Mini Telemaster Kit-Bashing

[rockyboy]

Next on the balsa side of the workbench for me is a classic Mini-Telemaster by Hobby Lobby I've got the 45" wingspan one, but these come in sizes from 36" up to 144".



I'm organizing a build along of Telemasters (any size welcome) and have somewhere between 5 and 9 other folks in my local RC club, with experience ranging from 40 years of balsa dust to very first kit build. Really excited to get more local club members hooked on building from kits instead of ARFs Anyone here in the forums that would like to join along is absolutely welcome and encouraged - I'll add you to the mailing list we're using and even make you an honorary member of the club for the year! (Can't promise anything about next year though - I'm not planning to be president for a second term )

I've seen some great mods done with this kit, from twin engine to twin fuselage to super-STOL setups like this one



And since I picked up two of these kits from a dealer on facebook, I think I'll do two very different airplanes.

The first one I'm going to tackle will be a Super-STOL. Planned kit mods so far include;

• Ailerons
• Reduced dihedral
• Slotted Flaps
• Drooped wingtips
• Air fences / turbulators
• Steerable Tail Wheel
• Enlarged Rudder
• Reshaped tail, cabanes, and bush tires ala Kit Fox
• Navigation Lights (I have a UMX Timber set to install here)

And the second kit is going in a whole different direction

• Twin Engine Nacelles
• Retractable Tricycle Gear (mains going into the nacelles)
• Reduced Dihedral
• Ailerons
• Split Flaps
• FPV Module in Nose

Big fun ahead!! :applause:

------------------------------------------------------------------
Spoiler Alert!

Here's what she looks like on maiden flight day!

 

[nhk750]

Nice, I will be watching this one to learn from your mods, subscribed!

 

[Joker 53150]

The Telemaster is an absolute delight to fly. I built one with my dad at Flite Fest 2016 over a 2-1/2 day period, from assembly to covering. On a calm day it's fun to take out and just do lazy circuits around the field.

 

[Michael9865]

This is going to be fun.

 

[BridgeInspector]

I bought one from the facebook deal also. It was a deal on the last of the stock from Hobby Express (formerly Hobby Lobby). I built mine over the last four weeks and had my maiden flight this morning.

It was my first balsa build, so it was by the instructions and I even did the white and translucent red covering.

Working on the video now.

 

[rockyboy]

Awesome!! :applause:

Looking forward to the flight report and video!

 

[Turbojoe]

Good stuff rockyboy. I built the fuse and tail feathers for mine several years back but couldn't decide what I wanted to do on the wing so that hasn't been built yet. I'm in the process of selling out of the hobby (for GOOD reasons) but It's going to take a while to get everything sold off so I can try to find time for some more building. I'll be especially interested in your second build as I'm a big fan of twins and trike gear. (My trike twin EVA is SO close to being ready to cover.) Do you have a link to the thread with the build of the trike twin in the picture?

I'd like to at least make the mini Telemaster ready to cover like my Telemaster 40 has been for years. Should be easier to sell that way.

Joe

 

[BridgeInspector]

MINI TELEMASTER BUILD AND MAIDEN VIDEO

This was my first balsa build and it went really well. It is a shame the kits may no longer be available.

 

[rockyboy]

That's awesome! Great video! Plane flies real nice too

 

[rockyboy]

Starting with the horizontal stabilizer per the instructions.



One error - it referrs to a part WT when it should be ST. All simple other than that.



Add some more pieces...



My preferred way to make long balsa sticks into short ones. A little mitre box, a razor saw, and a piece of hard wood scrap covering the bottom of the mitre box so the saw teeth don't get messed up.



I'm using Super Phatic glue on this build, so once the elevator and horizontal stabilizer pieces were glued in place, I pulled them up from the wax paper and wicked a bead of the glue in from the other side of the joints too. In the picture below they are standing up to dry.

And on the left side of the picture is my first modification from the plans. I'm extending the rudder with 3 small standoffs of 1/8 x 1/4 balsa and a new trailing edge of the same. This adds a total of 1/2" of length to the rudder, and should increase low speed rudder responsiveness nicely.

 

[rockyboy]

Good stuff rockyboy. I built the fuse and tail feathers for mine several years back but couldn't decide what I wanted to do on the wing so that hasn't been built yet. I'm in the process of selling out of the hobby (for GOOD reasons) but It's going to take a while to get everything sold off so I can try to find time for some more building. I'll be especially interested in your second build as I'm a big fan of twins and trike gear. (My trike twin EVA is SO close to being ready to cover.) Do you have a link to the thread with the build of the trike twin in the picture?

I'd like to at least make the mini Telemaster ready to cover like my Telemaster 40 has been for years. Should be easier to sell that way.

