FTFC22: Build-ruary by bwarz

[bwarz]

Build skill level: 3.5 Piloting skill level: 2

My choices (well, mostly committed - note #3) for this Feb's build sprint.

To be building (hopefully):
1. FT Sea Duck
2. @localfiend (no longer on the board?) A6M Zero mini
3. TBD (possibly FT Mini DR1 or FT Mini P51 Mustang??)
4. My design MS P36 (motivation to A: build the #2 beta build, B: create a build log/video C: finalize the plans so I can upload)

 

[bwarz]

FTFC22 Build log summary of the FT Sea Duck by Bwarz

Flite Test's build article here

Flite Test link to full-sized plans here (tiled plans and all-in-one can be found on their build article)

I'e wanted to build one of these since last winter - not to fly off of the water, but off the snow It looks to be a fun build and I'll hopefully convince one or more of my boys to fly it (they might be better convinced if the snow is deep and soft - and I offer to retrieve it if they 'land' it too far off)

Build log summary to follow...

Got bored cutting out the parts for the Zero and when I came back from my liquid refreshment break I went straight to getting the Sea Duck plans transferred to foam board. This time I'm using FTFB for the water resistance without having to use the polyurethane.

Day 1 (actually day 2, Feb 2, Twos-day (2/2/22))

So my word of advice here - use a low-tack spray glue if you can find it. One can lasts me quite a while - probably 40 sheets of foam board's worth of plans transfer. Then I cut through the plans and peel them off the final product. It makes for very accurate parts. Oh, and when you are taping the tiled plans together, use a straightedge along a part's line to be sure things are lined up straight. Consumer printers can be off but just a bit and it's better to line up the part lines than it is the paper edges.

Oh yea - I didn;t realize how big the Sea Duck is!

Day 2
Good progress tonight - actually looks like an airplane (and I love the pile of parts for the mini Zero next to it)

a few wrinkles along the way. I always leave marks when I have to slide the wing through the fuselage

Day 3 of building 2/5

Looks like an airplane! No electronics yet and I'm at a point now that I best get them installed or it's going to be quite the pain in the next. No surprises yet, other than how big it it I'm not a fan of building electronics inside of the plane (fully inaccessible) but I don't think I'm gonna win that battle with the servos in the Sea Duck Taking a break to work on something smaller....

Day 4 - 2/6 - no pics. Just got the tail feathers glued in place and 4 of the 5 servos installed. Not much more.

Day 5 - 2/8 - again no pics, but I have all servos installed as well as the receiver. All body skins done - just need to wire up the motors and paint. Well...my wood glue to seal the edges is dried up so I'm waiting until tomorrow for that. Should have paint on it this week.

Day?? - 2/13 - still not done - needs paint and the nacelle / engine covers installed. But the weather was calm enough (or so I though it was) to get the maiden flight in...

A few notes here. This was my first FTFB build that I painted. I didn't scour it enough with the steel wool! When I peeled the tape off after adding the bottom of the fuselage it peeled paint away easily so I guess it needs quite a bit of work with steel wool! Also this is suggested for a 2200mAh 3S minimum which I did use. It needed to be quite a ways into the front of the batter area - although my paint may have fattened up the rear of the plane a bit. I have a 7200 3S that I'll probably give a go and fly forever on

And another note - I found a wealth of parts on Thingiverse to 3D print for the Sea Duck. The best one I like are engine cowlings - one printed and now I need to wait for my new spool of PLA to arrive (hopefully tomorrow?!) to print the other one. Also, landing on snow really beats the crap out of the floats on the wings. I may need to figure something out to help reinforce them (or learn how to land better )

To sum things up - on a build skill level I'd say a 2.5. Most of the build is pretty straightforward, but the nose can be a bit interesting. The size makes the build just a bit easier actually. Be sure to watch the build video! - especially where the cockpit/nose is concerned. I'd also suggest some reinforcing skewers straight down through the floats one front left and the other rear right, straight down through the foam board as far as you can - and be careful to note poke through the sides! They do take some abuse if you get a bit of a drift going (Tokyo, not log ). On flight skill I'd say a 2 to 3. It's bigger and that makes it a bit lazy, but you do need more height as it's bigger and the ground can come a bit quicker on a mistake! It doesn't fly terribly fast and is a nice relaxing flight. You can read a few of my other 'thoughts' above. It took me an evening to cut things out (1-2 hours) and a few nights building (4-6 hours) plus any painting additional.

