MegaMang, The instruction book is top drawer. I used to write instructions for building the fullsize airliners and this is better. One of the reasons I am so enthusiastic about this kit is that a novice following the instructions would have no problem building it. I don't know if I would reccomend it as a first plane until more people fly it. Lots of kits say they fly just like a trainer but we both know they dont. I just can't get over how easy this one is to build. That's not to say that it does not take some mechanical skill, they all do. but as we saw with the nose and scoop, follow the instrutions and a prety good part is made. I would not have wanted to carve those parts from blocks. The landing gear join was a challenge. I think it would be easy to solder that heavy wire with a jewlers torch. My 250 watt gun would barely do the job. I tried a propane torch but it was too hot and cooked off the flux . I went back to the gun and it seemed to work.
Soldering is a skill that is not limited to modellers. Nor are cutting, sawing and gluing. Like I said not a bad kit for the first time builder.

MegaMang. Right, I still have to do that. I have to get some help to get it erected. The beams weigh over 1000 lbs and I have to wait for my boys to come over and help. We took a week off for hunting and then the weather turned foul. Plus my wife had surgury on her foot and I am her house boy. Sooo I started work on the Tripacer. I work for an hour or two and then I get called upstairs for an errand.
She is getting back on her feet so she may demand that I make some progress on the garage.

Buy the way, are you a grafic artist ? That covering job is magnificent. I could'nt do that with decals!

Wascamp,

I brainstormed with a graphic artist friend of mine and we came up with this design. Admittedly it's mostly his work, but I'm still pretty proud of it. The red is a monocote and the blue and yellow are utracote. Both the red and blue were cut on a laser then transfered and painstakingly ironed onto the yellow base. Not an easy task, and had a couple of hairy moments, but all worked out well.

The biggest problem with doing this kind of a graphic is getting either monocote or ultracote to adhere nicely to the previous layer without leaving all kinds of bubbles behind. Then there is the problem of tinted glue leaching out at the edges of the graphic if you heat it up too much. I found I was able to use a lot of elbow grease and Spray 9 to remove most of the glue residues. I found that once I had everything looking good and all bubbles worked out, it wasn't yet as stable as it looked. The first time it sat outside in the full sunlight for the day at the airfield, the top layer started to show up some bubbles and wrinkles. I've since smoothed those out and don't seem to have anymore problems.

Graphics like these make me want to try my hand at a painted surface. Much easier to work with in many ways. Especially if you can get a template laser cut. I remember seing some other threads with good ideas for glueing on laser cut paper templates with 3m spray adhesive. Going to have to give that a whirl one day.

The graphics that I'm designing myself for the Tri-Pacer is far from traditional, so may not win too many ooohs and aaaaahs from the tripe lovers, but oh well. I build for me!

Once I get them cut out and ironed on I'll send you some photos if you like.

Mike (MegaMang) should post a picture of his T-Rex. For those who have not seen it....Whow!
Well today was one of those grunt work days. Soldered the gear join and fit the leg fillers. As mike and I talked about in a post above the join of the two gear wires is sort of old school. You will see what I mean about it works but it's not pretty. It gets covered up later and hopefilly it won't look too bad. The last two shots are just to show the filling I did on the nose and scoop. It's not extensive, just a little to smooth out the transitions of the sanded layers. I am at that point in every build where things start to get sanded. I finished rounding the edges of the control surfaces : that reproduces the real airplane which used steel tube build the tail members.

Dont forget the offer, jump in at any time with questions or comments. Glad to have some expert help. I may even ask MegaMang to cover mine. He is good!

Roger,

Your soldering job turned out very nice. Pretty smooth in fact. Much better than mine turned out. One thing I reallized once I'd covered my landing gear is that a little filler would have gone a long way here! Oh well, next time! Yours should blend into the background once covered without any problems. I really have to work on my soldering skills. I've got a huge 500 watt iron that didn't work as nice as I'd like. Going to have to pick up some silver solder. I used to have some, but when I built the addition on our house it somehow dissapeared. I've used silver solder for stuff like this before and it works much better than lead. It seems to stick to a much wider selection of metals. I just can't remember if I had to use any flux when I used it...

Thanks for the compliments on the T-Rex, you're too kind. It's the one nice thing about those plastic coverings... They can loos so nice with a little effort.

I leave you with a photo that I had posted before in another thread. One these days soon I have to get my own digital camera so I can take some more photos of my stuff.

Keep up the good work wascamp. Looking good. Do you have any photos of other projects you've worked on?

Russmall, how is your tripe going? Any photos? Any problems?

What about gp300? Did you get one of these babies?

