leccyflyer

Aye - I know that the APC-Es are more efficient but that crazy blade shaping at the hub is a real pain in so many situations. Unfortunately I don't think I've got any other 12x8" in stock, so it'll have to be the washers - I've got some ply ones, with cut outs for those horrible APC blade roots.

Given the choice of glues that you mentioned, I'd ask how easily you could restrain the lite ply against the expansion of the Gorilla glue and whether you want the job to be done quite quickly. You won't want the lite ply being pushed away from the foam as the Gorilla glue expands, so if it's tricky to ensure that, for the expansion period, then I'd go for the UHU Por used as a contact adhesive.

Quick question as I'm lining up the motor mount - did anyone else need to trim the ally spinner to fit an APC-E prop in there? The spinner cut outs don't seem anywhere near deep enough to get an APC-E 12" x 8" in there without making them larger in both pieces.

The recent build threads of Vintage RC models from Aeromodeller and RCM&E on RC Groups had Vintage defined as at least 50 years, so models built from plans pre 1973. The Vintage Radio Control Society has their own definitions PIONEER - prior to January 1, 1955 CLASSIC - prior to January 1, 1965 NOSTALGIA - thirty-five years before January 1 of the current year. It's going to be a moveable feast and also vary by location - models deemed to be Classics over here certainly would include some that don't fit those criteria - by common parlance over here the Wot 4 and Mick Reeves Gangster would deemed Classics, but I think those would be a bit later than 1965.

Yep, agreed - nice, but just a bit too big, too heavy and too heavily loaded for my flying fields. I think the 60-odd inch size that Eric is talking about would be the sweet spot for me, for a Mossie. So much so that I managed to resist a 73" span CMPro one that went to auction on eBay at the weekend and went for a song. Didn't look half as nice as Eric's one there though - the CMPro one has quite a portly fuselage and there is something about the nacelles too.

A beautifully sunny day here in the middle of Scotland, blue skies, fluffy clouds, light winds and even a bit of warmth in that sun. Got a few hours in at the local field, where it had dried up enough to give the field the first cut of the season. I hadn't expected the field to be cut, so had picked my models accordingly, so that was a bonus being able to take off with my wee Parkzone P-47D. I'd also taken my venerable and rarely flown Modelshack Cricket and had a very enjoyable first flight of the year with that, but broke the u/c mounting nylon bolts on landing a bit quickly. Still had other models with me to fly, so not a problem. All in all a good morning - just nice to sit in the sun and have a chat and the field is looking great.

I find the Frog tape to be just about the best for masking my models - I take the extra step of sealing the edge with a smear of WBPU to prevent any creep. Still need to be super careful taking the tape off to avoid liftin the paint though.

I'd have a WR Bf110 in a heartbeat. I already have a similar sized scratch built Zerstorer (and an unstarted Flair kit), but having seem Ron's and others fly on video, I'm sure I could squeeze one into the BoB fleet.

Nice work Simon - that cockpit is a work of art. I used the thin ply and sheet balsa technique for the wing seating fillets on my Beaufighter, so will have to give that some consideration.

That's good news Matty - here's to your continued and complete recovery. 👍

There's been about four or five different ARTF or kit-based A-26 Invaders on the market in the past few years, from Phoenix, Nexa, VQ and ASM plus plan packs from Sarik, so it's reasonably popular as a type in the USA at least.

@Ron Gray - superb videos of your Zerstorer - that's made my day that has. 😎👍

Bill Manley at Bill KIts is the man. https://www.billkits.com/

Few good saves on the video there - when I saw the spindly legs at the beginning of the video I wondered how the landing would go, but superior pilot skills worked their magic.

For me it's about the desire to research and replicate certain key, historical aeroplanes, which means that, even for aeroplanes which are exactly the same model and so which do fly exactly the same as their duplicates, the associated history and interest in realising those colour schemes and wee tweaks, gives me immense pleasure. To that end I do have multiple duplicates of a number of aeroplanes, some different marks, but some which are exactly the same mark and exactly the same kit, which works for me. Personally I can't see the fascination of even scale aerobats, like Edges, but even there I do have a favourite one, which I quickly sought out a duplicate, just in case the original ever get broken. I've flown the duplicate Edge just once in a dozen years. Different strokes for different folks.