 

[bwarz]

FTFC22 Build log summary of the @localfiend A6M Zero Mighty Mini by Bwarz

@localfiend's build article here

@localfiend's link to full-sized plans here

I built one of these probably the fall of 2020 and flew it quite a bit since. It has of course seen better days after many a harsh 'landing' and more than a few cartwheels. I've rattached the cowl twice and I have no idea how many times I've had to repair the wing tips (reattached once after a rather exciting cartwheel - I think the cowl came off that time as well - alas no pics). It's time for me to build another one so it can look nice and clean for a day or two before I teach my 16 year old to fly it (or he'll probably want to fly the first one so he doesn't mosh something clean and new)

Day 1

It begins! I hope we don't have to do these in order I figured I'd start small.

Glued up the patterns to the DTFB and began the process of cutting things out.

A few notes since I built this 16 months ago? It feels very much like the FT Mini Corsair. The plans are complete, but this has one part that you MUST pay attention to - the hatch. Quite a bit going on here, but marked accurately. In all, if you have built the FT Mini Corsair, this one will be no problem - just be patient with the cuts! IT looks quite nice next to the Corsair as well!

I'm thirsty - break time for something to drink!

Day 2 of building - 2/5
These minis go together pretty quick!

Wing built, fuselage getting there. The top of the wing skin needed a bit of trimming to fit the folds and then dihedral. I folded one wing at a time and eyeballed where the cut should be. I also modified the way that the power pod carrier goes on (after some early crashes that left the cowl area partially 'removed'. I cut the long tabs off and just glued spacers in between the carrier and the main fuselage. This also give me a touch more room for the battery.

Day 3 of build - 2/6
All servos installed as well as motor and ESC basic placement. All glued up and ready for poly and paint!

I pulled all of the electronics out of my old one. The motor is a bit oversized but it saves me from adding any nose weight. I mounted the ESC on top and what will be inside the cowl to make room to get the battery as far forward as I can to help with the CG...

Build day ?? - its been loose ends lately!

I just realized I never put up a final picture - and in doing do, I realized I forgot one insignia So with one insignia left to go and the maiden flight sometime in the near future...

Now for a bit of learning - if you don;t keep the skills up on each medium, you forget! I had issues rolling the poster board turtle deck and ended up with some wrinkles. I think last time I didn't use hot glue to attach the canopy because the hot glue wouldn't stick to the painted fuselage.
Also, I installed the ESC where I had it on the last one of these - under the cowl above the fuselage deck - it keeps it out of the way of getting the battery shoved up as far as I could get it with the powerpod still in the way.
I will also add here some knowledge from a visit to Edgewater and suggestion from Josh. I purposely put a larger motor on as I needed the weight up front anyways. But I put a prop that was too big on it too. I always had problems landing as it would torque to one side. Josh looked and knew right away - the prop was also too big - the small airframe couldn't compensate for the too-large prop. Smaller prop (had a 7x4, now a 6x4) and all was mucho bettero!

Maiden flight???? when oh when will it happen! forecast says low wind at 2AM Sunday - hmmm. Only other option might be Monday afternoon. Then winds are 10-20mph until the end of the month... Looks like I won;t me gettign a maiden on the P36 before the end of the month

Day ??? - maiden flight (2/21/22)

The wind was a bit more than I had hoped for but still better than was to be expected for the rest of the week. It was a touch tail heavy and I had high rates (and wasn't expecting it to be that snappy) There were a few near-oopses but it came home in one piece!

To sum things up...
The build is pretty straightforward and mimics the FT mini Corsair pretty closely. But really is a quite simple and quick build. I'd have to say on a 1-5 scale, the build would be a level 2. Flying is a bit more involved as it is quite quick (well, at least for me!) so I might put it at a pilot skill level of 3 out of 5 to really have fun with it, but me at a self-proclaimed level 2 I can keep it in the air pretty well. Being that it is built form a single sheet of FB with a few cardstock pieces, cutting it out doesn't take long, although take your time with the fuselage around the battery compartment as it gets a bit busy there. I was about 1-1.5 hours to cut things out. The build was just about as quick coming in at 1-2 hours and electronics not bad at all at 0.5-1 hours. It could easily be built in a long evening if you kept on task, even if you wanted to get paint on it.

