Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Just took pocession of the new Curare kit from across the waters. I can say one thing for sure, quality is total thru out this kit. One main feature I found to be most helpfully is the added blind nuts installed for the motor mount. The fit of all pieces are like building an MK kit. The covering is superb and all overlaps all of a constance width. The firewall, bulkheads, tank floor, servo rails are all exceptional in installation. Some of are American companies could lean a thing or to on quality ARF builds. Case in point , the motor mounts for the Curare are similar to those used in the Phoenix 7 kit. It is obvious that more time was taken in creating the mold for these mount of the Curare than those from the Hangar 9 kit. My initial kit on the Phoenix 7 had a bad set of mounts. I return them an got another BAD set and to make matters worst, the vertical supports (stiffners) were wrapped on both. I eventually used a metal motor mount. Don't get me wrong, the Phoenix 7 is a good kit but when I lay both these kits side-by-side, the Curare from Modellsport wins hands down. Now for the build.

Steven
<br type="_moz" />

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Hi,
I also got my Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF some weeks ago and I'm also impresssed by the quality. It was well worth the wait.
Mine will be electric powered.
I'm waiting now on my Giezendanner Technik "Marabu" ARF, it is suppose to be shipped out this month, after over a year of waiting, and I hope it will be same quality as the Curare.

/Bo

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

It's great to hear the quality of this ARF! Kudos to Schweighofer for their efforts!

For those that have the plane, is the construction of the fuse similar build to the old MK kits (solid 1/4" and 3/8" balsa sides/doublers contoured to shape), or is it the new ARF style with laser cut light ply jigsawed together? I'm guessing 99% it's the latter, that how all ARFs are built these days and that's how they can achieve the low weight, but just wanted to ask to confirm. Did they fully sheet the fuse/wing/stab?

I'm thinking of getting one for glow, but the construction of the current electric-biased ARFs are just not as solid for long term handling / durability for glow. For electrics they are perfectly fine, and are much lighter than the MK kit builts. But for glow the vibration and handling during engine starting and wear and tear is much more. So I want to get your thoughts on the build quality from glow perspective running a YS-60 with pipe.

One thing that bugs me as a the major omission on this ARF is that they did not build the wing fairing/fillet on the fuse. So if you look at the profile from top down, it looks a bit funny that the wing just meets the fuse like that. It just does not look like an authentic classic F3A model but more of a regular ARF. This is probably for cost and does not to take away the great job they did, just that I wish they had made it the authentic flavor. To their credit they did use a different color for the fairing area to make look like it had one!

Trying to upload photos but this might not work. If it comes out, you can see the first two photos with Hanno's original Curare, and the last one with the ARF. All photos from Schweighofer. If it doesn't, you can see these photos directly from Schweighofer's site...

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Hey Steven,</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">I see you are excited about the plane and it&rsquo;s QC but how much did it cost to get it to your door? I&rsquo;m really interested in getting one myself.
P.</div>

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

It wasn't cheap, $125. When you consider the construction quality, the cost was worth it, at least to me. As for the lack of the wing fairing, that's merely a cosmetic look, although it has its purpose, it will not deter its flight quality. As for the power, I will set it up for both the OS 55ax an YS60.
the retracts will be Landers.

Steven<br type="_moz" />

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Steven,
I see you will use the new YS as well! :D how do you think it'll hold up to glow power?
What was the final cost to your door including shipping (net VAT)?
Matt

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Hey Matt, price to front door was around $450.Late last night I had the itch to go to the basement and drool somemore. After careful eagle eye scrutiny, I did find a slight short coming on their end, the rudder lines up with the bottom of the fuse with the monkote trim right on (from fuse to rudder) but its about .12 - .18 to short, not a big problem. If it irritated someone all you would need to doto fill that void - add a piece, shape it and monokote over it. This is probably what I'm going to do - I don't like ovesize gaps. Other than that, well made. You had mention about the wing
fairing or lack there off. If memory serves me right,on Modellsport website, I believe in the construction sequences, they showed the wing fairing as one piece being gluded to the fuse. Why this was not included, who knows, maybe a cost factor. That seems to be the only obvious missing piece. Like you, that little piece doesn't give it the true F3A pattern look from the day. There's a MK Curare kit up for sale on that auction site - Ijust might bid on it just to get that total look back OR I could fashion one of my own, time will tell.

Steven

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Steven,
Thanks for the info. It's still a reasonable price considering the amount of work required to build one from kit/scratch.

On the fairings, it's too bad they did not make it, but not a big deal. As you said it would not affect flying quality just looks. It's probably for cost because the fairings from balsa takes a lot of materials to cut, a lot of sanding, and is difficult to cover the contour well with film. Not easy for mass ARF manufacuring. I'm sure Hanno decided to let it go considering the added cost just to make these two pieces. They did make it up somewhat by intentionally choosing a different color for the fairing area to give it the look, so I would say it was a well thought out decision and good job by the company to keep costs down.

