I started building my Mid-Star 40 last night. Based on information gleaned from CafeenMan's site at www.airfieldmodels.com I am using yellow glue for most of the building.

Last night, I sorted out the wood, marking each piece and checking it off the list in the manual. Then I cut out the left wing from the plans and put it on the board with wax paper over it. I laid out the 2 bottom spars and the tail edge sheeting. I removed all the die cut ribs from the sheets. That turned out a lot easier than before, because I followed CafeenMan's advice to lightly sand the back of the sheets. The ribs almost popped out, but I still cut them out with a sharp hobby knife. After all parts were dry fitted, I glued and pinned the W-2 ribs to the spars and the tail edge sheeting. This was left to dry overnight. Tonight, I glued and pinned the W-1 ribs and glued on the tail edge stick. This will dry over night also.

Here are some pictures of my progress so far:
The first picture is the required picture of the box. The second is at the end of the first night. Third and fourth are from tonight.

I see a major problem........Your work space is too neat.

My bench looked just like that when I "started" my LT-40 wings too.
I bet it won't stay that neat for long.

chris

Sweet! I've been looking for a build-a-long thread on this plane. I've heard such great things about this kit for years but have never gotten around to building one. Please keep us posted with lots of pics!

Byrdman....wait till he gets the structures built and is getting it all buttoned up. Thats when I usually have a bunch of things going on at once and the workshop really starts getting messy.

The beauty of digital photos. The wing shown is about 36" long. My bench is a hollow core door from Home Depot with sheetrock on top. So the entire bench is about 7' long. There is a bunch of stuff piled up on each end.

I debated with myself whether to create the post here, or in the Kit building forum. Since the Mid-Star is (was) promoted as a 2nd plane, I figured it was more appropriate here.

Tonight I will hopefully finish up the left wing, clear a space on my other bench to start building the fuselage, and start on the fuselage and right wing.

I had to buy a new straight edge and about 160 more T-pins today. The only downside to using carpenters glue is that you use a lot more pins to hold the parts in place. But the upside is I build as much as I can, let the parts sit for 24 hours, get to bed at a more reasonable time, get more sleep so I don't make stupid mistakes. Plus have you ever heard of anyone gluing themselves to the plane or building board using carpenters glue

Nebbie,

I built my Midstar mostly with yellow glue (Titebond II). I'm not sure if it's really the glue, but I've really dealt out some punishment to the plane, and it has held up well. Although It's toughness may be due more to it's design. I'm not sure if it was really necessary, but I joined my wings, firewall, vertical and horizontal stabs with 30 min epoxy. Some may even say to use 30 min epoxy on the servo tray and the landing gear block.

Great to see a thread on the Midstar. Keep up the good work.

You are going to love the way the Mid-Star 40 flies, may mine RIP![&o] It's really sturdy and loves to be abused and when you want to slow down and fly like a sane person it will do it for you, so enjoy! If I were to build another one I would change out the balsa wood spars for hardwood as the ones supplied with the kit were way to soft and I also used hardwood spars in the turtleback.

More progress tonight. Top trailing edge sheeting glued on. Leading edge glued on. Top main spar and top front spar glued on. Then I had to move onto the fuselage, as the next step for the wing is to start removing pins to attach the center sheeting. So the glue dries tonight. I started working on some of the fuselage steps. The 2 F-1 formers were glued together and set aside. The F-2 and F-2d were glued together and set aside. The landing gear block was marked and drilled for the blind nuts. The blind nuts were installed, and the block was set aside. Then I glued the fuselage sides and doublers together, taking care to make a right and left side. The fuselage sides are what you can make out underneath the toolbox.

Under this tool box are the F-1s and the F-2 glued to F-2d.

Some things I have noticed:
1. I really like using the carpenters glue. It is nice to be able to adjust the parts to just the right place (the doublers). And the wait for the glue to dry is not bothering me. It is keeping me from trying to rush the build along.
2. Different from what the build manual states, most of the parts are laser cut. The only thing that is die-cut is the wing ribs.
3. I am happy with my progress so far.

GrnBrt, I have read your description on the dimise of your Mid-Star a few times. The first thing I did is search the forums for a build thread or people's suggestions, but didn't find much.

Art ,

I hava a Mid-Star kit here that has hardwood spars. O know this for certain because I robbed them out of the kit today for another project. This kit is a replacement for one I broke quite a while back. I was having too much fun with it I suppose and flying too late in the day (read: too dark).

Nebbie - It's an enjoyable plane to fly. Capable of slow gentle flight or decent aerobatics. And, having had both, I think it's a nicer flier than the 4 Star 40. The both actually have the same wing, just a different amount of dihedral.

Larry

Interesting as mine came with balsa wood spars!

1st, in my kit, the main wing spars are spruce. The smaller spars are balsa.

A lot of progress tonight, but not many pictures. The fuselage is about finished. The only thing left to do on the fuselage is finish sanding, so I am going to wait until the wings are done. The left wing is about done also.

The first picture shows my way of weighing down the center sheeting on the wing half. That is on the top side, and is what I did last night. Forgot to take a picture of it at the time though. The second picture is the center sheeting on the bottom of the wing. I also glued the last spar in tonight. The last picture is what the fuselage looks like right now. The fuselage is a quick build, as all the parts are laser cut lite ply. They have tabs that lock together and keep it in place. I did have to scrape out some dried glue from where I glued the doubler to the fuse side, as it oozed out and into some of the slots where the formers go. And CF-2 (the slanted former at the front of the turtleback stringers) was a pain to install. The instructions said specifically not to bevel it, so it does not have much wood to wood contact. I may reinforce that later, depending on if the covering goes over it or not. I can't remember off the top of my head right now (it is getting late )

I do in a way stand corrected here. The main spars were spruce and it was the turbulator spars that I was referring to(small ones). They were very weak and kept breaking at the slightest touch and that's the ones I would change if I do another, which I just might if I ever get my other projects done, did I say I loved the way it flew?????

