Phlip

My wing incidence adjustments left me with a bit of an overhang of the fuselage behind the wing saddle, so I added a piece of balsa to smooth in the lines.

And there it is, in the bare bones!

Let's hit the silkspan!

pt40crasher

Very nice.[8D]

Mr67Stang

Hey Phil, it looks like your doing what most of us dream of when we look at these Guillows (SP?) kits but by now you are probably at the point where you have most likely given up on keeping track of the cost involved. My LHS has a Guillows Hellcat I have been looking at but the kit alone is $55 and I have almost walked out of the store with it at least 3 times now Your build here is making me think of going back for it. But I will check thEBay for a better price first.

Phlip

Well, somewhat.

This is what I have so far: In post 1 I had $145 in. Since then, I've bought a micro aileron control system for $4.25, crystal for $12, fuel tank for $3, mini snapper keepers for about $1, and silkspan for which I've lost the receipt ($5 ???). That brings the grand total up to about $170. All that's left is dope. I have nitrate on hand for the initial covering, and a few colors of butyrate as well, so I probably won't be getting more than 1 or 2 colors of dope. Last time I checked, my LHS had Sig Supercoat for $3.75 a jar, so let's add $15 and call it done at less than $185. (If you want to count glue, blades, sandpaper and misc stuff that I just consider staples of my hobby, that could push it to over $200 complete, but I'd rather not go there)!

Phil

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

Hello Phil,

I agree counting cost is always a no, no in this hobby. I have almost 600 bucks in a .60 Hawker Sea Fury that's on the board. Glad I'm not married any more, there would be hell to pay for that one!

One of the least pleasent tasks in a Guillows RC build is getting all the radio and fuel gear inside the fuse. As youve noticed you have to get most if not all all insalled prior to running the srtringers. The airframe can be a bit fragil at that juncture. Surely you are a patient man. Good looking ship you have going there. Looking forward to seeing this one through.

Good luck.

Darren

Phlip

The covering is done, and it came out pretty well ... just a little wrinkling behind the wing on the fuselage, but not so bad that I can't live with it.

Here are the parts covered with silkspan and two coats of nitrate dope.

Phlip

So I started with the color today. A beautiful day, but I got hung up on other obligations and didn't have the time to get out flying. [&o]

Anyway, next best thing ... I took the Spit outside to do some doping. I started with the white where the insignia will be, two coats with a brush. Next I gave the underside two coats of light blue. That's all for today, but I'm really getting psyched to finish this thing!

hfenn

Very nice. Keep up the good work!

saucerguy

Excellent work, I too am a big fan of the Guillow's kits. I do think you are wise for taking it slowly on the build, it gives you time to ponder about how to go about the retrofitting for the gear and controls. I tend to wing it, excuse the pun, in these areas and as stated before, put the stringers on last since surgery is a typical procedure when you have nothing to go off of.

Along the costs, you gotta keep in mind, you are able to make revisions that you can't do with an ARF, this gives you a huge advantage over what is typically on the shelves so I don't really count that into the equasion. Added to that, a well built kit/conversion should last much longer then any ARF so the final costs come down dramatically. Then you look at what you paid for, and actually used, I can build a few more planes, just out of the scrap balsa I have on hand, the covering is what's the killer since I use Ultracoat, monocoat, or what ever is new and cool on the market at 10-15.00 a roll from my LHS. Along the gear, it's great you actually get a choice in the matter as well.

I'm making good progress on my Guillow's British SE5 Biplane conversion, I'm going e-flight of course and it has barely enough room in the fuse for the gear. I added internal structural braces in that area, chopped out most of the nose and reconfigured it to handle the motor and sheeted that section for added strength, that and adding my signature carbon fiber tube leading edge on the wings and of course, more structure for the now removable tail feathers combined is going to make this one extremely durable while keeping the scale appearance.

Photo just shows the components resting in place, I still have more retrofitting to do so the upper wing gets placed higher, attached to the lower one via. struts, work on the landing gear and other micro odd's and ends. I'm taking this build slowly as well, I want it to be my regular flyer.

Phlip

Nice SE5a, saucerguy. I've thought I'd like to do a WWI biplane sometime too. I was considering the Stearman kit at the LHS yesterday, in fact. I've buitlt the Thomas Morse Scout for free/flight, but have never flown it! Couldn't bring myself to risk it after all the rigging I did.

Phil

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

She's coming along real nice! Kind of hate to see the skeleton get covered up, but your tissue and dope job is really going to make it come to life. Of course, by the time you're done making the functional exhaust stacks, you'll really have some serious time invested here.

saucerguy

Thanks for the encouragement. I have a roll of yellow transparent monocoat, it's a little thicker and takes more heat then the Ultracoat which I like, but there was no transparent in Ultracoat at the LHS, I also have a couple rolls of solid red Coverite Microlite, it's the first time I used it, but it's supposed to be the lightest weight covering on the market. My delema is, should I go with the thicker Monocoat so I can see the bones, or try out the other and not be able to. Then again, I probably should just order a couple rolls of Ultracoat tinted transparent and take the safe route. I haven't used paper and dope since I discovered the plastic coverings, they are so much easier and alot more versatile, I'll be doing the wings and tail feathers in one piece, I could never do that in paper.

