicutt describes his finely tuned method of building from plans using Depron rather than balsa.
Lots of people have become used to using Depron sheet as a building material in the past decade or so and some have designed whole models out of the stuff. A typical example being the Ultimate biplane by Dave Royds, as featured in the December 2009 edition of RCM&E. However, I am not aware of many builders who have employed it extensively to make a sizeable scale model from plans designed for balsa wood.
Starved of his flying fix the Editor enjoys taking the latest Twister helicopter for a spin around his living room.
Thanks to you-know-what and the ensuing New Year lockdown, club flying earlier this year was a non-starter. Grrr!
However, with the arrival of the latest Twister Ninja 250 micro helicopter, distributed by J Perkins, I was still able to keep my thumbs on the sticks, albeit in the rather more restricted confines of my living room. It's a real sweetie, so let's take a closer look at what's in the box.
Chris Williams and chums try their hand at a spot of electric powered glider tugging.
It all started a couple of years ago, when my long-time flying buddy, Barrington V. Smallpiece built a miniature scale glider - a Skylark from the West Wings kit.
Alex Whittaker admires Ken Sheppard’s ex-ARTF cartoon scale Italian trimotor
The Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero (Sparrowhawk) first flew in September 1934. It was a low-wing, triple-engine cantilever monoplane of wood and metal construction. Operated as a medium bomber it was easily recognisable by its distinct fuselage hump. Indeed, its crews, who generally seemed to like the aircraft, dubbed the design 'il gobbo maledetto', or damned hunchback.
Shaun Garrity updates a plan for a small pusher, jet style model that doubles up as a stiff-wind slope soarer
What has a Jaguar XJ6 (with the roof cut off), a steel pole and Octopussy got to do with this month’s free plan? Back in 1967 Jim Bede and his chief designer Paul Griffin sharpened their pencils and started creating a design for an aircraft that would become the BD-5, also referred to as the Micro.
Dave Batchelor finishes and flies his 98" Vulcan V-bomber built from the Tony Nijhuis plan.
Running fuel lines and wiring in the fuselage was going to be very untidy as only the holes in the ribs and bulkheads could be used to run them through. Good visibility inside is afforded by the large air intakes so I wanted it to look good inside as well as out.
Dave Batchelor describes his modifications whilst building a 98" Vulcan V-bomber to the Tony Nijhuis plan.
Following the demise of my MB339 back in 2016, I was left with (thankfully) a spare Jetcat P100 turbine looking for a home. I could not afford an ARTF model to put it in at the time so the idea of building something came to mind.
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