My Balsa USA Citabria Pro is almost done. Just a few things left to do. I hope to maiden it this weekend. Power is an Italian made Super Tiger 2000.

Few More:

and a few more:

Last set :

Nice Looking Bird!!!
Lets us know how the maiden goes!!
Anthony

Nice job! good looking plane, did you have trouble with cutting the cowl? mabey it just me but had to get a new one. could not see the line and guess what *%#+*^
roltech

Roltec. It wasn't too hard with a Dremel. The hardest thing was deciding where to mark the cowling to open it up. My Super Tigre is much bigger and the recommended cutting wasn't going to be near big enough. So after A LOT of measuring, factoring in 1 degree of right and down engine thrust, etc.; I made my cuts. I just wish my hand was a little steadier to make my cuts a little smoother.

Roltec, Did you paint your cowl? I did. Let the base coat (cream) sit for a couple weeks. Then I used painters tape to mask off the the areas that needed to be Insigna Blue. Painted those areas. But when I pulled off the painters tape, most of the paint came off too. [] So I peeled/sanded all the paint back off and just repainted it cream for now. How did you do it? I want it to look scale.

Jason

Also had to move all my radio gear to the tail to try and offset the heavy ST 2000.

Jason

Very nice, Jason. I have been interested in this model for some time, as it is rather different. It looks to be ideal for my Laser 150; perhaps after I finsih all the OTHER "interesting" projects I have lined up...[&o]

Steve,

This was the biggest build I have had, but I wouldn't call it difficult if you have built before. My list of builds prior to this is short:

Sig Something Extra
MM Tantrum (Electric, laser cut, never need a hobby knife except when covering)
MM Switchback Sport (Electric, laser cut, never need a hobby knife except when covering)
MM SmoothE (Electric, laser cut, never need a hobby knife except when covering)

It is definitely old-school building style, but if you have a couple of kits under your belt, you should be fine. When I didn't completely understand, I just relied on general kitting methods to read between the lines. It has taken me over 4 months, but that is becuase we have a 6 month-old (our first) at home.

Jason

Ah, thanks Jason, but I said DIFFERENT, not DIFFICULT...

Yeah, I've got a couple of kits under my belt; and under the bench, under the spare bed, etc...

I have to keep this in mind! I did not finish the cowl yet. in fact I had to replace it. I ordered a new cowl because I made a serious mistake cut with the original cowl. but now know what I should of done and hope I don't make anymore mistake. Thanks for the advice, and will post the results when and if I ever get this plane done.

roltech

My bad. Just read what I wanted to read I guess.

She is done and ready to fly:

My wife is delighted that this plane is finished

....that means she gets her dinning room table back. I have had it for a little over 4 months. She really does like the plane, though, and has been supportive of me the whole (most of the) time.

Jason

Jason,

I am finally finishing my Citabria Pro. I noticed the registration number decals when applied correctly lean toward the front of the plane. The decals supplied with mine are identical, so if I use them, the numbers on one side will lean forward and the other side will lean aft. Your pictures show the numbers correctly. Did you make your own numbers or did you receive 2 different decal sheets, one left, the other right?

Thanks for you help.

DaveB

DaveB,

I made my own. Since the decals were white and my colors were creme and blue, I decided I better make my own. If you want to make your own, there is a real easy trick! Simply lay your decal on top of you covering which is placed on a cutting board. Take your hobby knife and poke a hole through the corners of the letters on your decal. Make sure that it goes through the decal and through the covering. After you have a hole in each corner of the letter, remove the decal from off the top of the covering. Use a straight edge to lay between each hole you made and run the hobby knife along your straight edge.

Quick and Easy!!!

It takes a little care to apply them straight on the fuse, but that it not hard either. I just used a piece of painters tape on my fuse to shoot a straight line. Be careful, though, some painters tape isn't as easy to remove

Nothing too it!

Post some pics. I would love to see yours. Unfortunately, I sold mine to get another plane. []

Here are some pics, though, including more construction photos: http://bugleboy.rchomepage.com/citabria3.php

Jason,

Thanks for your reply. I will make my own decals as well. I still have a week or two of work left at my pace of working about 2 hours a week. I would like to post pictures, but I have yet to join the 21st century in that I don't own a digital camera. Maybe a club member can take a few photos when I get the plane to the field.

DaveB