I too am eyeing the Steermen, but one advantage the SE5 has over most Guillow's kits, it's lazer cut and the parts literally breath out of the stock so makes it alot easier to assemble. I actually made two complete set's of ribs from the originals should I need to rebuild a wing quickly. The lower ribs shown in the photo are not from the kit, those are the ones from the duplicates. The next biplane I build will be a Fokker d7, I'm currently revising the plans from here http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~idesign...2/fokkerd7.pdf and will be converting it to e-flight on the drawing board so is going to be a more simple scratch build.

skaliwag

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Philp... Perhaps you should consider this Spit for your Livery.....
http://www.jaapteeuwen.com/ww2aircra...20SPITFIRE.htm

With the Norvel pulling it is going to be a rocket

Phlip

Well, I hope it isn't that fast!

Some progress to report: Got the roundel decals modified as I wanted and applied. I cut off the white ring around the fuse roundels and painted yellow rings on before applying the decals. Also, for the wing roundels, I wanted the white center band style for my paint scheme, so I used a compass to mark, then cut the red dot and the blue ring out. Applied over the previous white painted circles, they look great. I use Solvaset to make the decals sink right in like painted on.

Phlip

I love Cafeenman's idea for the scrollsaw paint-shaker!

A couple more pics:

pt40crasher

Great job, dude. Looks great.

tonywp

Very Nice!!! Im building a guilows corsair like this. Hope it comes out looking as good as yours. Excellent job!!

old git

I just came across this thread, I'm glad I didn't start at the beginning when the beginning was current.

I really enjoyed your build, it gave me a number of ideas.

Thanks for a very satisfying read and a look at those super pictures.

Best of luck when you fly it, it's handsome enough to grace any sideboard and has the look of a super bird.




pld git - - - - - - aka John L.

scratched

Awesome! I thought I was good at doing it the kit/scratch way with my home made el balsa trainer, but this is just awesome!

Phlip

Time passes, as usual. I did make some progress a while back, but never got around to posting the pics. So here they are.

I've painted the olive, added the vacuum formed scoopes on the wing, and begun to carve a pilot figure from pink foam.

Phlip

This series takes it through the steps of creating the pilot. Pink foam was cut out on my scroll saw, then carved and sanded, painted with acrylics, and finally, reinforced with a wooden dowel spine.

Phlip

Here's the cockpit and canopy ready for the pilot.

Martyn UK

Hi Philip,

I have just bought a Guillows Spitfire kit (403)& have been reading many posts regarding converting this kit to an electric conversion. I appreciate your post is quite old now but I am wondering how your modifications worked out & whether the spit actually flew succesfully? I am aiming to copy your mods but looking on other posts regarding conversions of this kit I am thinking about adding 2 degress of wash-out, howeverbeing fairly new to model plane building I havent got a clue how I would do this!?

Any tips or advise would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Martyn

Phlip

Martyn,

This one ended in disaster before it ever got off the board. Something was wrong with my dope and/or the silkspan I used to cover the model. I set it aside to attend to some pressing issues in life, went on vacation, and when I returned Ifound that everywhere I had painted the underside light blue was shredded from over shrinkage. It looks like a cat got at it and clawed it to bits, and Idon't have a cat! I've never had this happen with silkspan, tissue or silk before. Quite mystifying!

I looked at it for a while and debated removing the covering and starting over, but I decided it was too much work. Perhaps I'll try it again another day with a fresh kit, but for now my building board is quiet.

As to adding washout, as I understand it, there are two ways; 1. build it in by elevating the trailing edge of the wingtip on the board, or 2. build the wing straight and then intentionally warp it during or after covering. On a wing from a Guillows kit, Ithink the 2nd option will be the easiest. Depending on what you use to cover the model, application of steam or heat, twisting and holding while allowing it to cool would do the trick.

I'd love to see what you come up with!

Phil

Martyn UK

Phil,

Thanks for the update & sorry to hear theproject didnt work out - you definately need to get the board busy again as your build diary was fantastic & very informative! I would really like to have a go at engineering the washout & have been thinking I could introduce ajig on the board & build the wing up around the jig giving me required washout? I have also beenlooking at another website where a guy has posted a fantastic build diary for a P-47. He finished the fuse & wings by planking with very thin balsa - I must admit the finish looks amazing & this really appeals to me for my buildbut Im wondering if the weight penalty would be too great?

Thanks again,

Martyn.