I'd hate to think this thread has turned into a two man show. More please! y'all gotta have something to say about yours!

Ooops! forgot the photo!

Now you're loggin. Silver Braze would be the way to go. And, yes you use flux with it. As far as photos of past projects go, well this is my first model since the first Bush administration. I got out of the hobby for a while. Now that I am retired I felt a need to get back into it. I can show you what I have been doing for the past two years. I promise this will be the only time I put non-airplane pictures in here.
You are so right Mike, I am sure that there must be a few builders that have started this kit . They need to jump in and share their experiance with us. I welcome questions, they cause me to think. And thats good.

I suspected that you had a nice view from the picture of your garage pad in another thread. Well done. Did you do the building yourself or contract it out?

I work as a Lan Administrator for a canadian government agency, so it's no problem to keep a window open on a site like RC Universe. Only thing is, I only get around to looking at it when everything is calm here. At home I have so little time right now that I seldom get online like this. I suspect we've probably got a 3 hour time difference going between us! Chances are good that I'll be online a few hours before you, and you'll be online a few hours after me.

Right now my other projects are much like yours. The house addition, which I have yet to complete. A house next door that a good friend of mine is building himself. I spend most of my off work hours there right now. Trying to get it all closed in before the snows hit. Almost there.
This winter will be a bit of demolition and restoration on my wife's 1948 Mercury pickup truck. She's the third owner, so it hasn't had too much altered on it over the years. It's got some rot, but not too much. We are going to restore it to orriginal as much as possible. Complete frame off restoration on the way. I'm a hands on kind of guy, so I tend to do as much of anything myself as I can figure out how!

Other projects... Building a set for a theatre production company in the spring for the musical "Oliver". Maybe another plane, but not sure what yet. If Mosquitobiteplanes gets another kit out, I'll deffinately build that. Build my own curving bannister for the main stairwell in the house addition out of walnut. Now to find a good source for walnut close to home... I decided to build an oval entry in the house complete with oval stairs eventually.

On the landing gear of the tripe, are you intending to make this look authentic, or just functional? ie struts/wire/bungie under main landing gear...

I contracted the foundation, framing , roof, and windows. The rest, plumbing, wireing, insulatoin. sheet rock. and finish work I did myself. I had a lot of help from the family and I used at least one paid helper for a lot of it. There is 900 sq ft of oak floor and 8000 feet of ceder siding that I personally but down. There are 59 light fixtures installed on three levels. I still have to finish the basement bathroom and put down flooring. Lukily we ran out of money so I can put off the basement for a while.
I plan on adding some detail to the cabin. Not much, just adding the tubes that from the wing roots to the dash panel. I will paint the interior and add a pilot bust. I think empty airplanes in the sky are LAME. A couple of light weight busts ads realizum. I might add the tubes to the gear just for esthetics. The more I look at my collection of photos the more I can see to add. The real tripacer is an odd collection of stuff stuck on the sides of an aiplane. Metal sheets mated to a tube frame. None of it faired very well. The one thin I am looking at is the landing light installation. I think it will be easy to add.

While I understand what you mean about empty cabins, I usually don't bother with a pilot. I just haven't found a realistic enough bust. The trouble is in finding one that is the right scale,and finding one in a position that doesn't look like some phoney pose. Looking at the plane on the mosquitobiteplanes website, it does look pretty realistic when photos are taken from the right angle.

It's been a long time since I've tried to make a good scale reproduction of something, complete with all the right detailing. Detailing such as oil streaks, dents, rivets, mouldings, etc. I'll have to do that again one day. I don't have any pictures of anything that I've detailed, so it'd be nice to do one again and detail it right. Maybe if I do the taildragger tripe, I could contact that guy TriPacerDave from another thread. He was eager to send specs, measurements, pics, whatever. Or maybe there's someone else out there willing to share, that wouldn't mind a model looking a whole lot like theirs...

For this tripe though, it's just for fun. Build it, decorate it nice a splashy, try not to crash it. Don't put in too much time in case I do... They all hit something the wrong way eventualy...

Well there are getting to be some pretty good civilian pilots in the 1/5 th scale. I have not picked any out but thats a ways off.
I always figured that the dents and oil streaks would find their own way on to the plane over time. If you haven't tried Airliner.com please do. They have a pile of Pacer and Tripacer photos. Most are from Europe but there are a smattering of them from North America and the Pacific.
Visulalize this in cream over signal red With SE-XXB for numbers That tripe is of Swedish registry. I could'nt pass it up. I might change it to SE-XXY.

Not sure what signal red looks like... Have to do a search on that. Gotta love the numbers!

Are you sure about the spelling of that site? Only gives me a search page...

