Thank you guys so much!! [8D] I love these forums.
The kit is a Midwest Citabria that I plan to stretch a little bit to accomadate a 36cc gas engine. I might also do a 25cc Hybrid engine that would run on a gas/glow mix. What would I do then? Gas and glow fuel?
I'm collecting data to try and convert it to a Decathlon. Both the Citabria and the Decathlon were built by the Bellanca company. Also the Scout. The Scout was the first generation and also the smallest. Then came the Citabria and a mild G rating for beginners aerobatics with a semi-symetrical wing. Finally, the largest of all, the Decathlon arrived with the highest G rating of the three, and a fully symetrical wing. The cowls on some Citabrias look like the Decathlons. They have a center "chin" on the bottom of the cowl. I believe this was a standard cowl on all Decathlons, and an optional cowl on the Citabrias with the larger engines. Perhaps the oil cooler on the larger engine hung off the bottom somewhere and that "chin" scoop was on the bottom to pick up air?
My kit has the cowl with the chin on it.
The only other difference I can see are in the turtledeck and the elevator counterbalances. The Citabria has no counterbalances, but the Decathlon does. The turtledeck on the Decathlon appears to have a center "spine" that sticks up higher than all the other stringers on the turtledeck. It has an inverted triangle appearence, where the Citabria turtledeck is flat.
It's hard to find the right pic from the correct view, but it appears to me the full scale Decathoon has a bit rounded fuse on the sides, instead of just a flat slab side. I can't tell if the Citabria is any different. I just can't find the right pictures to compare the two planes. I think I will attempt to use some radius' formers and stringers on the side of the fuse to give it a little bit of a round appearence.
It would take quite a bit of work to change the appearence of this plane to "kinda" look like a Decathlon. But, I'm up to the challenge. Aerowoof told me how to stretch the fuse sides by cutting new ones and changing the location of my window panels without making the fuse any WIDER. I can't make it WIDER or the front window and cowl will not fit. I just want to make the fuse longer, add some cord to the wing and counterbalance elevators.
Oh, and cover it in one of the classic traditions of days gone by.
I think it will look really nice when it's done.
Rambling. Geeked-out on my new project. [sm=red_smile.gif] Thanks for the help guys. I'll post pics here or you can read all about it in the build thread I'm planning to do. It's going to be a while though. I have one ARF project to finish up and then I will start this kit. Hopefully, I'll get it started before the end of June. (fingers crossed) [sm=71_71.gif]