Mine flies fantastic. I have an MVVS 40 with a tuned muffler for power. I know it is way too much. But heck they had just came out. I didn't know any better. With less power it flies really nice. I did mine as a taildragger and used wheel pants. I love this plane. You will too.

Mark Shuman

My first kit was a Mid-star and I thought the kit quality was great. I am currently building my second kit (Tiger 60) and I am disappointed in the kit quality. A lot of things do not match with the plans.

There is one thing that I have noticed after flying the Mid-Star for 9 months. Top and bottom halves of the canopy are made from plastic material. Over time the vibration of the pilot figure has started to crack the bottom of the canopy. You might want to pick a figure that presents a large surface area where it glues to the canopy, or go entirely without.

I have attached a picture of my Mid-Star. Good luck with yours.

Tom

Okay, today's progress:

1. Sanded left wing ends and leading edge. Can't do much else until I get a whittling blade tomorrow.
2. Started right wing. All ribs are glued down.
3. Sanded fuselage. Cut and drilled tank hatch.
4. Sanded the trailing edges of the elevator halves round.

Now I know why they say SIG stands for Sand It Good!

A couple pictures. First is the right wing on the bench. The second is the tank hatch.


Art, what would you think of using some thin CA to strengthen the turbulator spars? I am a little to far along to replace them.

I've built two MidStar 40s and never had any issues with the stock wing spars. The wood for the upper turtle deck in both kits was way too soft. For the second plane I used bass wood strips to get something that would not break everytime I touched it.

I wouldn't do that but be careful when you pick up the wing so you don't grab it by those spars. It's not a question as to strength but one of them breaking easy when handled.

Last nights progress (sorry, no pictures at this time):

1. Right wing: Glued on top trailing edge sheeting. Glued on top main spar. Glued on leading edge. Glued on top 3/32" front spar (which I broke while pinning it to the ribs and had to repair). Those spars sure are delicate!
2. Fuselage: Drilled holes in firewall for fuel lines. Fit in Sullivan 10oz tank (had to heat it up and flatten the back of the tank so it will fit).
3. Left wing: Whittled 1/4" trailing edge piece to be in line with top trailing edge sheeting.
4. Wing tips: I had glued the wing tips together upside down. So I had to cut them apart and reglue them together again. The wing tips are supposed to angle up when viewed from the rear. Mine were angled down. I just didn't pay enough attention when putting them together. [:@] So they were reglued and set aside.

TODO for tonight:
1. Glue wing tip to left wing.
2. Glue center sheeting to top of right wing.
3. Start working more on tail feathers. First will be sanding the elevators and fitting the connecting rod.
4. Take more pictures

I had to take a couple days off due to marital pressure

Last night's progress:

1. Glued wing tip to left wing.
2. Glued center sheeting to top of right wing.
3. Marked forward edges of the elevator for the hinge line. Used a handy tool that was included in my Tiger 2 kit to mark the centerline.
4. Sanded the forward edges of the elevators at a 45degree angle.
5. Marked the elevators for the joiner wire. Drilled and notched for the joiner wire and epoxy'd it in. Pinned it to the table using a straight edge to ensure the front line of the elevators is straight.
6. Glued stab end tips on to the stab.

This morning, I unpinned the right wing half and flipped it over. Glued the bottom front turbulator spar in place.

Tonight's TODO:
1. Mark and cut the stab and elevators utilizing provided lite ply Stab Tip Template.
2. Glue on bottom sheeting on the right wing half.
3. Start working on fin and rudder.

For the wing tips, I utilized both carpenters glue and thin CA to glue it on. Most of it is glued with carpenters glue. I left 3 or 4 spots without glue, held the wing tip in place, and used thin CA to tack it in place. I was worried about it shifting before the carpenters glue dried.

Great thread....

any thoughts so far on this being a first kit (second or third plane) for someone with NO building experience.. I can follow directions well (My wife would disagree!) but no experience on fabricating

I see no reason why this couldn't be your first buildas there's not a lot of building to be done like a scale plane and the plans and building instructions are very well done.

Unless you count all the Guillow's kits I built during my youth, the Midstar was my first RC kit build. I thought it was an easy straight forward kit to build. I even made some modifications, like dual aileron servos mounted in hatches. Go for it, you won't be disappointed.

The directions have seemed very good. All the parts fit well together (with the exception of that stupid CF-2 former). It is building fairly fast so far. I probably could have been finished already if I was using CA. But that being said, using the carpenters glue slowed me down and helped me catch mistakes that would have been impossible to fix if I was using CA. Like the wingtips that I had to take apart because I had the cross pieces glued in upside down. That made the wingtips tilt down instead of up. I just had to take the right wingtip apart again because of that problem. The first time I took them apart and reglued, I glued them both together as left wingtips [:@]

The majority of the fuselage parts are laser cut light ply. The wings are built using die cut wing ribs and stick spars and sheeting. The tail feathers are solid 1/4" balsa.

I started building the plane on 11/11. Today is 11/20, and this is my progress so far:

1. Left wing is complete to the point where the wings are glued together.
2. Right wing only has a couple more steps until it is complete (sanding the top sheeting, and doing 2 cutouts on the end rib)
3. Fuselage is complete to the point where the completed wing is needed.
4. Tail feathers are complete and ready to cover.

Tonight, I will be completing the right wing, and then doing the steps to get them ready to glue together.

Keep going Nebbie. You are finding out that this is not rocket science. More power to you. Enjoy it. You are doing well. Just post more pictures. And best of luck.

Mark Shuman