RC-Captain

This kit is the second kit plane I will be completing in my entire RC career. I intend to take lots of pics and explain in detail the steps I will take to complete the SHRIKE. All questions and comments are welcome . If you have completed a shrike of this size feel free to elaborate on your experiences and tips. Thanks to all and here goes nothing.


I received the kit with all accessories today from Tower Hobbies and everything I ordered came it the box.

* 1 steel clevis 2-56 W/12 rod(2)
* 2 8x6 sport props
* 2 8x4 sport props
* 1 bolt set/blind nuts 4-40
* 1 motor mount .09
* 1 yellow jacket .15 ABC FSR motor
* 2 10x9 sport props
* 2 7x5 sport props
* 1 103 strip aileron horn conn.
* 2 7x8 sport props
* 1shrike.10-.15 kit
* 1 monokote medium purple 6'
* 2 check trim monokote black/yell
* 1 solid wire pushrod 36!QUOT!
* 1 CA hinge 3/4 !QUOT!XI!QUOT! (24)
* 1 Build it CA thick glue 20oz
* 2 sport prop

The total for parts listed above with shipping is $145.90 priority shipping.


Below are pics of me starting the fuse. The instructions don't have any illustrations so bare with me.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

RC-FIEND,
Congrats on the Shrike build, this plane is a total BLAST to fly. I've had two of them and I loved flying them both. I didn't see what motor you plan on putting on them, but I has an OS 20 FS on mine and they were pure rockets. They would get out of sight in a hurry if you didn't watch them.

I modified my first one for landing gear and all I can say about doing that is DON'T. Adds too much weight and drag on the plane. I built my second one for a hand launch and it flew much better. (As a side note I noticed in the latest Tower Catalog that Lanier now has a Shrike 40 ARF with landing gear). If you build by the plans you won't have any surprises and will be rewarded with a great flying plane.

I'm looking forward to watching your build, and please feel free to ask any questions you may have. Here are a few pictures of both of my Shrikes.

For what it's worth, the large patch of yellow on the bottom was a lifesaver. It helped me to tell the orientation of the plane in maneuvers. Make sure your covering scheme has very CONTRASTING colors on the top and bottom.

p.s. I'm planning on building another one this winter. They are too much fun to not have one around.

Ken

RC-Captain

Thanks for the advice KEN and the warm welcome.

I already ran into a problem but I think I solved it by re-reading the section ten times and then it took to the think process. The pic is of the stab's trailing edge. I made the notches according to plan but wasn't sure if I mounted the TE correctly. If you don't mind take a look at the pics and fill me in with how to glue the TE . It isn't glued as of yet by the way. Thanks


PS nice cover scheme on your shrike. I'm only going with purple on top and black and yellow checked on the bottom .

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

RC-FIEND,
You are glueing them correctly. The fuselage sides glue into the notches on the TE, just like you have in your picture.

Hope this helps

Ken

RC-Captain

Thanks Ken.

OK I went to fly today and discovered my OS .25 has the same power as my OS .40 mounted in a LAZY TIGER thunder plane.

Back to work: The pics are of the beginning of making the hatch. At this point for any new shrike builders I caution you to read the steps three times before executing them because I have found myself missing important detail when trying to execute the next build step after reading the instructions once.

WMB

My Feedback: (1)

RC-Fiend, I'm building one of these also. I have the fuse and the wing done. Still need to add the wing tips and tail feathers.
I agree with you on the instructions, I used the wrong wood for the hatch and fuse sheeting. I was supposed to use the thicker sheet.

I couldn't hang the fuse off the side of a table when bulding the wing. it looked like it had the potential to build in a twist to easily. I bought a 4' length of bookshelf and cut it in 1/2 so I now had 2, 2' sections. I put the spars and the ribs on the fuse. Now I let the fuse hang between the bookshelves with all the ribs being supported by the bookshelving. I think my wing came out straight.

I'll be using a Magnum 15 with a three oz tank.
Throttle gets HS-55
Elevator gets HS-81
Undecided on aileron- Hs 81 or a standard

Will use a lightweight 300ma NiMH battery.

