Guillows Cessna 150 Rubber Build

[Citabria]

So while I postponed my Cherokee build I bought a Guillows Cessna 150. Here are some picks of the build so far. I glued the formers together before I put them on the fueselage to make a straight fueselage, I also used the root rib (F1) to cut into the window/door piece so I can glue the stringers and spars together to make a one piece wing.

 

[Citabria]

Straightest fuselage I have ever built!

 

[Citabria]

Tailwheel Conversion!

 

[Citabria]

All the stringers are in place!

 

[Citabria]

Ready to be sanded and covered.

 

[Citabria]

I did some balsa infill on the nose, not all the way around just the top. It doesn’t look super bad for my first time infilling. I also put fabric on part of the belly, and completely covered the wing. I always have trouble covering wings because they wrinkle and warp easy. It has a warp but it’s not to bad.

 

[Citabria]

Well the warp bothered me so I tore off the fabric on the belly and fuselage and I’m gonna re do it. I used a nickel and dime to add in wing washout. I also soaked the structure so it would hold in place when it dried.

 

[Citabria]

A Wing is mounted! I’m going with a different color scheme. All yellow with a bright red nose.

 

[Bricks]

Nice job I wonder how many of those I built when younger. The one I remember the most being young and dumb rubber powered. Read an article about guys stretching the rubber band ( never dawned on me it was built to take this ) way out and using an old beater to wind the rubber band. Found out quickly that the Guillow models were not built to do that. Hurt like hell when the rubber band let loose tearing thru and destroyed the fuselage and hit me in the stomach. I mean the guys in the article had that rubber stretched out a good four feet. Did not ever do that again.

 

[Citabria]

Well I flew it and it had some good flights. The weak spots are the landing gear and where the wings mount. “Back to work.”

 

[MZ250Ben]

Boy, this takes me back, this kit was literally the first stick & tissue build I ever did, I was probably 12 or 13. Doped it way too thick, but it would still lift off from a run on the ground under rubber power! Granted, it would only stay airborne for about 6 feet after, but that was pretty rad to me back then. Went on to build dozens of the Guillows kits. I tried to make the ME-109 kit into an RC, but that was in the days of nicad, just too heavy. I'm sure it could be easily done now, so if anyone comes across that kit, let me know. Very nice work, I hope the landings improve!

 

[TooJung2Die]

Nice job on the build. I like your idea of joining the fuselage bulkhead halves first. Do you use glue stick to attach the tissue to the balsa? I like glue stick because it gives you more time to smooth out the tissue. You can even reposition the tissue before the glue dries. With practice you can get the tissue so smooth it almost doesn't need shrinking. Guillows scale airplanes are notoriously bad fliers. A 20 second flight is an accomplishment. I've taken a couple of recent trips back in time with Guillows kits. I converted them to RC. They fly much better than the rubber powered airplanes of my youth.

 

[Citabria]

Well so I used to mix Elmer’s glue and water to attach my tissue but lately I’ve been using a glue stick because it sticks a lot better. Since I finished this build I built a SuperCub and halfway built a fockewulf 190 both rubbered. But now I’m tackling rc again with a Cessna 170 and I’m much more prepared now. I’ll be making a new thread after this post but the kit supposedly doesn’t come in till Friday so expect some posts on that thread within a few days or so.