GrahamC

It was a pleasant trip down memory lane reading throught the latest thread on Kieth Laumer with references to Roy Clough Jr. and Ray Malmstrom. Another old favourite is Walt Musicano (still alive and kicking in fact).

There are several control line clubs that have a Walt Musicanio gathering each year - build one of Walts designs and fly it in a variety of events - stunt, speed and a conours to name a few.

for those interested - Larry Rice at Black Hawk Models sells quite a few kits of Walts designs www.blackhawkmodels.com

Pictures from one of this years events can be seen here:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slidesho...y=-vyc94z&Ux=0

lots of nice looking models and all .049 reedy (mostly) powered to boot but no RC

cheers, Graham in Embrun near Ottawa Canada.

build light

Walt has been a busy man in modeling of all types including cars, boats (ships), and airplanes from free flight to rubber, to C/L, to R/C and using most forms of propulsion including the pulse jets, CO2, and solid fuel types of motors.

I wish there were more said about his "R/C designs here on the groups although I am afraid they were generally not top performers compared to many others out there.

Robert

gcb

Graham,

Those Musciano contests were started by the Northern Virginia CL (NVCL) club. Until this year, Walt attended as many of those contests as he could and would judge appearance. Health and age (90's) have slowed him down a bit. He sells plans for most of his designs.

I believe he approved the Black Hawk Models versions of his designs.

My first CL airplane was a Little Bipe powered by an OK Cub, in the early fifties.

George

lukesp

I have written to Walt several times and find him to be a great guy. He's currently (may have finished it by now) writing yet another book, this one being about Corsairs. The guy has had an almost unbelievable output over the years, books, plans, magazine articles etc. I would like to see him hang around for a little while longer yet.

He mentioned that he has no intention of stopping and will be looking at drawing some more plans in the near future. Man, I wish I had half his stamina.

GrahamC

Walt is still selling copies of his plans as well.

I seem to recall that many of the Scientific brand "plank and log" 1/2a control line plans where Walt's work as well. One of the first kit built models I attempted to build and fly was the Scientific Stuka - it sorta work out, the old Wenmac .049 my friend and I shared wouldn't cooperate as well as need be.

cheers, Graham

CoosBayLumber

My Feedback: (1)

I got a big multi page list of the model plans of which Walt put out. Besides Scientific he also did plans for Aristo. But most of his were in magazines. He also did a couple of books on Aces and aircraft. I got about twenty some plans from him, but as for books.....

If you have ordered plans from him over past ten years, don't forget to have him sign them. This adds a bit of authenticity to them. No phonies then.

He also seems to have a few slow sellers available. For in my orders I may get a couple of Xreox copies and faded yellowed blueprints.

I think he is still at the New Jersey address.

Wm.

lukesp

Graham, I regrettably never purchased any Scientiic logs. My local hobby shop of the time had them sitting in their display well into the eighties but I always dismissed them as toys. Fortunately I have mailed Walt for some plans and hope to see them soon. After checking out the link to the West Coast Musciano meet I know I will be passing some pleasant time building them. I remember seeing some kids with one in the sixties (when I was a kid) and it maple-leafed out of the sky when it was released. Whatever was powering it was very poor. An aged OK Cub most likely.

The Aeronca Sedan log in my avatar pic was from Walter's scale model book . I built the thing way, way too heavy so I have never flown it. I intend to build another lightweight version without the rigging and details. Fun to be had.

GrahamC

I am going to have to get off my behind and order a couple of plans from Walt.

At the moment my favourites are the Golden Hawk, Cylcone, Atomic X and Mercury. That Mercruy looks very 50's team race like.

You must be working the late shift to be posting this late at night !?!


cheers, Graham

lukesp

According to his plans catalog Walt has written over twenty books. He also published plans under the names D.A. Newell, Warner Frake and Vincent Manfredi.

lukesp

Yes Graham, I just finished a 72 hour week with 12 hour night shifts . I'm celebrating by staying up late. I am also celebrating the fact that I will be returning to more sane work hours from now on.