Joe

Please don't forget about us here in the FT Forums when you're putting things up for sale! :applause:

On the topic of Twin Telemasters, the Hobby Lobby blog had a couple posts where they were preparing a kit for a Twin Tele. Didn't have a lot of details, but there were several pictures of both plans and prototype that look pretty interesting.

http://blog.hobbyexpress.com/wing-world-rc-model-airplanes/should-the-telemaster-have-a-twin/
http://blog.hobbyexpress.com/wing-world-rc-model-airplanes/the-twin-telemaster-design-process/
http://blog.hobbyexpress.com/wing-world-rc-model-airplanes/whats-inside-our-twin-telemaster/
http://blog.hobbyexpress.com/wing-w...es/finding-a-balance-for-the-twin-telemaster/

 

[rockyboy]

OK, time for another minor deviation from the plans. Since the control surfaces on the tail are slabs of balsa, it leaves end grain balsa hanging out at the ends - if left nekkid the control surfaces could cup up and turn into little potato shapes which are difficult to trim out in flight.

So I took my handy balsa strip cutter and some left over 1/16" balsa stringer and made a strip as thick as the rudder / elevator / etc.


I started with the curvy one here, sprayed the 1/16" strip with ammonia (water works too) and let it soak in for a minute. Then I bent it into shape and held it there with magnets to dry. I'll let it sit overnight and glue it in place tomorrow. Why do these ends you ask? So I'm adding the same width to the horizontal stabilizer as I'm going to add to the elevator. Keeps all the lines straight.


Here I'm adding the straight end cap strips to the rudder.


And here you can see the rest of the end strips in place on the elevator and horizontal stabilizer.


Do some planning ahead if you decide to try this. Because I added a 1/6" to the height of the rudder, I'm going to need to add a similar amount to the vertical stabilizer now (top and bottom) so they are the same height.

 

[Michael9865]

Do some planning ahead if you decide to try this. Because I added a 1/6" to the height of the rudder, I'm going to need to add a similar amount to the vertical stabilizer now (top and bottom) so they are the same height.

Nice mod and good advice.

 

[UncleRojelio]

Is this the same kit?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-50-Min...814005?hash=item2a9420f3f5:g:aZMAAOSwKtlWqYzB

-- Roger

 

[rockyboy]

Not sure if that's the v1 or v2 kit. I got the v2 kit from this guy on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/mod...68617346/?sale_post_id=1781217368617346&rt=11

As of two weeks ago he still had a couple kits left. The v2 kit included a more complete hardware bag, and triangle designed wing ribs instead of parallel ones which is supposed to increase wing rigidity.

If you do go the eBuy seller route, the same one has this 4 channel version that will save you the kit bashing I'm going to need to do to reduce the dihedral and add the ailerons.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-48-Tel...m=182918903527&_trksid=p2047675.c100752.m1982

That said, any of these Tele kits should build up just fine. I've heard nothing but good things about these so far.

 

[UncleRojelio]

I already ordered the 50", I didn't even notice that the 48" had ailerons. I guess for the price I can get both. lol.

 

[rockyboy]

Yeah, these kits aren't that much of a cash investment compared to some of the big stuff

When you get started on the build feel free to either post your progress in this thread, or start your own build thread - but drop a link to it here so I don't miss it!

Tonight I sanded the strip at the top of the vertical stabilizer flush. This picture also shows my fancy sanding protector. It's a piece of a plastic packaging from a receiver or something that I lay on the part I don't want to sand down. The plastic gets a little scratched up but the balsa in that area doesn't get sanded away. This gets me to almost perfectly flush and I move the plastic out of the way for the last little bit. I learned this trick doing guitars where Stewart Macdonald company will sell you a thin piece of metal for $25 with a slot in it to protect the fretboard while you polish the frets. This is a heck of a lot cheaper and works just as well for me.



Next is time to assemble the fuselage doublers. I'm using magnets to hold it flat while drying, but if you're building with pins just put a second layer of wax paper over the top and drop a book on it.


Very important for this next step - lay out a right and left side of the fuselage and doubler. If you make two right sides, you're going to feel pretty foolish.


And rather than do the CA method of laminating the sides together, I squirted some SuperPhatic on it, smeared it around with a gift card, lined it up and dropped some weight on it.


Then repeat for the other side and call it a night.

 

[willsonman]

You are doing some really great work here! Thank you so much for sharing your build experience. I look forward to seeing this one.

 

[rockyboy]

You are doing some really great work here! Thank you so much for sharing your build experience. I look forward to seeing this one.

Thanks!

In the spirit of you 'do something new on every project to keep learning' I'm pushing myself on the kit mods for ailerons & flaps - and rereading constantly past build logs (lots of them yours) for ideas. So thank you for all the help your past self is providing

 

[willsonman]

Hey man, it's why I post stuff. If you find it useful that's great. If you find it entertaining, great as well. If you hate it, move along. By all means ask questions in your own logs too. I do watch them and try to keep a sharp eye out for things I have a valuable comment for. Otherwise I try to keep my mouth shut.