ffkiwi

DD-I wholeheartedly agree-the .25 is in a league of its own, whereas the .5cc is 'just another' .5cc-beautifully made etc, but otherwise just another .5-though admittedly with a nice collector ring and throttle if you choose to take those options (but the same can be said of the PAW 55!)

Personally-for sheer handling and good manners, I find a decent ED Baby hard to beat among the .5cc group-but I certainly wouldn't choose it if I was looking for power. I'd choose either a very good very early Dart or the PAW 55 for that. Most disappointing-for me-was the .5cc Oliver Tiger-beautifully made, but very very ordinary in handling and performance.

Likewise among the readily obtainable miniatures-such as the Frog 'Tadpole' .25, the ED Baby .25, the Kalper .32 replicas, the .25 and .4cc Mills, the Clan .24-the Schlosser stands head and shoulders above for power, handling and quality.

It will be interesting to see how the diesel derivative of the PAL 020 turns out-should we ever get to see it available [I understand there are 'issues'.......!] as it looks like being reasonably affordable......and I must confess that in my extensive personal experience of these very small ones (including all of the above mentioned ones) I'm leaning towards front induction as being less fussy. The Kalper 0.32 seems to be the only exception among the tiny sideports, with excellent manners-the VA Mills .25, Clan .24 and .48, have all proved pigs to handle, whereas the VA Bambi, Rustler Tadpole, ED Baby and the little Elfins (0.25 and 0.36) are all quite cooperative despite their tiny size-and all of these are of course crankshaft rotary valve.

It would be nice to have a reasonably priced sub 0.5cc diesel appear on the market again, so I'm hoping that the PAL one does eventuate.........

I'm sure a lot of us regret not buying the small ones when they were relatively cheap and available through the 90's and into the '00s..........

ChrisM
'ffkiwi'

Warren B

I'm sorry to hear that you are disppointed by your 0.5 Ollie.
Was yours an AH or a Ridley?
I havea Ridley ina scaled up Frog Raven and it is superb.
Starts in a few flicks hot or cold, easy to adjust and plenty of power.
In fact I have moved to an APC 7x3 to tame the Raven which was a bit quick for comfort in a tight field ona 6x4.

I also have two Schlosser 0.25's a 0.5 RC and a 1.0 RC. all are impeccable performers.
My 0.5 RC pulls around a 3 channel Mamselle very well even with a long alumnium exhaust extesnion to keep things clean.
It probably doesn't have quite the poke of a good PAW 55 (I have 3 of those too), but it's manners and throttling are superb.

The 1.0RC is in a scaled up Coquette, and that is also very impressive, rather more power than my PAW 061, but a bit less than my MP Jet 061 BB.

Of course I agree that the 0.25's are in a class all their own.

ffkiwi

Mine was/is one of the original AH (2nd tranche) Mk3 Oliver Tiger miniatures supplied by John Goodall. I suspect the Ridleys are better....... I find the Master 7x3 an ideal prop for 0.5s regardless of species-it isn't so clublike as the APC, nor does it have those various hub depressions that can be a real pain on small engines. For times when real power is needed from a 0.5, their 6.5x3 pylon prop is a real little toothpick...

ChrisM
'ffkiwi'

DeviousDave

Tell me about it.... I missed buying a pair of John diesels by a few $$ this week, a .35 and .5 that went for a little under $200. I remember seeing then in Carlson's catalog in the 90's and thinking "those look really cool, but they're diesels[:'(]" Oh if I knew then what I know now..

Everything was better in the early-mid 90's... VA glow motors were still available, MP JET engines were undiscovered, Pre-Norvel AME's were $30, MVVS 2.5's were a secret held by most of the modelling world that didn't have internet access etc.

Warren B

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YX4-AEf2ko 

Here's my little Ollie.

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

That little FROG flies a treat.

DeviousDave

Looks very well powered with that engine, what's the displacement?