[QUOTE]Originally posted by w0mbat
[B]As a follow up to my previous post, I have found some of my old reviews on these planes and have listed them below. I don't know if they revised the planes since this spring but these are some of the problems I experienced with their planes:

.40 P-47:

1. The instructions were terrible - a few drawings and that is it. They were of no use at all.

-They were adequate for me. Not much to building this one.

2. The fiberglass parts were thin and cracked very easily - also there was a big ugly seam in the cowl.

-The glasswork on mine was VERY nice. And light.

3. The paint on the fiberglass body and cowl was not very good. The silver was blotchy and the green had chips on the edges.


-I did not have those problems. And the paintwork lined up neatly from the fuse to the cowl.

4. The hardware was cheap - all the screws stripped out and the pushrods were softer than lead. Not to mention they were all metric - so standard clevises didn't fit anyway.

-No problems with the hardware. I did replace the wing bolts with US ones, though, as I do not have any spare metric ones if I lost one. Good practice. But...I used all the kit hardware, otherwise, with no problems.

5. The aileron servo covers/holder were made from abs plastic - I replaced them with wood. They also did not provide any solid material to screw them into - just thin balsa sheeting. I cut away under the sheeting and added plywood pieces.

-I used them as is. I put a drop of odorless CA into each screw hole and have had no problems. Ply pieces would be better, if you plan on removing the servos often.
The strength of the ABS servo covers is not an issue. I do wish they were prepainted in silver, though.

6. The retract area was not large enough for Dave Brown retracts. I had to cut all the wood out and redo the retract area in order for them to fit. Also, the wheel covers provided were white abs plastic. I reinforced them with fiberglass and painted them silver to match the plane.

I used springairs. Like most ARF's, I found the retract mounts weak, especially since I fly from grass. I soaked everything in thin CA, which helps only a little. If I did it all over, I would take an extra few hours to really beef this area up, and find some matching covering to cover up the reinforcement.
I did not use the plastic wheel well covers, or the wooden gear doors.

7. Mounting the wing required you to drill a hole in the wing for the dowel - which was very difficult because it came to a point in the center. The wing is foam so there is not much support for the dowel. I enlarged the hole to 2x the size and filled it in with epoxy.

-I did not have a problem there. If I recall correctly, this kit had an unusual metal dowel instead of a wooden one. It worked.

8. There is a wood brace in the middle of the fuse - where the control rods are supposed to go - I had to cut away most of it so the rudder and elevator could operate properly.

-I did not have that problem.


9. They give you a wood piece to glue into the vertical stab so you can mount the rudder (they left out the hinges btw) but they didn't give you any covering to seal the wood which didn't fit


-Mine fit.

anyway. Luckily I had some silver monokote laying around.

-I left mine bare. The rudder covers it.

I also had to cut the hinge slots for the rudder.

-Yes, you have to cut the hinge slots for the rudder.

10. The covering on the wings and tail had to be re-ironed down - it was not sticking at all.


-Mine did not have that problem.

11. The canopy is made from some cheap semi-transparent material - it looks cloudy.

-My canopy was fine. Fit well, too. I liked the indentation molded into the fuse for it.

12. Glueing the horizontal stab was quite a job - I had to sand about 1/8" off one side to get the stab straight - which left a huge gap on the top. I used epoxy to seal it all and it was a mess.

-Mine fit perfectly.

13. The wing doesn't fit in the saddle at all - I used foam tape to attempt a seal but there is still a gap. The fuse is fiberglass so I don't know what to do at this point.


Mine fit perfectly.

14. The tailwheel is cheap, I replaced it with a bolt on type which was easy to do because the tail was open in the back.


-I used the stock one with no problem.

15. And finally, the stickers are computer generated - it looks like they used a 50 dpi ink jet to print them - they are horrible!


-I did not use them. I did not look to closely at them, but they did not look great.


"Perhaps my expectations are higher for arfs,"

Maybe...


but these are not even in the same ballpark with Yellow Aircraft,

Heck, no. But the Yellow Aircraft ones cost a LOT more.

I like this plane. I did not have the same experience as you. I would recommend it.