Mystery mono-plane Restoration
So I did a bad thing at work the other day. I was bored eating lunch at my desk and in a moment of weakness I opened the RC Groups Classified and hit the "Local Deals" button. And then I saw a guy about 20 miles away selling a whole mess of plane 'projects' for cheap. Just had to give him a ring, and then somehow I ended up with three projects in my car for $120 and on the way home with a big silly grin. Honest, I didn't mean to. It just sort of happened.
The smallest of the three is a Parkzone Albatros, a long discontinued foamy biplane that the guys on the FT Community Cast keep talking about wistfully. Mine is a little rough around the edges, but all the controls work fine and after installing a receiver I think she's ready to fly.
Project number two will get its own thread here in a bit - it's an Italian made 2.5m composite hotliner glider - or at least it's the wings, fuselage, and tail components of one. No canopy, no cowling, no electronics, and only some of the hardware. Very high quality components, but a project that'll push some new plastic pulling / fiberglass forming skills.
But project number three that came home is the focus for this thread. It was sold as a "1/4 Scale Classic" - but he got it used from an old timer at his field, and the actual name of the kit or plans it was built from is a mystery I'd love to solve. Based on the cutting of the interior framing I don't think it was an ARF or kit built - feels a lot more like a scratch or plans built.
She's a big one for me - 7 foot (2.1 meter) wingspan, tipping the scale at 8.5 pounds without battery, motor, or ESC. The previous owner did most of the work on a wet fuel to electric conversion but he got distracted from the project and stole the power system for another plane.
Here she is after some energetic time with a bottle of Windex to get the garage grime cleared away.
The motor standoffs aren't bent, just loosely screwed in.
Oh yeah, she also came with TWO wings! One with some dihedral, and the other straight with some Iron Crosses on top.
There is a small pile of wood cross members that used to be on the top of the open fuselage inside the plane too. Messy glue blobs from failed repairs on them too.
Both the wings have some hanger rash - and the covering / finishing job on the fuselage is pretty rough too.
No servos in the straight wing, but good sized Hitech servos in the other wing and the fuselage. The control linkages and hinges all seem in good operating condition too.
I need to do some investigating to come with a reasonably priced power system for this beastie. Hopefully one that can run on 6s4400 (aka two 3s2200's connected together) so I don't have to spend a fortune on the battery too.
And I also have four other projects on the top of my list right now - Lowrider CNC, FW-42, Psyborg Caudron, and printing flexible nose cones for the Billy Bomb. So what do I do last night instead?
Print out a Snoopy pilot figure for the 1/4 Scale Classic of course!
And just cause he came out looking so cool, I printed a smaller one to go into another plane too. Or maybe he just needs a co-pilot.
I haven't done real finish work on a 3D printed part before, but first step as I understand it is to mount it on a long stick and hit it with some primer to really show off the imperfections.
Next up on these is sanding, Bondo, sanding, Bondo, sanding.
So I did a bad thing at work the other day. I was bored eating lunch at my desk and in a moment of weakness I opened the RC Groups Classified and hit the "Local Deals" button. And then I saw a guy about 20 miles away selling a whole mess of plane 'projects' for cheap. Just had to give him a ring, and then somehow I ended up with three projects in my car for $120 and on the way home with a big silly grin. Honest, I didn't mean to. It just sort of happened.
The smallest of the three is a Parkzone Albatros, a long discontinued foamy biplane that the guys on the FT Community Cast keep talking about wistfully. Mine is a little rough around the edges, but all the controls work fine and after installing a receiver I think she's ready to fly.
Project number two will get its own thread here in a bit - it's an Italian made 2.5m composite hotliner glider - or at least it's the wings, fuselage, and tail components of one. No canopy, no cowling, no electronics, and only some of the hardware. Very high quality components, but a project that'll push some new plastic pulling / fiberglass forming skills.
But project number three that came home is the focus for this thread. It was sold as a "1/4 Scale Classic" - but he got it used from an old timer at his field, and the actual name of the kit or plans it was built from is a mystery I'd love to solve. Based on the cutting of the interior framing I don't think it was an ARF or kit built - feels a lot more like a scratch or plans built.
She's a big one for me - 7 foot (2.1 meter) wingspan, tipping the scale at 8.5 pounds without battery, motor, or ESC. The previous owner did most of the work on a wet fuel to electric conversion but he got distracted from the project and stole the power system for another plane.
Here she is after some energetic time with a bottle of Windex to get the garage grime cleared away.
The motor standoffs aren't bent, just loosely screwed in.
Oh yeah, she also came with TWO wings! One with some dihedral, and the other straight with some Iron Crosses on top.
There is a small pile of wood cross members that used to be on the top of the open fuselage inside the plane too. Messy glue blobs from failed repairs on them too.
Both the wings have some hanger rash - and the covering / finishing job on the fuselage is pretty rough too.
No servos in the straight wing, but good sized Hitech servos in the other wing and the fuselage. The control linkages and hinges all seem in good operating condition too.
I need to do some investigating to come with a reasonably priced power system for this beastie. Hopefully one that can run on 6s4400 (aka two 3s2200's connected together) so I don't have to spend a fortune on the battery too.
And I also have four other projects on the top of my list right now - Lowrider CNC, FW-42, Psyborg Caudron, and printing flexible nose cones for the Billy Bomb. So what do I do last night instead?
Print out a Snoopy pilot figure for the 1/4 Scale Classic of course!
And just cause he came out looking so cool, I printed a smaller one to go into another plane too. Or maybe he just needs a co-pilot.
I haven't done real finish work on a 3D printed part before, but first step as I understand it is to mount it on a long stick and hit it with some primer to really show off the imperfections.
Next up on these is sanding, Bondo, sanding, Bondo, sanding.
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