Thats the plan at this point. Great thread, MikeB

RC-Captain

Thanks MikeB for the compliment and information. I already screwed up as you will see in the pic below. I glued both sides of the rear servo mounting rail instead of only the right side. I am not sure of what kind of luck you are having with magnum engines but my .28 XL gave me hell, and from their I steered clear of magnum engines. I wish yours best of luck with yours but if you run into problems don't be surprised. If you already ran the engine in your are way ahead of the game.


The pics are of the servo rails. Of course I had a mistake coming sooner or later so here it is . The pic show rear rail for the throttle servo glued on both sides , it should only be glued on the right. This forces me to ask the question, why did the manufacturers laser cut the left hole out for the rail to slide into the hole ? So with that said I will continue.

WMB

My Feedback: (1)

RC-Fiend, I almost glued in both sides of the servo mount as well. I don't think it will matter. You could cut it out if you needed the extra room.

I had the Magnum in another short lived plane. Seemed to run good for me. Didn't like doinking the pavement though. The crank is barely bent, but Global does not have any in stock.

Have fun, MikeB

RC-Captain

MikeB is right , I can cut and sand the part of the servo rail I don't want to leave in the fuse. For now lets leave it there for strengthening the structure.

I would like to point out in my next pic , there is the word TOP on the ribs and fire wall parts. It took me 15 minutes to realize this with the fire wall . I will blame this on being a little tired. Notice the blind nuts are installed , and I also CA glued them as instructed. One thing I am doing is CA gluing all touch joints. ARF planes do not do this as in some ARF planes you can see only the front or back glued.

Dr1Driver

Dear RC-Fiend,

The Shrike is a very pretty, nice flying plane. HOWEVER...

While the plans are adequate, at best, the instructions outdo them by sucking better than an Eletrolux. The building steps are extremely confusing - not very well explained or illustrated.

I just built 2 of these planes for friends. I will never build another.

In addition to the poor plans and impossible instructions, the design is absolutely horrible. You've already discovered a couple of the design flaws, and there will be others. The most serious one is, as another poster mentioned, the wing. The method of attaching the wings to the fuse makes absolutely no sense. On this type of plane, the wing should be one-piece through upper and lower fuse halves instead of stopping at the fuse sides. It would be much stronger and much easier to build. I won't mention the method of construction for the fuse hatch, since someone else already has, and you've already built it.

The two I built this year are both flying with OS .32s. I had to redesign the fuse from the firewall forward to accomodate this much-larger engine.

Good luck!

Dr.1

RC-Captain

I feel your pain Dr1Driver, you would think someone else would have already did a thread for the shrike build making it easy for the next guy coming along so this is why I decided to do one showing as much detail as I can.

Thanks for the information but right now I am stumped on steps 13 and 14. for any one that wants to help.

I am assuming the upper and lower blocks should fit in between the fuse sides. I used wax paper and traced the pics off of the planes for templates for cutting the blocks. As far as step 14 I will repost when I start the work .

The pic of the plans shows the template I made from wax paper. I also added pics of my chipmunk to add a little spark to the thread. I didn't get to fly it today due to reason I don't won't to begin talking about . Most of you can guess though. Enjoy.

Dr1Driver

If you'll remind me what Steps 13 and 14 contain, I'll try to help you.

Dr.1

RC-Captain

Ok, step 13 involves to pieces for the front of the plane called upper and lower front blocks. The pics below show I have shaped and fitted these 2 pieces in between the fuse. sides.

Q1 how thick should I leave these blocks , thick meaning depth ?

Q2 I am currently CA shielding the fire wall and notice I have to install the engine mount before gluing these
the 2 blocks. Am I right ?


Step 14 : cut four pieces of 3/8' tri-stock from the 24" piece (done)
glue them in the nose as shown on plans.

On the plans I could not tell if the tri stock went on the fire wall corners or the very tip of the fuse. after looking at it again , on the plans the grain drawn matches the 2 blocks so I would say they go on the very nose.

I am giving this my all but it is an up hill battle. Thanks for helping.

Dr1Driver

OK Fiend, I'm with ya.