 

[bwarz]

FTFC22 Build log summary of the FT Mighty Mini DR1 by Bwarz

Not sure what I'm in the mood for as my two younger boys would like a DR1. I may build one for the 10 year old, but I think I'll make the 12 year old help build his! If it isn't the DR1 this Feb, it will surely be before summer. If not, the FT P51 Mustang has been a good learner (like the A6M Zero) which has taken considerably more abuse than the Zero having had to fully rebuild the fuselage from the wing forward several times. The airframe had gotten so bad it needed retired.

Seeing that I found a nearly complete P51 that I built as a razorback (P51A) that pretty much needs paint and a motor, I'm going to build a DR1 that I think my kids will do more learning on.

Day 1 of build 2/6
Well, not much building going on, but did get some time tonight to glue the plans to FB and get a bit of cutting started. Not much, but a start.

Day 2 of building 2/7
Got everything cut out and started the build. Figured everything out with the fuselage, but watched the build video to get the process for getting the wing under camber and dihedral correct.

A note for those scratch builders like me out there going off of the plans (and perhaps Josh noted it as well, but I don;t recall) when putting the dihedral on the wings, cut a bit of a relief in the top so when the wing bends it doesn't overstress the small amount of paper holdign the wing together. I was folding and heard a nice little snap as the paper let loose and I needed to tape and glue the ends of the wing back to the middle section Also, the plans state the holes in the bottom wing for the struts should be in the top only, but the build as shown by Josh has them all the way through to improve the accuracy of the strut installation. Have not yet cut them out but probably will...

Day 3 of building
Not much time into it tonight, although it is waiting for paint at this point. I need to pick up some wood glue to seal the edges and I plan on painting it prior to final assembly...

It'll be much easier to do this paint with the wings apart!

Day ?? of the build - it has been several days of loose ends - a little of this here and a little of that there. Building 4 planes simultaneously gets weird (why would anyone want to finsh one before starting another? ) Well, tonight while the P36 wing was drying I got the DR1 decaled and powered up. Fully programmed and trimmed ready for maiden. I still have to get the cowl on if I choose, and will not be putting gear on (utnil summer if I decide to) But here it is...

as noted in the Zero post - Monday might be the only good day for a maiden - I guess we will find out!

The paint is matte finish - I like it because it dries faster! (I don't thing the Sea Duck is dry yet....) The insignia is simply color laser printouts scaled in gimp and glued on with 3M super 77. A shot of clear spray paint to seal them up helps keep them from wrinkling when they get wet. Fro those that enjoy - I've found very scalable insignia on wikimedia commons. Just search for roundel. Most of the stuff I found there is an svg (scalable vector graphic) - meaning you can scale it way up and it doesn't get blurry. Open it in inkscape and scale it, recolor it if you don't like the shade of blue etc and print it out the exact size you need.

Day ?? - maiden flight (2/21/22)
A bit windier that I had hoped for, but I was feeling brave.

I had the SE5 early on but was never very successful with it due to my beginner pilot skills. This one I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it was fun in the wind At one point I think it was acting more like a kite than a plane, almost sitting still as far as the ground was concerned. In all though, it is fun to fly (and will likely be more fun on a less windy day)

Summing this one up - I'd say a build skill level of 1.5ish (the wing dihedrals and wing assembly take some patience to be accurate) and a pilot skill level of probably the same 1.5 to 2. I might have a different opinion of it in less wind, but for now... The cutout time took probably 1.5-2 hours with the three wings and the wing struts, cabanes, etc. Assembly time all in one shot would likely be in a similar same range of - 1.5-2.5 hours - this includes the rudder and elevator servos as they must be installed during fuselage assembly and before wings are installed. In all a relatively straightforward build - just note the hints above and watch the build video for the specifics of getting the wings right!

 

[Flightspeed]

build skill level of only 3.5!? comon man ur at least 4. that bf 109? your profile rocks looks amazin

 

[bwarz]

build skill level of only 3.5!? comon man ur at least 4. that bf 109? your profile rocks looks amazin

Thanks for the comments! I'm still a bit wonky with the curves - I stop paying close attention and I get wrinkles I'm my worst critic lol

 

[Flightspeed]

Thanks for the comments! I'm still a bit wonky with the curves - I stop paying close attention and I get wrinkles I'm my worst critic lol

curves! i dont even build planes that have curves!!!

