Theuglycamel
Active member
Hello again everyone,
I've got the daughters Mini-Cruiser done and I needed a plane to keep up. I really didn't feel like cutting anything else out so I picked up this ARF that I bought late last year. I bought two of these Lion Models depron/balsa models up from Vmarshop for 26.00 USD. The blue 232 Max is reserved for a better runway (coming soon!) and this 232 XS I've designated as my new Beater plane. Here's what I started with:
Lion Models went out of business several years ago and I'm sure these have been sitting somewhere for a spell. Everything sticky isn't sticky anymore. The plastics are even more brittle than normal. Also there were several sections of tape I didn't trust. I started out with a new paint job (I HATE yellow if it's not on a cub).
Next I had my first incident. As I was dry fitting the tail, the rudder fell off and was instantly picked up and chewed by my new puppy... So there was some reinforcement done there and another paint job.
Moving on to the firewall: Everything was pretty well die-crushed and the motor mounts were way off. Some sanding, trimming and CA got everything lined up. A generous amount of epoxy went over everything. The right-thrust angle was very nice but there was little to none down-thrust. I'm going to washer the motor to get around that. There's tons of room for electronics and the ESC routed nice and neat.
I'll stop there for my build as I'm waiting for this stinking rudder to dry. I would like to give a quick pro and con for this kit. As I mentioned before, the kit comes NOS but is at least 2 decades old. Be prepared to replace some of the hinge material, and to fabricate your own servo tray for the ele/rud. I'm building a pod for mine so I can add a passenger as well. Speaking of elevator and rudder, the servo horns are not good at all. They capped the rudder and elevator with that thin injection molded plastic. Molded into this plastic are the servo horns which are strengthened with a dose of hot glue. The elevator was WAY off center which I corrected by pulling the push-rod out away from the fuselage and epoxying it down. The rudder horn wound up chewed off so I'm going to add a push-on style nylon horn as soon as the paint dries. Also be very wary of your building surface. I'm notoriously messy and I've already scarred up my wings in more than one place. Hair drier works good at taking them out but keep the heat away from the molded plastic. The plastic is VERY hard to work and I suggest using the sharpest blade you can find and score cut over and over before making any final cuts. Sand with 220 grit and go with any slices you may be trying to sand out. I still cracked my nose cap a few times. Speaking of, I seriously doubt that my plastic nose cap will survive more than 5 flights. It's very brittle, holds on with micro screws, and is mm from getting devoured by the motor from the inside out. If I can, I'll strengthen this thing up or more than likely I'll look into building a decent looking foam cap. This model calls for a 100-125 watt brush-less so I've got a no-name 935kv 2212 with a 8x7 prop. If I keep the weight down it should do fine. I've got a 1200kv 2216 waiting just in case though. As for the good, this thing is a breeze to build. It comes with a CD that has nice full color instructions. I would go with 5g servos vs the 9gs I'm shoving in. That would remove almost all of the cutting out of the build. It was also CHEAP. I could buy two of these for what most ARFs cost. (Hence why I did just that). I can learn how to NOT fly this one, and leave all of the good flying to my Max. It also has a good set of hardware. The ele/rud push-rods are preinstalled and have adjustable nylon clevises. The landing gear has all of the straws and bits to get the wheel pants on and has a rather permanant plywood lock. And there was a good amount of screw tabs to make door latches and such. It is also VERY VERY light. The wing loading should be fantastic and besides a bit of reinforcement and my monster landing gear, I should still have a respectable AUW. I built the Max bone stock so it retains the lightness, but I'd be very worried landing in my fields this time of year.
My plan with this bird is as follows, get it built, crash it often, and rebuild it until it's nothing but glue. I've got terrible runways so I'll be trying out my 3" foamy tires on her. Hopefully it doesn't destroy the roll on it, but if so I'll glue in a belly skid and set a brake (if I can figure these ^%$^%# ESCs out).
More to come later tonight!
I've got the daughters Mini-Cruiser done and I needed a plane to keep up. I really didn't feel like cutting anything else out so I picked up this ARF that I bought late last year. I bought two of these Lion Models depron/balsa models up from Vmarshop for 26.00 USD. The blue 232 Max is reserved for a better runway (coming soon!) and this 232 XS I've designated as my new Beater plane. Here's what I started with:
Lion Models went out of business several years ago and I'm sure these have been sitting somewhere for a spell. Everything sticky isn't sticky anymore. The plastics are even more brittle than normal. Also there were several sections of tape I didn't trust. I started out with a new paint job (I HATE yellow if it's not on a cub).
