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Joined: 7/9/2004 From: SomewhereIn,
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Impressed is an understatement. The vacuum formed parts are extremely well detailed, and very well done. The tail cone has the correct afterburner nozzle sections each laid out, in an overlapping position. Nice. The depron is all cut out with nice straight lines, no fuzzy corners. Formerss are rounded as perfect as I've seen. Did I mention it's big!!!!! I'll get back to that. The kit comes with a packing list so you can recheck off each part, and figure out what each one is for. Also included is a grab bag of spare depron, just in case you screw up something, or you want to build a small flat foamy when you are done with this one. CF rods are included for both the wing and elevator, lite ply for reinforcement of stress areas. And a piece of aluminum for the elevator pivots. See I read the manual first, so I knew what it was for. I would suggest you do the same, as it helps make a lot of sense to that pile of parts. When you get the kit there is a manual you will need to download for the build. It's 39 pages long, and has very nice color pictures that really help with understanding what you are doing on almost every step of the build. If you eliminated the pictures you would have about an 8 page manual, so as overwelming as all those parts seem to be, there really is not a lot involved in the build. Also the manual lists items you need to gather to complete the bird, Items like your electronics, control rods, clevis', etc. Most of which, if you are like me, have stashed away from other builds. And the manual gives you a list of glues and such you'll need, again you probably already have this stuff if you do any building or rebuilding.
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"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
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Joined: 7/9/2004 From: SomewhereIn,
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Ok a couple of notes on required supplies. One of the recommended glues is UHU por. When I asked for it at the LHS, I got the " Deer in the headlights" look, oh well they are all gasser fliers or truck drivers. Not to be deterred I went over to the craft department, grabbed the old lady in charge and said "What do you have that will glue foam, dry clear, be flexible, and be permanent". She didn't even blink an eye, just rattled off "what kind of foam, and what are you going to do with it?". "Ummmm, depron, and I'm building an airplane?" was my reply. She walked over to a rack of at least 50 different bottles of glues and grabbed one. "Use this, it's Beacon Craft Foam Glue." "You can wash it off with water until it sets, if it gets on your hands and drys, the only thing that will take it off is Denatured alcohol." "Now all you do is apply it to one side of the foam, let it dry and stick the 2 pieces together." "Oh, like contact cement", I said. And she said, "Yes it's a similar process, but you can also wet glue 2 pieces of foam together if you need to move them around, then just tape them into place until the glue dries, in about 15 mins. " "Ok, I'm sold" Anyhow, I took it home and tried it out on some scrap depron, to try it out vs the Gold foam safe CA I had. Followed her directions, stuck the two pieces together, after the glue dried, and "BAM", it was like when you glue your fingers together with CA. LOL I let the test pieces of both glues sit over night to make sure both were fully dry. Destruction test followed. The CA'ed pieces were brittle and snapped on bending, plus not a 100% glue, and I did use kicker on it. I was able to get parts loose, and the CA was still tacky. Not so with the foam glue. There was no sign of it, so yes it does dry clear. And I could not get it to pull apart. Plus I could bend the depron till it snapped, but not at the glue joint. Oh and these were butt joints, and overlap joints on both. If you can find UHU, use it, if not grab some of the Beacon glue, it works.
< Message edited by Glacier Girl -- 2/2/2006 1:33:47 AM >
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"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
Posts: 6883
Joined: 7/9/2004 From: SomewhereIn,
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Ok that's about it for tonight. Oh wait, remember I said it's big, and I would get back to it? Take a look at this. That's from tail to the tip of the foam at the nose. And there is a 5 1/4" long exhaust nozzle, and a nose cone you need to add to that measurement. See I told you it was going to be big. Better get ahold of air traffic control when you are ready to launch this baby. It's not your everyday Park Flyer.
< Message edited by Glacier Girl -- 2/2/2006 1:42:42 AM >
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"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
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Joined: 11/9/2004 From: Spartanburg,
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HEY Guy I have pm'ed Ray a bunch here lately about this plane. I suggested he appoint you the North American Sales Rep. (sounds impressive ah) I also suggested he ask if you can demo plane at the Joe Nall in march. After reading the depron thread looks as if others have the same idea. I think this plane is going to huge. I told Ray to get ready to quit the day job and build a RC factory in the backyard. LOL I don't think he has the a total picture of how big this project will be in the World market. He could get free pub. at Joe Nall and if it takes off ads. In AMA -Quietflyer and whatever the jet guys read-he's set. It's really exciting to follow the adventures of you 2. This could be next-check it out www.rocketracingleague.com Later Chip
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Chipped, I don't think I'll make it to J/N this year. Why don't you build and fly one? You're a lot closer.
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"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
Posts: 6883
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Lou, You been hanging with Hazy at the truck stop again, haven't you.
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"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
Posts: 6883
Joined: 7/9/2004 From: SomewhereIn,
PA, USA Status: online
Well I have aprox 3 hours in the build. I have the upright fuselage done, centerline fuselage/wing completed, and the elevator braces and rod run. Not bad as I was taking photos and writing down build notes for here, at the same time. If Ray ever gets off the beach and puts his martini down long enough to e-mail me back, I can go ahead with the construction here. I must say there's been almost no problems at all. Anything I did run into was solved by re reading the manual, so no fault of the Mfg. More mine, as I printed out the copy of the manual on a crap printer, so the photos weren't as sharp as possible. Well I fixed that problem, I reprinted the manual at home, much better photo clarity.
Since I have to wait on Ray for the ok to continue, I'll at least let you know I decided on not going with the Thunderbird look. If you know me you know I have to be different. I was going to do a CAF version, Confederate Air Force to those who don't know. And it appears I'm one of them. The CAF is no longer, it's now the Commemorative Air Force? Apparently something happened between it's members and the name has changed, but not the work they do. Oh well, I'll do my own version of a CAF bird, right down to the Confederate flag. Later
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"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
Posts: 6883
Joined: 7/9/2004 From: SomewhereIn,
PA, USA Status: online
No that's Sticks that flys with his pants down.
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"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
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RE: Depron F16 - 
