scigs30

My Feedback: (8)

While the paint dries on my Alien Aircraft Taylorcraft, I decided to start on my Pt-17. I was home all day yesterday since my yard was being re done so I made a pretty good dent in my build. The kit is very basic, brown box plastic bags to hold the parts and plans. No fancy artwork box, flyer or instruction manual....The manual is downloaded from the website and printed out... The wood is excellent quality and the laser cutting is perfect. The kit also comes with most of the hardware and pre-bent landing gear and cabane struts. Alien Aircraft also sells a complete package with motor, ESC, connections and push-rods. Since I started RC builds in the late 80's I have always built with wood/white glues and epoxy where needed. I never really liked CA since I did not know use it and made more of mess than anything. With laser cut kits and the jigsaw style construction, it makes CA a better choice. This is my second build using CA and it worked great. I used very little CA to tack everything together and then added wood glue fillets to reinforce the joints. This went real quick and I did not have to mess with jigs, Clamps, Tape and rubber bands. The design is awesome and all the parts fit together perfect so far with no issues. I hope to have the fuselage finished in the next few days depending on my work schedule. The only modification I am going to make is sheeting the nose area.

scigs30

My Feedback: (8)

More

optech

My Feedback: (9)

Wow Skigs,
What a cool little kit. I LOVE PT-17s so I just ordered one for myself. I didn't realize Alien had added this kit so thanks for the head up. Where do you fly your stuff at?

Thanks,
Mike

scigs30

My Feedback: (8)

I finished sanding the fuselage today, and trust me there is a lot of sanding. I sheeted the front end with 1/16 balsa other than that she is built per the plans. The radial engine went together real easy and is a clever idea and probably much cheaper to kit than plastic. The last thing I will do with the fuselage is scallop the formers before covering. Now onto building the wings. I am not taking pictures of each step since Alien Aircraft post the build manual online with pictures.

scigs30

My Feedback: (8)

Finally she is close to being ready for some skin. I want to give her a final sanding before I begin applying the Monokote. So far a great build, no major issues and well worth the money. There are some small errors on the plans and manual as far as labeling the parts go, but nothing major. I did notify Tom and he states he will correct. The parts all lined up perfectly and the wing mounted with no issues. The struts just float in the sockets and Tom states he is going to re design this so they screw in. For now I am going to allow them to stay as is with no adjusting. The only modification I made was to sheet the nose area and that was for 2 reasons. 1. I like the smooth look of sheeted noses and 2. I handle my planes mainly in the nose area so I wanted the extra support. So far as shown she weighs 15 oz with the Motor. I am shooting to keep her at 24-26 oz flying weight and I don't think that will be an issue.

scigs30

My Feedback: (8)

Fuselage formers are scalloped and all parts are sanded and wiped clean of dust and ready for covering. It has been years since I covered a semi round fuselage and forgot how much skill is needed and how much skills I have lost over the years. I decided to cover the fuselage in 2 pieces and I must say it was a little challenging. The sad part is I would be in the middle of covering and then remember how I used to do it.....a tad bit too late. I know everyone has said Monokote has changed, but I still don't see it. The thing I like about Monokote is the ability to stretch it with a little heat, makes covering a semi round fuselage a little easier. I started the side of the fuselage by first tacking the Monokote at the tail area and stretching it all the way to the nose and tacking it again. Then I tack it in the middle and begin heating and stretching. Normally I use a heat gun, but my Heat Gun from the early 90's finally gave out today. So I used the iron at the highest setting to stretch the Monokote. Here is the first half all done, now onto the second half.

scigs30

My Feedback: (8)

I just finished the second side and now onto the wings. The Monokote is pretty tight but I will still hit it with a Heat Gun later today when I buy one. For some strange reason I decided to use Silver Monokote for the cowling vs painting. Well I just eyeballed it and began putting it on so it is a little crooked, but not too bad. Also I made it a little wider than it should be, oh well not exactly scale anyway. Monokote is pretty opaque except for the burned marks from laser cutting, why do I always forget this? So you can see some of the burned marks under the silver Monokote. I will take a little break and then begin covering the wings with yellow Monokote.

scigs30

My Feedback: (8)

I finished the Top Wing tonight and will work on the rest of the covering tomorrow. I will also paint the cockpit black when I get a chance. The top and bottom of the wing are both covered in one piece of Monokote so there would be no seems.

scigs30

My Feedback: (8)

I finally received my Acetate and finished the Pt-17. She was a fun straight forward build, great design Tom. I still have to install the servos but weight with servos, battery, receiver and motor is just under 24 oz. Not too bad considering I sheeted the nose and covered with Monokote. I have noticed some air bubbles developing under some of the decals, so I will have to address that. Next build is the Se5 from Peter Rake, should be fun.

AviationNut

Beautiful work!

debspersonaldogwalker

very nice!