What are Gullows kits like to build and fly?

Are you talking about the Guillows balsa and tissue kits? I've built a couple of them, pretty simple really, just follow the directions. The ones I have built (Piper Warrior and Stearman Cropduster) I just built for static display, and never intended to fly them.

I have been building the balsa kits for over 15 years now. I have a bunch of guillows models. The overall construction is not that hard. However with guillows and several other companies you may find yourself cutting out the die-cut parts more than you should. They are also pretty flimsy material compared to others. They do make nice looking models when they are finished. The instructions are easy to read and follow. A company that I have found that has sturdy construction and makes nice models to put together is Herr Engineering Corp. The first one I did from this company was a p-51, it was like I was dreaming when I was putting it together because all of the die-cut parts were nicely cut out and they used excellent wood for them. All the spars were nice and smooth and evenly seperated. Overall guillows is a fine company but if you want more quality and durability then I would go with Herr's. By the way I have flown almost all of my planes through free flight. I didn't want to fly the Red Barron Tri-plane or the P-51 because they came out so nice.

I started a thread asking about the Guillow's large Hellcat and Cessna Skyhawk in the 1/2A forum. The general concensus was to build them for rubber band powered free flying or display only. Several complained about poor balsa quality and too weak of framing for using nitro engines and R/C gear, while others said not to put landing gear on the Hellcat, except for a display model. Needless to say, my two Guillow's kits will be hanging from the ceiling in the garage when they are finished.

Back in the late 60's or maybe 70's there was a article in Aeromodeller, maybe by Ken Willard?, about flying the Guillow's SE5A and Spitfire radio control. I'll sort through and find my copy and post a reference. There is a cover photo of the airplanes, so it won't be too hard.

When I was growing up the Guillows kits were how I learned to build. My dad and I would build them together, and we built them for rubber power. We would then fly them free flight. After seeing the airframes on these I can't imagine using glow power in them without some major beefing up of the airframe.

I'm considering building the P-38 kit from Guillows, but I plane on doing for static display only. Build it an hang it up on the shop.

Ken

Ken, are you refering to the big 40"+ P38? The ones I have are the 32" Hellcat and 36" Skyhawk. Unfortunately, I have to wait on starting either one till I get one of my building tables cleared off, as per the boss. For some strange reason, she seems to think having more than one project going at a time is too many[sm=confused.gif]