Balsa Forum Fall Build Along

Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
Continuing on with the Mountain Models love-fest before the build-along officially starts...

Here's my Lucky ACE, the first balsa kit I ever started AND finished! It's currently got 137 flights and over 18 hours of flight time. The color scheme is based heavily on a German WWI plane.

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Somewhere around flight #20 I lost signal (Spektrum...) and the plane nosed in, just over a small hill by a small retention pond and out of sight. I figured it was a complete loss - either smashed or in the pond - until I got to it and found this! :black_eyed: Less than a foot from the water and in very soft ground, buried half-way up the battery hatch in mud. Absolutely no damage other than a broken prop. After flushing it out with clean water, taking the motor apart and cleaning it thoroughly, and then re-shrinking a bit of covering it was perfectly fine and ready to go again! Only a little discoloring of the balsa in the battery bay is left.

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This is my Switchback before it's maiden flight, using the Sport wing. This has the SoLite covering.

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One of my earlier flights with the 3D wing didn't go so well. :(

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After a little time gluing the bits back together and re-covering the nose it's hard to tell it was ever crashed! The only easy way to tell is that the old and new covering overlap and it's much less transparent at those spots.

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Here is my dad's Switchback in clear covering. To the right is the wingtip of his MM Dandy.

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Turbojoe

Elite member
Jeff,

I'm guessing the clear covering you're talking about is the Doculam that used to come in the MM kits? I've never covered a plane with it but a few years back I was watching a thread about painting Doculam. I built some test boxes with 1/8" balsa sticks and covered with Doculam and painted. Some of those test boxes are still laying around the shop and are still drum tight! It's super easy to work with too. I may end up using it to cover a plane and actually paint it some day. It's really nice stuff!

Joe
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
Nice job repairing that great looking SwitchBack. Looks almost exactly like the same damage that happened to my original SB when I somehow drilled it into the pavement nose first. Glued her all back together and shes STILL airworthy! Pop a battery in and fly... SwitchBacks NEVER die!

I'm kinda bummed that the retract idea won't work so I thought I'd post a teaser pic of what I'm doing to the EVA. I'm re-purposing just about everything. The wings are almost done from rebuilding what the original builder really screwed up. The nacelles are from another built from plans twin that I built outrunner nacelles for. These are taking a lot of reshaping to fit the wings but they'll work. I'm also going old school with Himax 2015-4100 geared inrunners. Should be more than enough power. If not then I have a set of 2025-4200's I can toss in it.

Joe
 

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Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
Sweet! You could set up with thrust differential and really make it fly crazy!

The clear is listed with the SoLite so I assume that is what it is, not doculam. Maybe.
 

Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
The transparent green is a really nice color and looks great on balsa. I mixed it with silver on a couple planes and like the combo.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Chiming in with more MM love here. I placed my order Friday night, and then got a call Saturday morning from the man at MM. Seems you only need to order the fuselage kit and a wing to have a complete plane - I ordered a canopy, cowling, and firewall thinking they were also necessary, but it turns out they are included with the fuse kit.

So with my order straightened out (traded for more covering), I got a tracking email saying it was in the postal system that evening.

Pretty amazing service! I love purchasing from little companies - especially when they are run by people who love the hobby too.

Thanks Doug!
 
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Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
Well you certainly tried to make this more difficult than it needed to be! Good for MM on setting you straight. The other parts are for repairs if needed.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Just wait till you see what I over complicate next - it's going to take a whole forum of people to keep me on track during the build :p
 

OttoPilot

Member
Well, I was planning on building a Sig Four Stat 1.20 this winter...but I think that's a little too big of a bite considering I haven't built a balsa kit since high school (10 years ago). Not only that...but this will be easier to store and transport.

So, I'm in for the build off.

Put me down for an EVA-3d.

I'll get it ordered tomorrow.
 

Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
Great to have you along for the fun, I'll add you to the list! The MM kit will be a good warm-up before tackling the Four Star.

As of yesterday it looks like the EVA 3D is back ordered. I am fairly sure Brian cuts these himself so hopefully that translates to a very short lead time. I'm planning to go either 3D or Bi-plane, and am leaning slightly towards the 3D. Then again, I've only got one bi-plane and it looks kind of lonely.
 

ranger351

Warbird Crazy!
Great to have you along for the fun, I'll add you to the list! The MM kit will be a good warm-up before tackling the Four Star.

As of yesterday it looks like the EVA 3D is back ordered. I am fairly sure Brian cuts these himself so hopefully that translates to a very short lead time. I'm planning to go either 3D or Bi-plane, and am leaning slightly towards the 3D. Then again, I've only got one bi-plane and it looks kind of lonely.
I also seen that Brian had shoulder surgery and his wife has been taking care of most of the packaging! And to expect a small delay! This may push back the start date!?
 
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Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
That message about his surgery was from about 5 weeks ago, so hopefully everything is on track with him to get back orders filled quickly. I noticed the clear covering is out of stock, and since he doesn't make the film I'll figure out a different color combination for mine. Just gotta make the choice and place the order!
 

jsknockoff

Active member
Mentor
If supply turns out to be an issue pushing back the start date to accommodate everyone who would like to participate will have to be the solution. Hopefully it is not an issue.
 

Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
Cool, and I'm fine with using either the 3D or Bi-Plane wings depending on availability. Either would be a good addition to my hangar.
 

OttoPilot

Member
Order placed. According to the MM website the backorders should be 4-10 days.

Now I just need to figure out a control and power package for it...might piece that together from good 'ol hobby king.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
I just had a dead-on-arrival order from them with no satisfaction from their support. Would recommend vendor with better service like http://www.headsuphobby.com/ - I'll be getting my electronics from them

Also USPS sent an email that a package from WI was just delivered. Can't wait to get home and see what it looks like :)
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
Hey guys, make sure you let Brian know about this build thread when you order and supply the link to it.

Couldn't agree more with Rockyboy about service and price from Headsuprc. I've bought a BUNCH of servos from them!

Jeff, go for the bipe wings. They're a blast. Just keep a little power on when on final and until she touches down.

Joe
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
I'm actually making decent progress on the EVA twin conversion. I got the nacelles fairly well fitted to the wings. I need to angle them in a bit because with the stick mount I can't shim the needed thrust angles. I think it's going to look good as a twin. I got nuts this morning and slapped the nacelles on the trike geared EVA wing. Kinda cool as a tri-motor too. That'll never happen as I doubt I could ever get it to balance.

Joe
 

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Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
Nice! With 3 motors you'd really have unlimited vertical, at least for 60 seconds before the battery catches fire!

Also, your Taylorcraft is leaving WI today via USPS and is scheduled to be there Wednesday. Knowing how the USPS works, "Wednesday" is more of a vague concept than an actual accurate date, but it's a start! :p