I looked up signal red. Now I can visualize it. Should look very nice. Good luck.

Sorry about that. Its airliners.net. They sell things so I put .com. My mistake. They have some pictures of some very nice Pacers and Tripaces converted to pacer gear. When the Pacer was put on tri gear to make the Tripacer many thought that it ruined a good airplane. Look at the pictures and see why people thought so. The pacer was a lot more sleek.
I went back and pulled some more photos for paint ideas. what do you all think. I am set on cream/red, but I cant' make up my mind if I like the swoosh better or the Comanche better. How about a non-binding poll? Let's get some votes.

Thanks Roger.

I've actually been to airliners.net before, not sure why I didn't pick up on that. Anyways, I like the swoosh better if you're going more traditional. It suits the rounded chunky lines of the pacer much better. This is definately a '50s style, so much like the '50s cars. Somewhat bulky but with the corners all rounded off to make it cute too.

I have to admit that so far Cream and Dark Blue, or Cream and Red are the nicest combos.

Sorry gang, no pictures tonight. I had to take a run into Spokane today, 5 hours round trip. I did stop in at my LHS, if you call 120 miles local. Picked up a tank, wheels, an OS 65 LA, and a slimline Pitts muffler. Got the engine mounted to the motor box and set for proper length. The plans and instructions call for 6.5 in. from the fire wall to the thrust washer. I had to add 1/8 th to the rear of the box to get the distance correct. I'll shoot it tomorrow so you can see what I mean. Man that drive wipes me out. I have to cross a 5300 ft pass in each direction and I think I am hypoxic.

A short session tonigth fellows. I am in the middle of a beastly head cold and between blowing and coughing It's hard to type. As you see I buildt the wing yesterday. The photo shows the Ply Wing Cage which is the self jigging fixture that builds the Mosquitobite wing system. It works very well and ensures a straight wing. One thing I will caution you about. Build it one side at a time. You may want to get ahead of the instructions and build from the inside out on both sides at once. Dont'. With the spine locked into a vice it is very stable. When you build one side it is easy to keep evrything aligned. I glued both the left and right main spars joints and built the right hand panel. When I went over to the left hand side i noticed that the Spar doubler had shifted slightly at the joint. Not enough to cause a bent wing but I had to shave the spar caps to get them to align flush with the spar and ribs. Speaking of the spar caps. The instructions show the wing first in order of build. There is a reason for this. I was missing a ply rib so in my haste to get under way I built the fuselage first. The reason you build the wing first is because while there is plenty of 1/4 sq. balsa sitck in the kit for both the wing and the fuselage ther are only so many full length sticks. You need twelve 48 in sticks to build the wing spars and caps. The cut offs from these are more than enough to reinforce the fuselage. DOH! I had to cut acute angle scarf joints in a few of the cutoffs to finish my spar work. Not a disaster, but just more work. Another word of caution to builders of this kit. The pieces are cut for very precise fit and as such, care must be taken when installing the ribs. Dont' force any of them. There are small tabs and large holes in many of the ribs. Untill they are all glued up they can be damaged if you are not careful. After all balsa is balsa. Nuff said.
I will work on the wing and mount the control surfaces and linkages over the next few days. That is if I dont' DIE first from the crud.

I should have mentioned about the sticks needed for the wing when you mentioned that you were building out of order... I did the same myself with the last kit I built! For me, it's no big deal since I'm only 35 Miles from the nearest LHS.

I had built my wing up one side at a time and had no trouble with the spar doubler.

Yours is looking very clean. Well done.

Your engine is certainly a better fit than my MDS .58. I'm completely envious. You'll have a very neat end product at this rate.

Get better,

Mike

I am alive. The reason I know, is that dead people don't cough! I had a rough couple of days but it looks as if I will pull through. Even sick I worked on the plane for a few hours. I hinged the control surfaces, and mounted the flaps and ailerons. Installed the bell cranks and push rods for the flaps and ailerons. I would add a CAUTION here about the pushrod installation. The instructions call out some very precise lengths for the rods. I found that the lengths of the flap rods were incorrect. At least in my case. I measured the plans and all the numbers agreed. However using the factory numbers put the servo end clevises into the bay for the aileron servo. I had to lenghten the left rod and shorten the right one. Do some measuring on your wing before you cut the rods. The aileron rods were ok, but all of the control surface push rods were about 3/8 in. too long. Don't tighten the bellcrank screws or cut them to length untill you have completed the installation. you will be removing the nuts several times to get things sorted out. With the trailing edge done I moved on to sheeting the leading edge. WARNING: CAUTION: Do not build the fuselage first. If you do you had better be close to a sheet of 1/16 x 6 x 48 balsa, or know how to edge glue a couple of pieces together! Don't aske me how I know this.
This plane has a rather unique leading edge set up. There is a leading edge spar of 1/8 th x 1/2 sheet that slots into the wing ribs. 1/16 x3/8 strips are glued on to the spar between the ribs on the top and bottom of the wing. The strips are flush with the forward edge of the spar which brings them proud of the rib noses. All of these strips are then carved and sanded to the rib contour on their leading edge. It only took about 20 min. to accomplish this. The leading edge sheet is then CA'd to the main spar cap, ribs and leading edge block strips. When the glue has set the upper and lower sheets are sanded flush with the leading edge spar. It's not as complicated as I may make it sound. What you are left with is a FLAT leading edge. A 1/16 x 3/8 strip is glued flat to flat. Sand most of this off and you have a nice rounded leading edge. More later.

