Hi Jon, last year Rusty asked me to do some cad work for him, he called me Laser Elf in some of his other threads, on several planes that he has wanted to build for a long time and this plane was one of them. Since most of the fuse is stick framed I only had to do the formers for the plane and we both decided that lite ply would be the best choice. I'm not sure of the foam costs but the bulkheads shipped to your door is $80, attached is a drawing of the bulkheads - out of scale - for you to see what's included in the ply formers but Rusty just asked me to add the hatch bulkheads and floor so those will be included also. You can reach me at [email protected] .

Dave Snow

Hi Dave,
Thanks so much for posting that info.

Here is a pic of the laser cut parts. Kinda hard to see, so I will get them out of the sheets today and post another pic.


Mark

Dave,
Thanks for the reply. Sounds reasonable. You going to the WC/Nats? If so, I could pick them up there. You want money up front, or when I pick them up? If you could find out foam costs, I'd appreciate it. I'm debating about a full foam/sheeted wing, or making it as original, although with a tube. I supposed a sheeted wing with 3/4lb foam, maybe honeycombed, would probably be just as light, but not as "authentic"! But I would like cores for the hatch.

Elf Foamy (Tom Miller) cut the cores for me. I used traditional foam wing construction for a two piece wing and Tom cut the hole for the 1" wing tube and sockets in the foam cores. Once I got the cores and located the tube position it was easy to figure where the hole for the fuselage tube should be from the plans and modify the fuselage sides for a 2 piece wing. I sheeted my wings with 3/32" contest balsa and vacuumed bagged with West epoxy..
Thanks to Dave Snow for the laser parts it went together rather quickly. Fun plane to fly!
Dave Burton

Laser cut formers.

Whoops........try that again.

Up next, I cut 12 pieces of 1/16" ply for the elevator control horn plates, (I know the pic shows 10, but I have installed 2). The balsa and a small portion of the 1/8" ply must be removed so the plates are flush with the top and bottom of the elevator.

Hi Jon, yes I plan to be at the NATS but I can have the cutter ship the parts directly to you, this has worked out well for several others for other kits, please send me an email and we can work it all out.

I will send an email to Tom and try and get a price for you, when Rusty was able to post here without being handcuffed he would be coordinating all these things- this was really nice for Tom and myself especially since Rusty did not get a dime from what Tom and I did.

If you have any questions let me know and I will try and help.

Dave Snow

Just wondering what the original kit was. I have a Kato custom Laser 200 I just put together. The plans are in German.

Not a kit. Model Airplane News plans. There is another thread here that has a pdf of the original construction article.

That is what I wanted to know. Thanks .
Larry k

Jon, Tom says to email him and he can get you a price, the good news is he will be at the WC/NATS so you save on the shipping costs. I'm not willing to post Tom's email address here but you can email me if you do not have it and I will get you connected with Tom.

Dave Snow

Things have slowed down a bit for me, until my spruce order for the fuselage and stabilizer arrives. I would like to wish all of you a great weekend and.........HAPPYFATHERSDAY!!!!!

FINALLY!!!! After a bit of a delay, my spruce order arrived on Friday and it was time to get back to building.

First up was the stabilizers. It only took about 1 hour to get the 3 of them built. They are mostly built out of 3/8" square balsa, with one piece of 3/8" square spruce for the trailing edges and a couple of 3/8" spruce for the tail wire braces.

Next is the fuselage. The main "box" structure is built-up out of 1/4" square spruce. The turtledeck formers are 1/8" ply with 1/4" square balsa stringers. 3/16" balsa is then added to the sides of the fuse to give it it's shape.

I am having problems getting pictures down loaded. I will keep trying though.

some pics of the fuse.

A couple more pics...

a few more....

Im on a roll....a few more.

I love the look of all those sticks! Very nice Mark!

This one has to go on my bucket list for sure!

RG

Hi Ralph, thanks for the kind words, I do appreciate it. I love stick building, especialy this project.

I'm trying to figure out what you are going to do ahead of C3. The plans show the spruce longerons forward of there to the firewall. You are apparently making a mod of some sort, correct?

Jon,

Mark is building (3) models for us:

- One will be 100% stock and powered by a Webra .91/pipe with Webra gear drive and an 18 x 10 prop.
- One will be powered by a Super Tigre 3000 (Dave Guerin's)
- One will be powered by a Hacker C50 14XL Comp and have a set of Guerin custom F3A wing/stab.

I will construct a custom motor box for the Super Tigre and Hacker versions. The Hacker version will also have the wing moved forward about an inch with a canalizer, wing and stab side force generators.

Rusty Dose
Team Futaba

A little more progress today. This is fuse number two. This one will be the geardrive version, as I have built the firewall into this fuse.

Photo's are of the fuse upside down, with the only 3 formers that are built into the basic box structure. After the formers are added, I work my way to the rear of the fuse adding all of the 1/4" spruce cross bracing.

Couple more pics of the #2 fuse...

Well......after a late night lastnight, I was able to complete fuselage #1, and get fuse #2 to the stage where the outside balsa pieces will be added to give it it's final shape.