RE: 3dhobbyshop.com Sabre
It will never fly again.
I'm a dumb***** I painted it using acrylics and a airbrush, airbrush failed 1/2 way through, decided to paint it by hand. Made many mistakes and covered them with more paint... repeat a few times.
By the time i was done the plane weighed close to 16oz, it was beautifull though... I couldn't stand seeing it gain so much weight so i euthanized it... Sadly it's in pieces at the bottom of a garbage bag right now... (truth is i attempted to remove the paint and fly it ugly and light, but it was just too much work... I didn't think it was going to be worth it to fly it so heavy... maybe when it weighs 9-10oz one can forgive it's hinges...
I WOULD build another one, but you know it's lack of precision is annoying, and the dental floss hinges really suck, they keep getting partially unglued and make the control surfaces wobbly and imprecise not to mention crooked... I'm done with those at least for now...
I built a yak 54 by eflite. Haven't maidened it, it's ready but 40mph winds keep me grounded today...
Frankly 3dhobbyshop.com should not call it a molded depron plane because it is not. It's vaccum formed in halves then hand cut... not molded. (A ultrafly extra 300s is molded, because it comes out of a MOLD) Wich explains why it's so damned hard to build the sabre straight. The hinges really are a dealbreaker, before i even got to fly it i had a great number of problems with them
1; epoxy doesn't stick to depron's smooth surface. i had hinged the whole plane with expoy. Had to redo because it was falling appart just in normal handling of the plane.
2; i used gws glue; better but not perfect, slow curing means big chance of moving while it sets; crooked control surfaces and or loose hinges.
3; foam safe ca; this works, but it's messy and again sometimes the damned floss curls up orr moves as it cures screwing up the whole surface....
with any method it's nearly impossible to build it perfectly straight. And i don't believe they can go through any pattern flying without having at least a couple of them come loose at one point or another...
If it were anywhere near the quality and precision of a e-flite yak 54 i would have been sad to toss it in the garbage, and i'd be buying more as backup planes... But the reality is far different.
***** dat