You can always make your own to reproduce the fairings. I probably wouldn't bid on the $400+ MK kit on the auction site just for the fairings. The amount of work required to build one is tremendous. You have to sand the entire fairing to shape even with the MK kit!

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Guys,

I am talking to Modellsport Schweighofer about importing a half container or a full container of the Curare ARF's directly from China depending on price. I should have a quotation in a few days to see if it makes sense. The price of the Curare needs to be competieve with the Dirty Birdy ARF and Phoenix 7 ARF's within reason.

Leo
Klasskotemo
NovaRossi Engines
B&D Retracts

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Leo, thanks for the update! I'd be interested if this. Let us know how it goes! Matt

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

I was just kidding Matt - I won't spend $400 for just some fairing and believe me, buiding those fairing aren't fun. I've built several MK Arrows and Aurora's and they were a pain in the #$%^&amp;. As for Leo message on obtaing a container full of Curare, count me in on another.

Steven

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Hey Leo, I'm good to go on this deal. Hope you pull it off

Steven

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

I know it's a different animal, but I was down at Hobby Barn in Tucson a couple of weeks ago. I was very impressed by their pattern kits (glass fuse- foam/balsa wing and stab). They have the Curare by the way. I'm going for an Arrow.
Ed

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Ed,

+1, Rob @ Hobby Barn does great work and the quality is excellent. I have their Curare and Super Curare.

Leo
Klasskotemo
NovaRossi Engines
B&D Retracts

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Steven and Matt,

I will keep you posted. They have been working on the quote for almost 2 weeks. They are waiting for the shipping costs from China to the USA so they can complete the quotation. Hopefully the numbers will make it worth doing.

Leo
Klasskotemo
NovaRossi Engines
B&D retracts

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Isn't it an awesome time to be in classic pattern!

Leo, if the Curare works out, you can offer an "ultimate combo" with the NovaRossi! :)

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Matt,

That is a great idea!

Leo
Klasskotemo
NovaRossi Engines
B&D Retracts

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Huang,</p>

I have a Schweighofer Curare and the fuselage is constructed of laser cut plywood (probably about 2 millimeter thick) with lightening holes and outside it is thinner balsa sheeting (probably about 2 millimeter). The fuselage is very light and strong when You hold it in the hand and squeeze with hand and fingers all over the fuselage. Underside of the fuselage has a little more square corners then Curare orginally had but it is OK.
The fuselage is fully sheeted, and wing+stab as well. Fin is built up and covered with thin balsa, rudder is solid medium hard balsa.

As for build quality I would rate it equal or slightly better then Sebart planes (that I have 3 of, and Sebart is regarded one of the better quality ARF's in the business as far as I know).

The missing wingfairings is a little dissapointment butcan be added by scratchbuilding on Your own. Not that difficult, just time consuming (I still remember when I made the fairings on my Curare built from Model Airplane News plans back in the 1970th, it was rather much work but result was fine). It will be a precision work to get it nice and covered with Oracover/Ultracote and then glued to the fuselage sides efter removing the film under the area where the fairings will be mounted.

The cover they did at factory with Oracover (same as Ultracote in US) is great, the Curare fuselage is not an easy task to cover in film and the trim lines etc is straight andquality work. No shortcuts here that I can see.</p>

I wished they had made the canopy exact replica of the original Curare,it is the front of canopy and the painted curved line that just do not look like the original.
A blue tinted canopy would have been more true to the original also. Not to difficult to replace with a blue tinted canopy.
And I wished that they hadchoosen the first blue Prettner Curare (1975 WC version) as an alternative color scheme (see picture below). As far as I know it is the TOC Curare color scheme that Schweighofer has used as template.</p>

Seesome picture below of inside Schweighofer Curare that I took this evening and some photos of Prettner WC Curare (1975 blue, 1977 orange) and TOC Curare (1977 or 1978).</p>

I would absolutely say the Schweighofer Curare is worth the price. To build and cover a plane like this to the standard it has it not an easy task. I'm not sure one can expect so much more for this price - if one want super quality all over thenthe pricetag will be so high almost nobody will buy it because if that. It is a balance between quality and cost.

/Bo</p>

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Just started assembly on mine last night, the build quality and the quality of the covering is outstanding! I played a bit with the retracts last night and I would definitely recommend folks go with the recommended retracts rather than trying to substitute a set of E-flite retracts, these are much sturdier units than the equivalently sized E-flite retracts and I'm pretty sure you'd have to retrofit the mounting to fit a set of 60-size E-flite retracts. I'm especially happy with the way the axle assembly is done, far superior to E-flite's.