 

[bwarz]

Oops - forgot to add #4 build placeholder.
FTFC22 Build log summary of the Curtiss P36 Hawk by Bwarz

I'm creating the plans for this and I hope to have them online before the contest is over!

I've long been a sucker for WW2 aircraft, but I have a special affinity for radial engined aircraft - the Corsair, the Hellcat, the P47, and of course the P36. I just love the lines. My first plans that I did were of the P36 as a kinda mini. Ever since that design, before I even built a Master Series styled DTFB plane, I said I was going to do a P36. The alpha build is not yet complete but is definitely airworthy. This will mark the #2 beta build to finalize the plans so I can be a bit more comfortable providing them to whomever wants to build one!

Here is the alpha build in it's current state, riding in the back of the vehicle on its way to the maiden flight!

Day 1 of the P36 build - prep work! 2/9

Tonight I carved up my paper plans and got them onto the foam board. It's a start!

Just a note of learning on the way through this (reviewing my alpha build):
When assembling the hstab on any plane (as I have made this mistake another time in the past, but caught prior to maiden flight) ensure the angle of the hstab front to back is proper with what is to be expected. While I realize this make absolute sense, one does get excited when building and may not remember or simply overlook making sure everything is as straight and proper as you can get it.

Day 2 of building (or cutting as it were) 2/10
Got about an hour of cutting time in. Started with the formers and small parts so when I get to the wings I'll be nearly done. 2 of the 6 DTFB sheets are cut out.

Day 3 - and still more cutting 2/13 - just about done though - I just might start gluing things together tonight out of sheer frustration

and a few more hours later we have this....

Day 4 of building 2/14
Got a little bit of time in today and got some skins glued onto the spine. Had to bounce back and forth getting a few updates and tweaks to the plans

Day ?? of building? 2/25
I got several days in but no updates. Got the servos all installed earlier in the week and ployurethaned the chassis yesterday before paintshop tonight. Something I learned... put more time into the poly if you are going to have bare foam. Maybe it was the silver paint, maybe it was a heavy hand on spraying. Either way (user error likely) the one fillet got etched pretty well as the solvent from the spray didn't care about the polyurethane. The other side I went a little lighter on it, several light distant coats first. The evidence is much less obvious. On another note, the rudder, which I mod podge'd first as a test didn;t care about the paint - but that was flat white. Either way, light coats no matter what for me lol More pics tomorrow I think (I do have one on the buildnotes thread, which probably could use more build notes

Wrapping up - only problem I have is a maiden and the snowy weather here. Want to do the gear, don't want to fly it off of pavement - we'll see...

Day ?? wrapped things up over the last couple of days (literally the 11th hour on 2/28)
Wrapping up the MS P36 - Build level 5 as there are quite a few interesting features and from the plans as they exist there's a few on-the-fly trimmings to do. In all though, the built itself for the most part is straightforward - just takes a while! Pilot skill I'd put it at a 3 - it isn't squirrely to fly, and if you put do the flaps, you can slop it down nice. Not a terrible glide path either. A few pics to wrap this one up for the month...

Always learning on these builds, and being my second MS design, I'd say that experimenting always yields something good. I also like the sanding of the angles after cutting with the knife to get a nice even angle on the FB - although watch as it is really easy to sand through the paper form the bottom (look close at the right aileron form the top) I'd also say to experiment on things that you don;t mind if stuff fails - like the poly not stopping the silver paint from melting where I had to use bare foam (the wing fillets). Experiment with other mediums, and the forum is ALWAYS a great place to bounce ideas if you can;t find what you need searching. I also have a bad habit of hangar-rashing my builds before I even get paint on them. I think I'll do some searching to find how some of the experts on here fill the creases and such.

Back to the build - it easily took 3-4 hours to cut everything out for this - there's lots of parts! And be sure to have a fresh sharp blade (new or freshly sharpened) when cutting the formers. And cut the curves in multiple passes with as much of an angle on the blade as the curve will allow. Assembly - it goes together surprisingly quick up to a point (the skins and wing tops). There's probably a good 8-10 hours of build time here - and a solid hour plus of installing the servos and wiring things up. Give the wiring tubes a shot, just make sure you get the end near the opening for the servo. Don't Poly and paint (2 hours) and decaling (1-2 hours).

