DominicM

Impulse purchase even though I've heard the bad rep that VMAR models have. Arrived this morning and is sitting wrapped in brown paper in corner of the office. Anyone else tried this? Suspect it's a new VMAR release. If no one chips in I'll make this a build thread. No idea what electric motor I'll put in it yet but it'll either be 5S, 6S or 10S powered. I'm thinking 10S and would appreciate any recommendations on motor for max performance. I'm thinking Neu 1515 2.5D so I can use it later in a DS-51.

z06kal

Wow that is a very cool new prop jet from VMAR! Not sure what prop you plan to spin with that NEU 1515 2.5D but that motor is way too high a KV for a big plane like this. I have experiance with planes this big and draggy. You really need a 12x12,12x10 prop for this plane. Any less and you will have so little thrust your plane will be flying at half the pitch speed or even less and have serious climb out problems. The right motor for this plane is a 1915 series Neu running 10-12 cells on a 12" prop. Prolly somewhere between 270-400kv depending on the cells and how aggresive you want to get with the power system. For example on my bobcat 50 I run a 290kv motor on 12S spinning a 12x12 at about 11,200rpm. Plane flys about 120mph. I'm thinking of putting in a 360kv 1915 series Neu which should take the plane another 20mph faster but the ampdraw will be high like 80 amps 3.2kw. That is the kind of power it takes to make planes like this go remotely fast. Equivalent in power to something like a YS120 on 30% heli fuel.

DominicM

Thanks for the info z06kal. I'll research more. If it tops 125mph I'll be happy.

JS615

Vmar should have that plane here in the states by summer, i hope,,, i would like to have one myself,,..

DominicM

Tell you one funny thing...I got home and took everything out of the box. I noticed an empty partitioned section along one side of the box. Weird I thought. Took the fuselage out, tail feathers, hardware bag...wings....no wings. Couldn't believe it. How the heck did they forget to put the wings in the box? Called the supplier who opened a box in store. Said same. Totally baffeled. I opened and closed the box twice because I thought maybe I was going mad. Only when I closed the box a third time did I notice that the outside height of the box didn't match the internal depth. Transpires the wings were hidden under a false bottom to the box!

DominicM

Annoyingly I've just discovered the instructions are missing. Does anyone know the address of the VMAR web site?

dhal22

see, all types of bad things can happen when you drive on the wrong side of the road[X(]

david

JS615

who is the distributor for vmar in the united kingdom. the one here in the states does not carry that plane yet... That plane is sold on a Vietnamese rc web site but its all in vietnam language...

DominicM

Sussex Model Centre have it. www.sussex-model-centre.co.uk. At 80GBP I'd say it's good value. Did a dry fit and took some pics for your viewing pleasure this evening. Looks OK don't you think.

Out of the box all the hinging is done. All control rods are in place. A sprung hatch in the bottom of the tail conceals the servo tray. Am going to go with a spare Hyperion Z40 and 6S setup initially. Won't be ultra fast but good enough for a start.

JS615

Good looking plane. we should have them here in the us soon, it looks like it is retract ready???????? or not.

DominicM

Yeah, about as retract ready as you can get. I'll go for digital servoless variety as I'm a plug and play type of guy.

Progress today. I tackled what I knew would be the difficult bit, installing the motor where there should be a 2C engine. Removed the engine mount and blind nuts, and throttle push rod. The cowl is not removable which made installation of the motor very painful. That combined with the fact I had to use standoffs to get the motor to the right position in front of the cowl. Ugh. Took me nearly 3 hours of drilling new holes and installing blind nuts. The rest was fairly easy in comparison.

HaveBlue

Is the wing fit good , I have a couple of VMAR's the first is the EXTRA330l..very badly aligned wing tube, and the F4 Phantom..much better wing fit but still not perfectly aligned wing tube with holes in the ribs..I'm not knocking VMAR..I actually dont mind their planes
whilst others loath them

DominicM

This VMAR ARF has a one piece wing with one dowel at the front and two wing bolts at the back. All the hardware is already in place so nothing to do except inspect it to make sure it's OK. Relying on one dowel so worry me a little but it looks up to the job.

DominicM

Going with retracts and the stock structs that come with the DSR set are not long enough on the nose. So I nipped to RobotBirds and picked up some sprung scissor struts as used for the FlyFly Hawk. Nose gear strut in this set was too long! So now I had to do some surgery.

First I had to remove the wheel well cover. Plastic and not glued in strongly so used an exacto knife to prise it out carefully without breaking or tearing it. Measured for length and cut the wheel well further back which meant I had to remove a former. Cut a lite ply plate for the nose gear and glued some runners on that for it to sit on. Gorilla glued into fuselage. Made another lite ply plate for nose steering servo and glued that to a former. Connected up to nose gear with some wire. Took a few hours but I think it was worth the effort.

phippsa3

Think you have the nose leg back to front lol.
Thats a really good looking model. Looks a lot nicer in your photos than on the Sussex model centre website.
Im tempted by the VMAR SU27.


Really looks the business.

DominicM

Yeah...one of my fellow club mates who builds amazing turbine jets pointed out the nose wheel error. I need to do some more cutting to allow it to retract properly into the well.

...and yes that SU27 looks the bizzo but I'm not too keen on a prop driven jet of that type. I think the L39 will look OK though.

phippsa3

Have you flown the L-39 yet.
If so how does she fly?

Just checked out the price. £75, now thats good value for money.

DominicM

Haven't yet. Am waiting for replacement DSR retract due to broken gears in the mechanism. Unless the replacement comes tomorrow will be couple of weeks now because I am on holiday next week.

phippsa3

Well good luck with the maiden.
Try to get some pics or video if you can.

Are those retracts mechanical?

paulg71

hi all , was reading the thread with regards to the l39 and have one on order from smc and should be in within the next 2 weeks. has anyone seen or heard of any possitive or negative reviews on this model? as i can not find a thing apart from the thread on ere!! i wasw thinkin f mechanical retracts but not sure if they will be strong enough on a rass run way? you info would be gratefull cheers paul.

JS615

This plane is not sold in north America yet,,, so you wont see any reviews from here.

paulg71

hi js615 i will put a few pics on here when i get it !! should be here by the16th of febuary , just not sure wich retracts to use!? it seems the only prblem with mechanical will be the front nose leg and where to locate servo .

molo_30

Just a heads up from my experience.

Purchased a Vmar Phantom. Put a ST75 into it. First take off the firewall fell out. Cleanly separated from the aircraft.

Tried contacting Vmar only to be told its not their problem and offered me a new fuselage to buy.

I know people say we should check and reglue these but I paid nearly $400 dollars for this jet. I checked the firewall as much as was possible in building it.

My verdict: Rubbish ARF.
Customer service: nought

Stay away if possible. You may get caught and you may not. Just be aware of the customer service (or lack of it)

[:@]

paulg71

now thats not good to hear infact that sucks!![>:] they should of atleast givenyou a refund inmy mind, inot haveing any luck finding anythng out about this plane nfact it seems a bit strange how there is no review on any oof the vmar jets!! slowly but surely going of this kit!!