Next I had my first incident. As I was dry fitting the tail, the rudder fell off and was instantly picked up and chewed by my new puppy... So there was some reinforcement done there and another paint job.
Moving on to the firewall: Everything was pretty well die-crushed and the motor mounts were way off. Some sanding, trimming and CA got everything lined up. A generous amount of epoxy went over everything. The right-thrust angle was very nice but there was little to none down-thrust. I'm going to washer the motor to get around that. There's tons of room for electronics and the ESC routed nice and neat.
I'll stop there for my build as I'm waiting for this stinking rudder to dry. I would like to give a quick pro and con for this kit. As I mentioned before, the kit comes NOS but is at least 2 decades old. Be prepared to replace some of the hinge material, and to fabricate your own servo tray for the ele/rud. I'm building a pod for mine so I can add a passenger as well. Speaking of elevator and rudder, the servo horns are not good at all. They capped the rudder and elevator with that thin injection molded plastic. Molded into this plastic are the servo horns which are strengthened with a dose of hot glue. The elevator was WAY off center which I corrected by pulling the push-rod out away from the fuselage and epoxying it down. The rudder horn wound up chewed off so I'm going to add a push-on style nylon horn as soon as the paint dries. Also be very wary of your building surface. I'm notoriously messy and I've already scarred up my wings in more than one place. Hair drier works good at taking them out but keep the heat away from the molded plastic. The plastic is VERY hard to work and I suggest using the sharpest blade you can find and score cut over and over before making any final cuts. Sand with 220 grit and go with any slices you may be trying to sand out. I still cracked my nose cap a few times. Speaking of, I seriously doubt that my plastic nose cap will survive more than 5 flights. It's very brittle, holds on with micro screws, and is mm from getting devoured by the motor from the inside out. If I can, I'll strengthen this thing up or more than likely I'll look into building a decent looking foam cap. This model calls for a 100-125 watt brush-less so I've got a no-name 935kv 2212 with a 8x7 prop. If I keep the weight down it should do fine. I've got a 1200kv 2216 waiting just in case though. As for the good, this thing is a breeze to build. It comes with a CD that has nice full color instructions. I would go with 5g servos vs the 9gs I'm shoving in. That would remove almost all of the cutting out of the build. It was also CHEAP. I could buy two of these for what most ARFs cost. (Hence why I did just that). I can learn how to NOT fly this one, and leave all of the good flying to my Max. It also has a good set of hardware. The ele/rud push-rods are preinstalled and have adjustable nylon clevises. The landing gear has all of the straws and bits to get the wheel pants on and has a rather permanant plywood lock. And there was a good amount of screw tabs to make door latches and such. It is also VERY VERY light. The wing loading should be fantastic and besides a bit of reinforcement and my monster landing gear, I should still have a respectable AUW. I built the Max bone stock so it retains the lightness, but I'd be very worried landing in my fields this time of year.
My plan with this bird is as follows, get it built, crash it often, and rebuild it until it's nothing but glue. I've got terrible runways so I'll be trying out my 3" foamy tires on her. Hopefully it doesn't destroy the roll on it, but if so I'll glue in a belly skid and set a brake (if I can figure these ^%$^%# ESCs out).
More to come later tonight!
![KIMG0036[1].jpg](https://ftforumx2.s3.amazonaws.com/2019/05/230762_b090597fd2b1b5c59c0edfac9398af91.jpg "KIMG0036[1].jpg")
![KIMG0032[1].jpg](https://ftforumx2.s3.amazonaws.com/2019/05/230768_565fc205957475d5d6f33fd2d0dde62c.jpg "KIMG0032[1].jpg")
![KIMG0033[1].jpg](https://ftforumx2.s3.amazonaws.com/2019/05/230766_6e9c860f2d4a822cd007403855e23664.jpg "KIMG0033[1].jpg")
![KIMG0038[1].jpg](https://ftforumx2.s3.amazonaws.com/2019/05/230764_0bf8197605b88f133191e7c7c150500e.jpg "KIMG0038[1].jpg")