I'm fortunate to have a vinyl cutter (Brother ScanNCut) to make the 'decals' more easily, but artwork and such is available if you search enough online and you can print out as much as you can jam on a color print page and cut out by hand (so long as you are patient). Note also (this thread??) WikiMedia Commons searching for 'roundel' for the warplane decals in svg format, which produces a nice sharp image no matter how large or small you scale it. Even searching for fonts online and scaling things to the desired size (I used color-printed numbers/letters before I got the vinyl cutter on ebay). There's a ton of great hints, tips, and tricks on FT forums to add detail to your builds.

I also need to note that while the build is noted as a 5, don't be afraid to give a MS build a try. The key word here is patience. And a good amount of FB as you learn I'm hooked - I love to build - I love the people on here - I love to learn - and I'm having FUN!

Day xxx - March 9th
I realize the cutoff was March 7th, the maiden occurred on March 8th, and it is now March 9th, but it just seemed incomplete without the maiden video! The weather was Ok enough yesterday to get out and taking off from a half frozen really lumpy field, but it worked out nicely!
Not a very exciting video, but the takeoff and landing are good for a laugh!

 

[bwarz]

Jumped in with wild abandon and didn't get a pic of the start of the night. So here I am, still cutting...

the weather here is nasty and the kids have a two hour delay for school and no morning practice. I don't need to be "at work" until 8:30AM. Yay I get to sleep in (meaning yay I get to stay up late and build stuff! )

 

[FoamyDM]

FTFC22 Build log summary of the @localfiend A6M Zero Mighty Mini by Bwarz

View attachment 217744

@localfiend's build article here

@localfiend's link to full-sized plans here

I built one of these probably the fall of 2020 and flew it quite a bit since. It has of course seen better days after many a harsh 'landing' and more than a few cartwheels. I've rattached the cowl twice and I have no idea how many times I've had to repair the wing tips (reattached once after a rather exciting cartwheel - I think the cowl came off that time as well - alas no pics). It's time for me to build another one so it can look nice and clean for a day or two before I teach my 16 year old to fly it (or he'll probably want to fly the first one so he doesn't mosh something clean and new)

Day 1

It begins! I hope we don't have to do these in order I figured I'd start small.
View attachment 217755
View attachment 217754
Glued up the patterns to the DTFB and began the process of cutting things out.

A few notes since I built this 16 months ago? It feels very much like the FT Mini Corsair. The plans are complete, but this has one part that you MUST pay attention to - the hatch. Quite a bit going on here, but marked accurately. In all, if you have built the FT Mini Corsair, this one will be no problem - just be patient with the cuts! IT looks quite nice next to the Corsair as well!

I'm thirsty - break time for something to drink!

Day 2 of building - 2/5
These minis go together pretty quick!
View attachment 218111
Wing built, fuselage getting there. The top of the wing skin needed a bit of trimming to fit the folds and then dihedral. I folded one wing at a time and eyeballed where the cut should be. I also modified the way that the power pod carrier goes on (after some early crashes that left the cowl area partially 'removed'. I cut the long tabs off and just glued spacers in between the carrier and the main fuselage. This also give me a touch more room for the battery.

Day 3 of build - 2/6
All servos installed as well as motor and ESC basic placement. All glued up and ready for poly and paint!
View attachment 218222
I pulled all of the electronics out of my old one. The motor is a bit oversized but it saves me from adding any nose weight. I mounted the ESC on top and what will be inside the cowl to make room to get the battery as far forward as I can to help with the CG...

very clean and sharp build there.

 

[bwarz]

Just a summary for tonight - a bunch of little things going on. I got all of the edges of the first three sealed up with gorilla glue (giving it a shot) and painted the bottom of the fuselage and wings light blue for the DR1 (figured the paint job would be easier prior to assembly). I also got the DR1 and the Sea Duck steel wool-ed prepping for paint. And I got 'started' on the P36 - I have the plans on the FB. Oh yea - and I upgraded my Pi attached to my 3D printer - should be back in business with that tomorrow!

 

[bwarz]

Another general note - I got a few parts printed out for the Sea Duck - and for some odd reason some of the paint is still tacky I did manage to get more 'decals' printed out for the Zero - so she should be done here when I decide to cut them out! No further movement on the DR1 - I'm full mode MS P36 right now. I have been filming the build and babbling incessantly - maybe I'll have something to show for it. It is kinda still a beta build so we'll see. I now have the fuselage pretty much done and the full wing lowers ready (just about) for the top skins. That'll leave the hatch (going for clear canopy on this one), landing gear, wing fillets, and a few yet-to-be-designed skin parts before I move onto electronics and paint (and maybe some nav lights). Making good time I guess - the house is real quite after everyone goes to bed!

