Trust me it is all the kit's design. I am a slow builder. In over 25 years of building I have always been a slow builder so a kit going together like this means allot. The thing is I have never figured out how I am a slow builder........

Here are a few examples of how quick it builds. The elevator and aileron; you just rack the ribs into the slots and hit them with CA.



And here you can see how the hinges are built in. Once you see it with the other side you see just how scale they look.

Just amazing and the engineering is not just for ease of build... it's for strength as well. Very, very nice!

I spent the day running all over Norther VA with the family doing my lasic follow up, dropping the wife's car off for the new tires and such. It was 7:00 before I got in the shop then the *&@$ing phone calls started. It was 9:00 by the time I got to work. Tommorow I have to go tot he DMV and get my bike tags, change the oil and a few other things. I might get to the workshop by 7:00? I work 4 days on and then have 4 off and each 4 off looks so promising, then it turns into only about 4 hours of actual work on the planes.

So, today I fleshed out the nacels and let me tell you this is where the plans and markings fail. If you go with all the markings in the same orientation, any kind, facing you, up, down, it doesn't matter, the external stringers and the bulkheads don't line up. If you get the profile right and then the internals match the stringers and a few things are wrong, I am guessing that a few stringer notches are off so I went with the alignment and made my own notches in a few places. The detail views in the plans gave awesome detail of each piece, where it went in sequence, but not a clue as to the orientation. The bulkheads have cutouts for fuel tanks, landing gear etc. and unfortunatly when the line up internaly where they make sense they don't match quite right in a few other areas like the stringers.

But aside from that, the plane continues to build really fast and true.

Tonight, again not starting till almost 7:00 I got the wings fitted, root ribs and spars trimmed and such. I got the vert stab built and the wingtips cut and attatched. I deviated from the plans a bit and ran a dowl through the tip and into two ribs to strengthen it. Block wingtips have always made me nervous.

That is just too cool! I can't believe the amount of work you have completed. Keep up the good work!

How are you going to cover it? Will you use fiberglass and paint it?

I am so impressed. I can hardly wait in between your posts.

That's a cool kit for sure.

For finishing, my plan so far is to sheet it with 1/8 balsa of course, and then fiberglass and primer it. For the final finish I am thinking of going with the metalized polyester tape method that will give it a shiny or brushed aluminum finish. The compound curves on the B17 aren't that bad and most of those areas are fiberglass paintable items or will not be bare aluminum anyway.

http://www.rcwarbirds.com/techniguespage.htm#q3

here's a link to the tape. it comes in clear and silver.

[link]http://www.uline.com/ProductDetail.asp?model=S-10243SIL&ref=6088[/link]

I was somewhat skeptical at first, having seen all the practical but horrible looking packing tape finishes on foamies. The reality is that this tape produces an incredible result, of course at $50 a roll you can't compare it to packing tape. Still one roll is 5184 Sq inches. To put that in context the wing area is 2250 meaning you can probably cover the entire plane with 2 rolls.


Here is one plane done in that method and a link to some more:



http://www.rcwarbirds.com/feature3.htm

I got the horizontal stab framed out last night, it took about an hour. With all the major assemblies finished now I can say that it wasn't much more trouble than your average sport plane. Of course that is just the frame up. Now the sheeting and shaping begins. And of course the next few months of my life spent sanding. I do expect things to slow down here. This is a side project and I need to get moving on my 1/3 Sopwith that I would like to fly this summer, and I do have a few other planes that need details here and there. I am a bit worried I might have to go to 2 strokes due to the dimensions of the nacels and what has to fit behind the firewalls making it difficult to recess them. I still have to do some carefulmeasurements. If I do have to go 2 strokes I am thinking about possible options. But without question it will be gas and a conversion gas. Glow is not an option.

Have you seen these engines? http://www.scottellingson.com/brillelli_003.htm

They are about 2 1/2 pounds and from what I've heard they are a pretty sweet running engine.
I purchased one of the Toro off eBay for $40.00 delivered.
They are suppose to be easy to convert and Scott has them for $135 each for the low horsepower model
ready to go.

Just a thought

It's been a while. How's the fortress coming along?

I'll chime in with WayneC - have you had a chance do any more work on the B17?
Jerry O

Not much lately. I have a 1:3 scale Sopwith and a 1:3 Stearman in the works as well, and a small float plane to finish for a float fly. I have done some sheeting but not much outside of that. I should be making progress this fall unless we end up moving or finishing out the basement and there is a fair chance of either one happening. But, it will get done eventually.

I hate to see such a nice thread die, How did it ever finish out? Im going to be working on mine later in the year and Im starting to stock parts.