I am considering building the TriPacer as well. I was wondering whether you considered eliminating the bell cranks for the ailerons and using 2 servos.

Thanks for your thread on the build.

DaveB

DaveB, Yes I thought about that and talked to Ken at the factory. They were interested in keeping the weight down. The extra servo and all the parts needed to install it and it's mate in the wing would weigh more than the parts it replaced. You might use nyrod and eleminate the outboard bellcranks, but again, how much weight would you save to get the slop out of the curved nyrod setup. There is nothing complicated about the control setup, it just takes a little trial and error to get it fit up. It took about an hour and I don't have a storebought zee bender. I made one years ago from a pair of baby slip-grip pliers, so I may take me a few seconds longer to bend the rods. It took a few tries to figure out how to orient the rods in the holes for the least rubbing interference. The factory setup is very scale like. The only thing that shows is the top of the control horns and they were exposed on the real plane. I don't think dual servos mounted outboard could be made to look as clean as the stock setup. Download the Instruction Manual from www.mosquitobiteplanes.com and see what I am talking about. It really is a neat and clean installation. Don't worry about the control setup, by all means build this plane. I coulcn't be easier. It has been a lot of fun to put it together. Shoot, if you follow the instructions and don't get ahead of them a first time builder will be able to do everything in the airplne. It will come out great. I dont think it be fouled up if the book is followed.

DaveB, I used the factory recommended installation and have no slop in the controls. I did find a little slop after installation, but it turned out to that I hadn't tightened the bellcrank bolt enough. Once I had tightened it down, and had all the controls setup nice I cut the bolts to length and added a drop of thread lock to them. It really is a nice clean setup once it's complete.

wascamp, did you talk to Ken at the factory to find out where things went wrong on the rod lenths? It's looking good. Did you get kicked out of the house with the kit? Looks like a lot of sunshine in those photos!

No Mike, the sun is shining thru the daylight basement windows. That is my shop for now. I setup in the guest room to build the fuselage and sub assemblies. Moved into the basement living room to build the wing on an eight foot long temporary work bench. I am still working on sheeting the trailing edge and adding the rib caps. I am still very much under the weather and can only work on the Tripe for short periods.

Sorry that I have not reported in for the last couple of days. The bad cold has turned into bronchitis but I am taking antibiotics and inhalation therapy so I should recover. Got the wing sheeted except for the center section. I've got to dig around and find another servo because they are pretty well buried when the top of the center is sheeted. A lot of my radio stuff is still not unpacked. I need a new system as the old futaba has croaked and is no longer serviced by Futaba. I will work on her some more this week. We will be a little busy around here with company over Thanksgiving but I will post some photos of anything that I think would be of interest. I should be ready for cover in a couple of weeks. I plan on using Sig Koverall. I've not used it before and I am wondering if there are any tricks that I should know about. I used the coverite fabric on a Citabria many years ago and I found it somewhat stiff when covering tight curves like wing tips. There are a lot of flat balsa areas on this A/P and I will have to get the fabric to lay down flat. What has been your experience with it ,if any?
Most of the feedback in the forums has been positive and many users rave about it. I would like to hear your comments and suggestions.

More later when I have made some progress and photos.

Hey Roger, thanks for all the posts, but please take care of yourself. Model airplane building is hard on lungs and sinuses--chemicals, dust.

I love Sig Koverall. There are threads on it. For sheeted surfaces I attach it with dope, not Stixit or other heat activated stuff. The only place I use heat activated glue is on seams where it has to make a sharp bend. Koverall is pretty stiff. I use a Weldbond, a white aliphatic from the hardware store. Paint it on wherever something won't bend, let dry, then iron.

It will look so much better than that thin plastic stuff.

You've got me intrigued--I normally go for smaller planes, but this looks very tempting.

Jim