 

[FoamyDM]

Keep at it Bwarz!

 

[FlamingRCAirplanes]

Another general note - I got a few parts printed out for the Sea Duck - and for some odd reason some of the paint is still tacky I did manage to get more 'decals' printed out for the Zero - so she should be done here when I decide to cut them out! No further movement on the DR1 - I'm full mode MS P36 right now. I have been filming the build and babbling incessantly - maybe I'll have something to show for it. It is kinda still a beta build so we'll see. I now have the fuselage pretty much done and the full wing lowers ready (just about) for the top skins. That'll leave the hatch (going for clear canopy on this one), landing gear, wing fillets, and a few yet-to-be-designed skin parts before I move onto electronics and paint (and maybe some nav lights). Making good time I guess - the house is real quite after everyone goes to bed!

I love the P-36! Specifically the P-36C painted in green army colors!

 

[bwarz]

A bit more progress tonight. Got the DR1 close to wrapping up. A few more decals and motor/power pod/cowl and we're good to go. No landing gear in the winter for me. Maybe when things dry up.

Got more wrapped up on the Sea Duck - engine cowlings, nacelle tops, and some red paint (plus some peeling paint that we'll call weathering) She's already had her maiden, so it's just putting some finishing touches on it. Maybe a few more 3D printed parts and definitely some supports for the floats. I'm almost afraid to put any more red paint over the yellow for fear of it lifting and adding more 'weathering'. Oh yea, and probably some cockpit windows

The Zero is done and ready for flight. I got the last of the decals on her tonight.

More baby steps on the P36. I got the vstab glued on and had to tweak the design of the final skin on the tail. The wing is going to take some time, hopefully i can make some major progress before the weekend is over. Thirteen days to go!

 

[FoamyDM]

Wowie @bwarz you are almost there! They look amazing

 

[bwarz]

Wowie @bwarz you are almost there! They look amazing

thanks! my goal going on was to use it to regain some motivation as well as get the P36 closer to plans upload and I think we've succeeded in both!

 

[FoamyDM]

That P-36 has a lot of Great Details. the indent turtle decks, the clear canopy, and the pilot, and the paint job. I also like your historic scheme of the DR-1 it turn out striking, and looks to be easy to see when you fly.
It looks like you managed to get all 4 planes complete. you have a week to get any flight vids up. but it looks as if you are not going to have any issues there.
Thank you for being part this year.

 

[Scotto]

Build skill level: 3.5

Oops - forgot to add #4 build placeholder.
FTFC22 Build log summary of the Curtiss P36 Hawk by Bwarz

View attachment 217756
I'm creating the plans for this and I hope to have them online before the contest is over!

I've long been a sucker for WW2 aircraft, but I have a special affinity for radial engined aircraft - the Corsair, the Hellcat, the P47, and of course the P36. I just love the lines. My first plans that I did were of the P36 as a kinda mini. Ever since that design, before I even built a Master Series styled DTFB plane, I said I was going to do a P36. The alpha build is not yet complete but is definitely airworthy. This will mark the #2 beta build to finalize the plans so I can be a bit more comfortable providing them to whomever wants to build one!

Here is the alpha build in it's current state, riding in the back of the vehicle on its way to the maiden flight!
View attachment 217758

Day 1 of the P36 build - prep work! 2/9

Tonight I carved up my paper plans and got them onto the foam board. It's a start!
View attachment 218497

Just a note of learning on the way through this (reviewing my alpha build):
When assembling the hstab on any plane (as I have made this mistake another time in the past, but caught prior to maiden flight) ensure the angle of the hstab front to back is proper with what is to be expected. While I realize this make absolute sense, one does get excited when building and may not remember or simply overlook making sure everything is as straight and proper as you can get it.