First, locate the engine mount, then butt the blocks against it, making sure the outline of the fuselage top and bottom (on the plans) is covered by balsa. Follow me? Glue these in place. The tri stock goes in the joint of the block and fuselage side, lengthwise. It creates a fillet in the engine compartment so the outside of the fuselage and blocks may be rounded to match the spinner without taking off too much balsa. There is no tri stock used on the firewall.

I hope I haven't confused you further. Write me at [email protected], and I can send you some drawings that will clear things up.

Dr.1

RC-Captain

I first want to thank Dr1Driver publicly for sending a drawing of the nose which back up the construction I completed last night.

Just to describe the pics below, I mounted the Hayes motor mount before gluing the top and bottom blocks and the tri stock pieces. The screws holding the mount are miniature not to mention the mount would not have fitted after gluing the parts. Another tip is to CA coat the fire wall before all of this work is completed. The instructions do not tell you to do this , I know to do this from building fire walls for SPAD planes. The next step will be to sand and shape the blocks so the top sheathing can be glued onto the fuse sides. The sheets are flexible so I will be trying to get a rounded look. Let me know if this should be avoided .

WMB

My Feedback: (1)

RC-F, It's looking good! You have to sheet over the blocks. I sanded my blocks down to match the contour of the fuse sides, Then I sheeted the top and bottom. You will have to glue on the nose ring before you sand the nose to final shape, be sure the engine crank is centered in the nose ring.

The plans show a 1 and 3/4" spinner. When I sanded to the nose ring, a 2" spinner matched it well.

Have fun with it, MikeB

RC-Captain

Thanks MikeB for the comp. Would it be easier to cut the engine hatch out after covering the top block with the 3/32 sheet ?

Dr1Driver

WMB is right, sand the blocks to match the fuselage sides. Cut the engine hatch after the sheeting is installed.

Dr.1

RC-Captain

The top and bottom sheeting is done. I cut the template out to mount the motor and it seems as if the motor with the muffler is not going to fit . Right now I am steaming , because I may have to buy another , smaller , motor. Do you guys think I should just do away with the muffler ? or just buy another motor. Thanks.

WMB

My Feedback: (1)

RC-F, Doesn't look to bad to me. I think I would glue on a few more balsa pieces to the front, add the tri-stock for the shaping and put on the nose ring. With the rear muffler like that, it will look nice and sleek. I think you can make it work, I wouldn't go smaller than .15 however. It seems like most are going bigger.
If I can't get parts for my Magnum .15, I may get an OS CVA.15.

You can do it, MikeB

RC-Captain

Thanks Mike , I was just about to hit the sack , and I actually was thinking the same thing but was wondering if I could make or come up with some kind of cowl instead of working with the balsa. I'll search on line to see what I come up with . Of course I will do this tomorrow evening. Any one with ideas as far as using a cowl will be greatly apprexciated.

Dr1Driver

Fiend,

Simply cut out more of the top block and sheeting. You may habve to cut out quite a bit to clear the cylinder, carb, and muffler. It'll look ok and be plenty strong.

Looks like you'll need to use balsa blocks to build up the front of the fuselage before you glue on the spinner ring. For the best look, you want the backplate of the spinner as close as possible to the spinner ring. I'd allow about 1/8" clearance.

Dr.1

RC-Captain

Hello, I would like to say building this shrike isn't as easy as I thought it would be. I am not good with deviating from instructions or plans, but I had to as the pics below shows how I extended the fuse in order to get the engine to fit with out any problems. I don't want to bash lanier but I think they should try to re-write the instructions with pics of the difficult steps.

In the pics you may see little holes where the round former meets the tri stock. I will have to CA glue some stock in the holes and then cut and sand filling the holes with what is left. Yep it's work, but I am feeling good about my progress in four days.

Dr1Driver

Looking good. I didn't run into that problem, but I used a larger spinner and ring for the O.S. .32s I installed in the two I built.

Dr.1

RC-Captain

Well DrDriver I am running into problem after problem , but I will persist on until it is completely built.

The pic below is of the 2 spars for the wing and the dowel that holds on the hatch cover. I didn't want to use the dowel with a rubber band but right now I just want to complete the little rascal. I am hoping the wing gets completed quick so I can work on covering Friday and then possibly maiden it on Sunday.