I can't wait to get this bird fully assembled! This will be E-powered, planning a Scorpion 4025-10 to start with and we'll see if I need to change up from there.

Peter+

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Bo, thanks for the info and photos! That's exactly what I wanted to know, thank you!! I'm very familiar with Sebart and the new gen electric ARFs (ExtremeFlight/3DHS etc) so I've got the idea of the quality. Fairing/Canopy details aside, this one will be the fastest one can get to have a Curare flying.

Peter, I would second using another set other than the e-flites. I don't recall if you fly glow, but I've pretty much played with all the electric retracts on the market today (eflites, robart, down & locked, PZ, etc) and the eflites are pretty well known to be a no-no on glow aircraft. They don't stand up to the vibration. Would love to see how your electric version comes out!

I've just completed a MK Curare 40, totally rebuilt and resurrected from a pile of scrap planes off a Craiglist ad. Powered by YS-45 on Macs 1250 spinning APC 10x7 at 15,500 rpms. Just like how I remembered it on a screaming pass. The only thing that changed are the electric retracts and digital servos. It's been 40 years and the classic still lives... :)

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Peter,

I'd recommend the following based upon my Conquest IVe:

Scorpion 4025-10
6s 5000 (30c is fine)
80 amp esc (I'm pulling 67 amps max)
APC 13x10e (if it fits!)

This set-up gets me neary 1600 watts and hauls my 9lbs 10oz plane just fine. Your Curareshould be lighter and perform even better. Iused a 12x12 before I settledon the 13x10.

Good luck!

Doug

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

APC 13x8 E or aero-naut CAM Carbon 13x8 is what Schweighofer recommend on the Curare ARF withmotor they suggest,LiPolice LPA-4025/12T-510 KV
http://www.der-schweighofer.at/en/pr...4025_12t-510kv

So a 13 inch diameter prop will be fine for ground clearance.

/Bo

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

Bo,

The Austrian motor sounds like a dead ringer to the Scorpion. I've been enlightened that the 4025-10 apparently also does very well on 12x8 and a pair of 4s packs in series. Power is a tad higher than 13x10 on 6s and might be more "ballistic" in nature. The frame up definitely looks like 2 mm ply and balsa side skins - very light!

Leo,

How many Curare's in a container? Blue and orange versions? Great effort. It would be nice if those shipping rates came down. I agree, it should be competitive with other classic ARF's.

Matt,

You've got to post some pics (or send me some! :D) of that restored C40. I'd really like to see your engine, radio and gear setup. Sounds like a sweet ride!

David

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

13x10 the prop will be stalling so it's actually less efficient than the 13x8 according to Motocalc. the Lipolice motor is very similar to the Scorpion but the kV is slightly different. I'm going to try it on 5S first and keep 6S as a backup alternative.

Had some time last night so I got the wing mostly together, just needs the flap servo and the MPX connector to consolidate all the connections.


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8383/8...c40691245e.jpg

Peter+

RE: Modellsport Schweighofer Curare 60 ARF Just Arrived - WOW
 

David,
I had a great time resurrecting the Craigslist Curare, it was in the bones when I got it. It took three guys and a year to rebuild it. We completely sanded it down and redone using all original MK hardware - floating engine mount, fuel tank, ball bearing links, alum horns etc - like how it was 30 years ago. Everything is else is redone right down to the custom CNC aluminum electric retract plates and custom cut Curare logo. I should make a post about it. YS ran perfect and screaming as always. I have a short maiden video from iphone, PM me your email I'll send it across!

Peter,
That looks great! Can't wait to see the completed Curare. I see you are trying out the AR635 on the Splendor. Let me know how you like it. Maybe the AR635 on the Curare? On second thought, it might not have enough channels, lol!

I think the 4025-10 will be good if you go 6S... with 5S and 13x8 you may need to up the KV to get the performance with the short props we're flying. But Curare is a smaller, lighter plane than Doug's C4, maybe it'll work out. I would not rule out 13x10, most of the classic pattern planes in the later long stroke era (like Doug's C4) used a 10 to 12 pitch prop. Even though prop is slipping a bit, it still worked well to get the speed with lower rpm. I think a Curare will not fly right without the speed. It should be 90-100mph level and just carves through air. The Hacker A50-12S or 14XS V2s might work for a light setup, the V3s are coming out but no specs yet. I actually thought about a custom wind from Ken/Motrolfly on the 4320 to about 500kv for 6S.

I'm local to you (you bought a 3DHS plane from me before if you recall) and should check out you flying the e-Curare! Do you mostly fly at Tomcats? PM me your email I'll send you the Curare (glow) video and we can compare the electric and glow.