The first time I used it was to recover the replacement tailplane on my Henschel HS129 refurb, using matt film supplied by Ron Gray of this parish and I was immediately impressed with the ease of application, added strength and base it provided for paint. I've since used it on a couple of other models and the paint adhesion is quite delicate with water based paints, requiring extreme care in masking, but still a super surface to paint on. Where the laminating film really comes into it's own is in concert with tissue, where it makes a superb finish, which can be left as essentially doped coloured tissue for sports models or then as a base for paint in scale models. It's been the best thing since sliced bread in the past couple of years for me.

Could it just be a carry over from the days of IC twins when the dreaded engine out was pretty much a death sentence? I watched a group of clubmates - all experienced modellers - build a big scale twin every winter as a joint project, equip it with a pair of intrinsically unreliable strimmer engine conversions and do the engine out spiral of death on the maiden flight three years running before they eventually gave up. That fear should be missing from an electric twin - it isn't actually, for example on my first twin adventure I lost a prop on climbing out and did that engine out death spiral anyway 😄

Basic Spektrum receivers were £30-40, so I bought loads of them, excellent bits of kit, but then HH HHiked their prices up, making the AR620 (previously £34 each) >£50, which I thought was unacceptable given the market. The new generation Lemon 7 channel receivers with stabilisation and telemetry now fit in that space.

Does Roland Scotts in Walken ring any bells? It certainly does - that's where I got my first radio control set in about 1973 - the notorious Mainstream Gem 1+1, to go with the Keil Kraft Outlaw which was to be my first radio model, purchased from the Manchester Model Shop in Deansgate. Me and my pal had been watching and hanging about on the slag heaps of the Three Sisters near Wigan, where a couple of young fellers were flying there Yamamoto trainers with the very, very plasticky Gem 4 proportional radio sets and they were doing great. Our previous aeromodelling obsession had been free flight and a dalliance with control liners, but this radio lark looked amazing. I couldn't stretch to a 4 channel set, but the Gem 1+1 was just about within reach and the Outlaw was duly equipped with a proportional rudder and a push button sequential throttle control for the PAW RC diesel. The big day came and the flight was measured in seconds and not too many of those, with the Outlaw dashed to pieces on the hard baked earth. Further unsuccessful attempts with a KK MIni Super followed, which couldn't get off the ground and the radio and PAW 2.49 then did have some success in a Keil Kraft Vosper Air Sea Rescue launch on one of the flashes at the same site Fast forward 50 years and I was able to finally get an Outlaw flying last year, thanks to the help of Phil Green and Shaun Garrity, who sorted me out firstly with a Gem 1+1 converted to 2.4ghz and then with the encoder for my own conversion of a Digimac III set to realise that ambition. All happy days though and fondly remembered. I've since converted another couple of Macgregor single channel and 1+1 sets and have plans for all of them - this nostalgia lark is great fun and steering a model round the skies with the button has been a nice addition to my hobby.

Rain stopped play yesterday, but was able to get out for a couple of hours this morning, though overcast and the 4-7mph slight crosswind felt colder than that. Good fun was had, though not the day for any maiden flights, hugely enjoyed flying my PZ Martlet and Bf109g, as well as my Su26 and some wee fellas. Got to take those opportunities when they present themselves.

IMO Toto shouldn't be touching his throttle trim at all - it's an electric model and that throttle trim lever is completely redundant, third in line behind the chocolate fireguard and the ashtray mounted on the motorbike handlebars. As you say a buzzer indicating throttle position would be an unwelcome and unnecessary distraction.

Yep - in my experience, which isn't huge, EDFs need to either have tarmac runways if fitted with retracts, be super powerful if aiming to use retracts on grass, be small enough and with sufficient excess power to be hand launched or need a bungee. Fixed gear is right out. My clubmates have had lots of success with the wee Arrows 50mm Hawk and T-33, my attempts with the tN Gnat and Jet Provost have been much less successful. If you are really into jets, those hurdles are surmountable with some effort, but as a dyed-in-the-wool propellor fan I'd have to think twice about whether to go for a large EDF build. Unless it were a Hunter, or maybe a Harrier, or a Phantom. 🙂

What GG said. It strikes me that, at this stage of his model flying training, Toto would be much better concentrating on learning to fly, getting the hours in the air, enjoying himself and familiarising himself with the sit of his aeroplane at different throttle settings in different conditions, rather than worrying about attempting to programme his transmitter to beep at him when his throttle is set at a particular datum power.