The Great Lakes 2T-1A trainer is a biplane. The lower wing includes ailerons, some dihedral, and no sweepback.the upper wing has no ailerons, more dihedral, and pronounced sweep with a straight center section. The plan presents one drawn superimposed over the other, so that you must pay attention to exactly what you are working with. […]
I love old balsa wood scale model airplane kits, especially the ones featuring printwood, where you cut out the parts yourself. Most of those I come across are for free flight rubber powered models from the 1950’s and earlier. Some of those are big enough for practical conversion to electric power and radio control. There […]
The first job was to clean away everything that was left of that 1/8″ ply plate. As it turns out, that plate was designed with several tabs that fit into corresponding slots in the formers (or bulkheads) ahead of and behind it. Neither of those formers was damaged. It would have been impossible to get […]
People are always asking me about ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) models. There are some impressive ones around, and these days most of them fly very well. (That was not always so.) I don’t pay a lot of attention to them because my “thing” is building the airplanes I fly. However, recently lots of experienced […]
The next step called out in the instructions involves sanding the entire horizontal tail assembly. It helps to remember that “sanding” in this case involves two different jobs…shaping, and smoothing. Shaping comes first, and it can be scary if the plans don’t show exactly what the finished part is supposed to look like. In the […]
Last time we were talking about building the forward horizontal tail surface (stabilizer) and how a little extra effort helps all those parts to fit right. The first photo shows the entire tail surface built up and ready to be sanded. This time I’d like to discuss several of the steps involved in building the […]
Those old Berkeley kits are not the only nostalgia trip I have been enjoying lately. Many of you not-so-old model builders will remember the TigerKitten, a design I created over twenty years ago to be an electric powered model you would never have to make excuses for. That project was part of the quest on […]
Last time I talked about how big this airplane is. It is made up of a whole lot of very small parts, and I want to explain some of the small things you do with them that can make a big difference. If you are working with plans and patterns, or with old-time printwood kits, […]
Speaking of building, let’s talk a bit about just how much of an old time building project this particular model airplane is…or is not. The Top Flite Stinson kit is designed around what experienced model builders usually refer to as a traditional, built-up structure, which means that the engineering, the shape and function of the […]
At just about the same time I was planning those structural changes to the little Berkeley Super Cruiser, I decided to go ahead with a project that had been lurking around the edges of my imagination for a couple of years. This one is a bit bigger. You’ve seen the ads for the Top Flite […]