RCU Forums - World Models T-34 Mentor

Big thumbs up for this ARF. I've built a couple airplanes from kits and have done my share of covering and recovering, etc. When I found myself tweaking or rebuilding all summer long, in lieu of flying, I decided to get something that would be fun to fly and I could launch quickly into the air.

After reading nothing but positive feedback regarding all World Models products, I chose the T-34, since I liked the way it looked and it seemed to fit my flying style (or lack thereof, in some cases). I ordered the kit from Quantum Models and paid 129.99, no shipping, and it arrived 5 days later in the mail. Everything is well laid out in the box, all parts were included and seperately bagged and I simply started in. The instruction manual is mostly pictures, with small icons indicating additional steps or adhesive. Pretty easy to follow.

Nothing really out of the ordinary during assembly. The only things that I deviated on were; 1) wrapping the wingjoin with fiberglass cloth following the expoxy join, then spreading another coat of epoxy over the cloth. I trimmed back the monocoat in this area first.
2) I canned the supplied foam wheels. They simply won't work on grass. I had some larger rubber tire/wheels from a previous model that worked like a champ.
3) I substituted allen-head fasteners for some of the cheesy phillips-head ones supplied. I can't see those fasteners being used on the wing hold down or the motor mount nutplates.
4) I went with an aluminum spinner, instead of the supplied, color coded one in the kit. (By the way, the model comes in blue, red or yellow. I prefered the yellow.)
5) I found some Stars and Bars decals put out by Sig that worked great for more of an Air Force look rather than the Navy box-top look. I used a combination of kit decals and letters that I already had on hand to make mine look unique, but cool.

Here's my list of "Pros"; everything fit well and the hardware was all usable, with the exceptions listed above. The clear plastic "trial cowl" made it simple to layout the cutout for the real cowl. It was a snap. When in doubt, I followed the directions to the letter (or the pictures, in most cases), and things worked great, including battery and receiver placement, C of G and motor mounting. The monocoat was applied very well. A few wrinkles, but they ironed right out.

My "Cons"; You need to "hog out" a couple of slots for the aileron torque rods to clear the hardwood block where the wing bolts in on the aft end of the wing cutout. No big deal, but the instructions could have warned you. Be advised that the upper right hand cowl screw, as drilled by the factory, will no doubt be covered up by your muffler, if you have the traditional engine setup. This then means that you have to loosen your muffler bolts to rotate it out of the way to install or remove the cowl. Oh yeah...the metric conversion was at times challanging. I had to use some of the screws provided to get a feel for just how much of a distance 8 or 12 millimeters was.

I put a TT.46PRO in it, broke it in in no time at all. This thing flys great! I ran an 11x5 APC prop on mine and it seemed to have plenty of torque. Tracks well on the ground and even better in the air. Rolls were pretty at the factory control throw setting. You could quicken them up if you like, easily. I'm just flying a Skysport 4 channel with it, but if you had dual rates you could probably have some real fun. The thing lands like a dream...just line it up and let it settle to the ground. I did one of the best looking touch and goes with it that I can remember. People say that the gear is weak and you'll eventually want to upgrade, but so far, so good. Mine took 3 clicks of left aileron and two clicks of nose up to fly straight and true. I got 5 flights in the first day and had a blast. Inverted seems fairly stable, even with the small dihederal built in to the wing.

Anyway, for intermediate sport flying with a truly scale look, at a very reasonable price, I don't think you can go wrong with this plane.