GrahamC

That is something I wasn't aware of. I will have to do a bit of searching on those names.


Summer has been busy for me. I have been working many 12 hour days (for the last 45 days). It sure does take it's toll.


cheers, Graham

Remby

My Feedback: (3)

Still have his C.L. plan for the "Zipper". It had a plastic top with canopy for the fuse, and a plastic formed cowl. Low wing, looked like a R.C. pattern ship. Trike gear, one of my favorites of Scientific Models.

build light

The Zipper was one I had always wanted to try and build. The Red Tiger and Sizzlin' Liz P-51 also had the plastic turtledeck/canopy which ran from the firewall back.

Just today I received a Golden Hawk and seven Scientific plans. Some appear to be copies including one signed by Mr. Musciano. There is one definite original with cut marks and glue smears. This one is the "Little Bipe" Also in this bunch is a complete decal set from the "American Boy" My favorite is the ATOMIC X descibed on the plan as a "New sleek lookig designer's dream model"
Unfortunately the plans do not show a top full size drawing as was typical of many of these kits.

Robert

gcb

Robert,

You will find that many of these models went through re-design several times. For example, most of the originals were designed before the Babe Bee and OK Cub .049A were released. One example of this is the Little Bipe. My first one, bought from a friend already built, was powered by an OK Cub. As I remember it, the fuselage extended about 1/2" in front of the wings. To accommodate the built-in tank, the fuselage front has been moved back for balance. The original wings on most kits were either 3/16" or 1/4" thick. These were replaced with 1/8" thick wings. Probably a cost reduction.

You are correct about the top view. For the wing shape on my current Little Bipes, I scanned the small top view that shows painting schemes on the plans, and scaled them up to 12" span. Be careful though, I tried this with another Scientific plan from a book and the fuselage and wings did not scale up correctly. Apparently, the scale-down for the book was not accurate. I had to scale the wings and fuselage separately. It still may not have an accurate empennage.

This was before I found that Walt (and others) sell plans.

Good luck with yours.

George

gcb

By the way, Walt's name is Musciano, not Musicano.

His name WAS spelled that way on one of his magazine articles. The Article said Musicano and the plans on the next page said Musciano.

George

build light

George. Thanks for the info. You have a really nice pair of little bipes!

The first one I will tackle as far as the plans go is the Atomic X! Sometime back I bought six 1.5" X 1.5" X 24" balsa blocks just for such projects. They are a little shy in one dimension but will go a long way to helping create a fuse for these things.

I have already traced the fuse side view shape and the fin and rudder. At this point I have cut the front slot for the wing and the outline of the fuse. I will have to add about a 3/8" thick block to fill in the bottom because the blocks I have a square and not tall enough.
Even though there have been some design changes as you have noted. one dimension has stayed the same for most of these logs and that is the chord of the main part of the wing. It is 3". I measured my plan to make sure. For the rear taper of the wing there is a 1/16" thick trailing edge to be added to the back edge of the wing. This will extend to about half of the span on each panel. At the root, the 1/16" TE is 2" wide. IT will bne simple to transfer the angle from the plan and take a straight edge and make the wing just right. The span will be of course 18" as were most of these kits.

I am looking forward to this build!

Robert

GrahamC

Of course you are right George. I plead tinger frouble, I had already typed it incorrectly and before I could make a correction it was too late.

My apologizes to Mr. Musciano.


for anyone interested, Walt has a bio on the AMA web site www.modelaircraft.org/museum/bio/Musciano.pdf - makes for a good read.

cheers, Graham

jwfly

My Feedback: (2)

Sizzlin' Liz lives on....
The scientific kit Sizzlin' Liz was my first balsa build around 1967...my friends and I were amazed at how it outperformed the venerable Cox PT 19...kudos to Walt...This one was built in part from plans and in part from memory...

fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

Here is an advert from '69:
Dave