I found a strange open box kit at my club's auction a couple years back, with some unusual design elements. The box had been opened and the kit partially started (tail surfaces & balsa slab fuselage sides), and then it seemed the box had been refilled with some random balsa. It was also missing all of the ribs too, but someone had traced out the rib shape on a scrap of cardboard and tossed it into the pile. And instead of full size plans, there were semi-scale plans and full size cardboard templates called out as "skins"!
Yes, best as I can tell, the idea with this kit was to use the cardboard templates as the skins, and simply glue on the balsa framing elements and spray some sort of finish over the whole thing.
Not too excited about the condition of the cardboard skins - they are pretty brittle and have some folds, so I'm going to continue to skin this one with balsa instead.
Since this was supposed to be a wet fuel model and I want to convert it to an electric, I decided to extend the nose about an inch beyond the normal plans and build a removable motor and battery tray. This will both put weight forward of the CG (less balancing weight required) and remove the need for battery hatches (less hassle at the field). Since the sides of the fuselage were already started, I didn't take many pictures of the process of adding in the motor tray rails and latch.
Here's the motor and battery tray with a foam block being shaped and spackled to make the cowling form.
As mentioned earlier, I'm not crazy about the condition of the cardboard skins (and the top wing skins are missing) so I'm planking these with 3/32 balsa too.
Going with dual aileron servos instead of the classic single servo and cams approach. I like making servo hatches too - nice and clean on the outside, easy to replace if something goes wrong.
Next up is setting the wing dihedral, making plywood spar joiners, and then epoxy time to fuse the wing halves together - at 60" total wingspan I'd rather have the simplicity and strength of a one piece wing.
Yes, best as I can tell, the idea with this kit was to use the cardboard templates as the skins, and simply glue on the balsa framing elements and spray some sort of finish over the whole thing.
Not too excited about the condition of the cardboard skins - they are pretty brittle and have some folds, so I'm going to continue to skin this one with balsa instead.
Since this was supposed to be a wet fuel model and I want to convert it to an electric, I decided to extend the nose about an inch beyond the normal plans and build a removable motor and battery tray. This will both put weight forward of the CG (less balancing weight required) and remove the need for battery hatches (less hassle at the field). Since the sides of the fuselage were already started, I didn't take many pictures of the process of adding in the motor tray rails and latch.
Here's the motor and battery tray with a foam block being shaped and spackled to make the cowling form.
As mentioned earlier, I'm not crazy about the condition of the cardboard skins (and the top wing skins are missing) so I'm planking these with 3/32 balsa too.
Going with dual aileron servos instead of the classic single servo and cams approach. I like making servo hatches too - nice and clean on the outside, easy to replace if something goes wrong.
Next up is setting the wing dihedral, making plywood spar joiners, and then epoxy time to fuse the wing halves together - at 60" total wingspan I'd rather have the simplicity and strength of a one piece wing.
