TooJung2Die
Master member
I haven't built a Guillows kit in over 45 years. The last Guillows kit I built as a boy was this SE5a. It was rubber powered and covered with the green tissue that came in the kit. I remember it wasn't a great flier. The rubber and prop didn't have enough thrust for it to climb well. The landing gear was weak and every landing resulted in a repair. But it looked good. It was proudly displayed on my desk until a baseball crashed through the plate glass window above the desk and big shards of broken glass came crashing down on top of it. 
Last winter I picked up an old Guillows SE5a kit on eBay. It's just like the one I built back in the '70s. It may even be as old as the first kit. The instructions are yellowed with age. It is good old die-crunched balsa. It wasn't evident in the eBay photos but someone started popping out the pieces without sanding first or using a razor blade. Two balsa sheets of parts were a pile of scraps in the bottom of the box. The first thing I did was take inventory of the pieces. Remarkably every single piece is there. Nothing is missing but some of the balsa cracked and the delicate tips and such are broken off. Finding the broken bits and putting them back together was like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Happily I found every little scrap and using CA glue got every piece whole again.
That's enough yacking. Let's get started. Here's the kit.
Here's what was in the box. Loose pieces on the left. I'm glad the scrap balsa was included. That's where the missing bits were found.
Some pieces fit back into the scrap and were glued. Others had to be pinned down and glued.
The notches for the side keels and stringers on the bulkheads will be cut out later in case there's some misalignment that needs correcting.
The side keel fit loosely in the bulkhead notches so shims were cut from scrap to fill the gaps.
I don't know anything about balsa grading. I use what comes in the box. Compared to the balsa in the "Contest Commercial" kit this balsa is HARD. It is dense. I swear there's a knot in one of the fuselage keel pieces. Hey, it's what came in the kit so I'm gonna use it. I'll just have to sharpen the blades more often. By the way, this is the sixth airplane I've built using the same Xacto blade, foam board included. I'm not cheap, it's that I can quickly sharpen the blade to a better edge than new. I'm still using the same snap-off blade for the same reason. The trick is to use a razor strop like a barber. The back of my left hand is almost hairless from testing the edge. It's hair shaving sharp.
Jon
Last winter I picked up an old Guillows SE5a kit on eBay. It's just like the one I built back in the '70s. It may even be as old as the first kit. The instructions are yellowed with age.
It is good old die-crunched balsa. It wasn't evident in the eBay photos but someone started popping out the pieces without sanding first or using a razor blade. Two balsa sheets of parts were a pile of scraps in the bottom of the box. The first thing I did was take inventory of the pieces. Remarkably every single piece is there. Nothing is missing but some of the balsa cracked and the delicate tips and such are broken off. Finding the broken bits and putting them back together was like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Happily I found every little scrap and using CA glue got every piece whole again.That's enough yacking. Let's get started. Here's the kit.
Here's what was in the box. Loose pieces on the left. I'm glad the scrap balsa was included. That's where the missing bits were found.
Some pieces fit back into the scrap and were glued. Others had to be pinned down and glued.
The notches for the side keels and stringers on the bulkheads will be cut out later in case there's some misalignment that needs correcting.
The side keel fit loosely in the bulkhead notches so shims were cut from scrap to fill the gaps.
I don't know anything about balsa grading. I use what comes in the box. Compared to the balsa in the "Contest Commercial" kit this balsa is HARD. It is dense. I swear there's a knot in one of the fuselage keel pieces. Hey, it's what came in the kit so I'm gonna use it. I'll just have to sharpen the blades more often. By the way, this is the sixth airplane I've built using the same Xacto blade, foam board included. I'm not cheap, it's that I can quickly sharpen the blade to a better edge than new. I'm still using the same snap-off blade for the same reason. The trick is to use a razor strop like a barber. The back of my left hand is almost hairless from testing the edge. It's hair shaving sharp.
Jon
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