Day 2 of building (or cutting as it were) 2/10
Got about an hour of cutting time in. Started with the formers and small parts so when I get to the wings I'll be nearly done. 2 of the 6 DTFB sheets are cut out.
View attachment 218607

Day 3 - and still more cutting 2/13 - just about done though - I just might start gluing things together tonight out of sheer frustration
View attachment 218929
and a few more hours later we have this....
View attachment 218939

Day 4 of building 2/14
Got a little bit of time in today and got some skins glued onto the spine. Had to bounce back and forth getting a few updates and tweaks to the plans
View attachment 219000

Day ?? of building? 2/25
I got several days in but no updates. Got the servos all installed earlier in the week and ployurethaned the chassis yesterday before paintshop tonight. Something I learned... put more time into the poly if you are going to have bare foam. Maybe it was the silver paint, maybe it was a heavy hand on spraying. Either way (user error likely) the one fillet got etched pretty well as the solvent from the spray didn't care about the polyurethane. The other side I went a little lighter on it, several light distant coats first. The evidence is much less obvious. On another note, the rudder, which I mod podge'd first as a test didn;t care about the paint - but that was flat white. Either way, light coats no matter what for me lol More pics tomorrow I think (I do have one on the buildnotes thread, which probably could use more build notes

Wrapping up - only problem I have is a maiden and the snowy weather here. Want to do the gear, don't want to fly it off of pavement - we'll see...

Day ?? wrapped things up over the last couple of days (literally the 11th hour on 2/28)
Wrapping up the MS P36 - Build level 5 as there are quite a few interesting features and from the plans as they exist there's a few on-the-fly trimmings to do. In all though, the built itself for the most part is straightforward - just takes a while! Pilot skill I'd put it at a 3 - it isn't squirrely to fly, and if you put do the flaps, you can slop it down nice. Not a terrible glide path either. A few pics to wrap this one up for the month...
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Always learning on these builds, and being my second MS design, I'd say that experimenting always yields something good. I also like the sanding of the angles after cutting with the knife to get a nice even angle on the FB - although watch as it is really easy to sand through the paper form the bottom (look close at the right aileron form the top) I'd also say to experiment on things that you don;t mind if stuff fails - like the poly not stopping the silver paint from melting where I had to use bare foam (the wing fillets). Experiment with other mediums, and the forum is ALWAYS a great place to bounce ideas if you can;t find what you need searching. I also have a bad habit of hangar-rashing my builds before I even get paint on them. I think I'll do some searching to find how some of the experts on here fill the creases and such.

Back to the build - it easily took 3-4 hours to cut everything out for this - there's lots of parts! And be sure to have a fresh sharp blade (new or freshly sharpened) when cutting the formers. And cut the curves in multiple passes with as much of an angle on the blade as the curve will allow. Assembly - it goes together surprisingly quick up to a point (the skins and wing tops). There's probably a good 8-10 hours of build time here - and a solid hour plus of installing the servos and wiring things up. Give the wiring tubes a shot, just make sure you get the end near the opening for the servo. Don't Poly and paint (2 hours) and decaling (1-2 hours).

I'm fortunate to have a vinyl cutter (Brother ScanNCut) to make the 'decals' more easily, but artwork and such is available if you search enough online and you can print out as much as you can jam on a color print page and cut out by hand (so long as you are patient). Note also (this thread??) WikiMedia Commons searching for 'roundel' for the warplane decals in svg format, which produces a nice sharp image no matter how large or small you scale it. Even searching for fonts online and scaling things to the desired size (I used color-printed numbers/letters before I got the vinyl cutter on ebay). There's a ton of great hints, tips, and tricks on FT forums to add detail to your builds.

I also need to note that while the build is noted as a 5, don't be afraid to give a MS build a try. The key word here is patience. And a good amount of FB as you learn I'm hooked - I love to build - I love the people on here - I love to learn - and I'm having FUN!

You are building at a John Overstreet level, and this isnt even your final form!? Only 3.5 out of 5! Seriously though that is amazing and I dont doubt you will find a way to improve, but from here it doesnt look like it could get better. What are you going to do next?

 

[bwarz]

You are building at a John Overstreet level, and this isnt even your final form!? Only 3.5 out of 5! Seriously though that is amazing and I dont doubt you will find a way to improve, but from here it doesnt look like it could get better. What are you going to do next?

lol I'm my worst critic. while I can build these I think I can do better. I've seen others' super clean and impressive work on the non-MS stuff and think they've got cleaner builds. If I could build that clean but MS level then I'd more deserve the higher grade
what's next? I'll be building @Ratcheeroo s Kadet (after a little break 😆) then I'm not sure. Someone at FF21 wanted to see a P51 razorback. Maybe I'll finally try a BV141. or perhaps I'll build another 13th Squadron / @Niez13 build. I think I better crash some stuff to make sure room though 😆 🤣