Stevens Aero C-140 'Says Nuh'

[roversgonemad]

This isn't my build along plane, just priming the pump. If you are looking for a build along plane, and have little balsa experience, these little Stevens Aero planes are awesome. I built the fuselage in about 2.5 hours. It all tabs together dry, then you glue. It's very easy. If you can read the manual, you can build one of these little planes.





Edit: Just for clarity, the entire assembly doesn't tab together and glue all at once. There are sub assemblies that get glued, then they combine to make the larger parts. There's a little balsa bending too, so there are lots of little things to learn while building.

 

[DarkFire]

Cool! That might be my next build. Always loved the C-140's looks.

 

[roversgonemad]

If you buy the highest option, all you need is the parkzone brick. It will come with a motor, covering, sanding sponge, everything minus receiver. Believe it or not, it's cheaper to buy the champ replacement fuselage, rather than the brick alone. At least it was when I bought mine.

 

[Joker 53150]

The price on a UMX brick is obscene! I wanted to try building a little bird like this for a while, until I priced the electronics!

What kind of covering do they include with it?

 

[AkimboGlueGuns]

That's a nifty little kit! Could I use the motor off of a UMX spitfire on one of these?

 

[roversgonemad]

They are designed around the 1S motor and gearbox. The Champ, Spacewalker, T-28, 1S mustang, etc., will work. If it's a 1S Spitfire, I'd say yes it will work. A lot of guys buy used (crashed) UMX planes from RCG or eBay and scavenge the guts from those. Maybe I'm silly, but I don't mind buying the brick.... Or the replacement champ fuselage. As I recall, it was quite a bit cheaper than a brick alone. I kind of like having new, or at the very least, known electronics. In the end, I think it ends up being more than a UMX plane, but it's balsa, and I built it.

The covering is "Aerolite", And it says Solite in parentheses. I am pretty sure that Stevens just rebrands one of the existing lite coverings.

Edit: I just checked horizon, the fuse with electronics is $50.39, and a brick alone is $50.99.... You save $0.60, and bet a spare motor and fuselage.....

I'd be sure to check the pictures of the UM motor you have to be sure it would work. Pretty sure many of them were the same.



No motor in that shot, but it needs that mounting to work without mods.

 

[roversgonemad]

Ready for a maiden!

 

[PsyBorg]

Wow thats a really nice looking model. Great job on that little guy mate :applause: The fuselage looks almost like a one piece mold its so smooth and straight.

 

[roversgonemad]

Thanks Psyborg. Unfortunately, the maiden might be a ways off. The weather has not been conducive to flying tiny planes. I'd do it indoors, but don't have access to a large enough indoor space.

 

[rockyboy]

The price on a UMX brick is obscene! I wanted to try building a little bird like this for a while, until I priced the electronics!

What kind of covering do they include with it?

Sorry I missed this question earlier - here's the $21 option for the UMX brick

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/2-4ghz-...ble-receiver-w-brushed-esc-linear-servos.html

Due to how the board is laid out, Steven's standard mounting clips won't hold it - but for 1/3 of the price I can fabricate something to hold the brick in place. I'm installing my first of these in the Pacemaker I'm working on for the build along - and if I get inspired and come up with a 3D printed mounting bracket that works I'll be sure to share.

Also, very nice build and top notch covering job!! :applause:

 

[roversgonemad]

I'll be really curious to see how that brick works out. I love the little Stevens Aeromodel planes. I also want to do more rubber free flight to electric RC conversions. I've got a Dumas Wildcat I want to convert, and a Guillows Hellcat. The Parkzone brick isn't cheap, but it's definitely proven. If the HK brick is good, that cuts the cost of the brick by half! Pretty sure I could print a clip that would hold the HK brick.

 

[rockyboy]

At the current rate of progress I'll probably have this one ready to spin up in a week or so and I'll do a little video review for everyone.

 

[roversgonemad]

Does the motor solder or plug in? Hard to tell from the picture and the description didn't seem to indicate.

 

[rockyboy]

I believe it's a solder in for the HK board - no instructions of course

There are two JST 1.0 pitch extra servo sockets that mean it's a 5 channel receiver. And there are two tiny little through hole solder points next to each other on the other end of the board that I think are for the brushed motor connection. At least I don't see anything else that looks like it would work for the motor, and the specs clearly say it has a 2amp brushed speed controller built in.

I'll try to spin it up for a bench test tonight to confirm.

 

[roversgonemad]

The soldered connection actually isn't bad. It was a little tricky getting my motor hooked up on my little 140. With the solder, you can add a pigtail for motor leads and probably make it a little less fiddly to hook up the motor. Just make sure to get a plug that isn't keyed for polarity, so you can easily swap rotation.