desmobob

Thanks for the tips, John. There is nothing more frustrating than soft gear wire! I'll have to research the hardening process... it sounds like a great idea. I have some soft gear wire on a couple of The World Models ARFs that could really use some stiffening up.

As for the wheel wells, I'm glad you tipped me off. It would SEEM that the styrofoam cup method would be the easiest way to go. I noticed that in the instruction manual, the builder used thin balsa. Hmmm. Must be a reason for that.....

I just rolled out the plans and inventoried the parts. Maybe I'll get started this week.

Thanks again for the tips!

SDM

My Feedback: (9)

Royal 1/2 A Corsair for the lack of instructions
and a Sterling 1/2A Corsair for the die cutting
and poor fitting of parts. I never finished either
one....

Sam

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

Royal not doing too well on this post hey

exocet-RCU

My Feedback: (1)

As far as ease of building, no. Most people's complaint about Royal, or Marutaka, kits is the amount of shaping and sanding needed. But, if you have a decent amount of building experience and aren't in a hurry to finish, you can make a really nice plane from them. Maybe we've all gotten spoiled by the new kits. I know I have The really cool thing about these kits is the spun aluminum cowl on all their round engine birds. You'd have a hard time breaking THAT on a rough landing.

Tim

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

the wings on my zero where pretty easy, but that fuz has been a damn nightmare, i dont see me ever making it round, not without being way to thin and weak, if the structure underneath was stronger i might have tried again but used sheets, lots of sanding yes lol but i can see it being very nice if you really spent ages working on it

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

I framed up a Circus Circus Reed Falcon biplane once that was a real piece of work. The wings did not have jig tabs nor was there any mention of any type of jigging structure to build the symmetrical wing straight. Nice looking bird all done though. Regards, Chad.

Cdallas2

If you think that's bad try building something that you designed yourself and have never seen anything else like.


EVER.

Wings-RCU

My Feedback: (2)

OK.... this is going to sound funny but all of the ARF's I have assembled have been worse that ANY kit I have done. Trying to make something fit the way I think it should after it's already built is much worse that just building it the way I want.

Riley

Give me that royal kit anydayThat bark in a box stagger wing I built was a joy.....Well not exactly a true statement, but .Try a geebee model y from IKON ........you won't have any hair left!!!! And I don't! :drowning: YEA! Stopped working on the GeeBee yesterday, they never are complete!But it's complete enough for me! It may never fly......... 39 oz wing loading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Scary! Glad it's done .A building experience I donot want to repeat.

pilotkelowna

My Feedback: (1)

Lot of work to this kit and lots of carving to do, and one letter size sheet of typed instructions is all you get. Mines almost finished and makes into a beautiful bird. Too bad all manufacturers can't meet the quality of wood in these kits.

MAJSteve

My Feedback: (-1)

TF FW-190D9

Starts out OK with some effort, then you find the tail is not going to be straight on the fuse, so you build up one side and sand the other to straighten it. The section in front of the vertical stab should have been blocks instead of planking. Poor plastic parts, bad LG design (not at all scale). Put it on the shelf 3/4 built and get pissed everytime I realize how much time I wasted

Sterling Stearman - not half as bad, but I've built 3 of them.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Another Royal kit! Mine was a Cessna Skymaster, which I converted to it's military counterpart, the O2. I bought this kit in the early '90's but I think it was kitted in the 60's! When I opened the box, there was the distinct smell of antique wood! The wood was so old and dried out, that when I went to install the wing joiner (you know, that piece of plywood that's supposed to keep the wings from folding up?) it snapped in 3 pieces! I wound up replacing about half of the wood in the kit. And this kit was ALL wood. No plastic or metal ANYWHERE, Cowl, struts fairings... ALL WOOD! it took me 2 yrs to build, I even added landing and strobe lights. And to make matters worse, the picture was taken on it's first day at the field. 5 minutes after the picture, the plane was demolished by a bad battery pack. And due to the fragile condition that the wood was in, it absolutely SPLINTERED!!! I keep this pic on my refrigerator as a little memorial to my biggest headache.

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

i still think someone should be making that kit as a twin speed 400 kit or ARTF.
always liked those O2's.
maybe its my own twisted mind, but yours looks a bit fat, yes its scale, but looks wrong to me, same as the F4U, looks amazing from some angles, but boy is it short dumpy thing side on.

Jim_McIntyre

SIG Skybolt.

I've had three of these (bought one, 'finished' one and built one). The plastic turtledeck sucks, otherwise, a typical SIG kit... glue this piece of wood to this other piece and sand, now glue some more wood on and sand to shape some more... next? More wood and sanding.... you get the drift.

The worst part was lining up the cabanes and getting that little pin that holds the top wing on. I made the suggested modification to make for 'easier' removal.... wished I hadn't. It was easier to remove but, much harder to install. I finally sold all three, they all had the same problem. Nasty cabanes kept wanting to pull out of the fuselage!

If they didn't fly so d*mn well, I wouldn't have bought the other two....

Worst instructions? My VK Triplane. Two sheets of legal size paper typed on both sides. Includes everything, even parts list, flying instructions and a cute little caricature of 'the Baron'. Can you say condensed? Luckily the plans are superb.

rcavi8ter

My Feedback: (19)

I built a 80" Aerodynamics Raven several years back and let me tell you, why even buy a kit. The fuse was stick built, problem was the sticks provided did not match the instructions manual which did not match the plans. It was basicly a scratch built plane. It turned out rather well but a little on the heavy side with a final weight of around 15 lbs with a Brison 2.4. This plane was built for and flown by Mike Hurley.

Chris Puckett

crosswind

Still building on a Sig Ryan STA. Bought it from a guy that gave up on it and it had some problems that resulted in me having to cut the wing in two to fix. The kit was probably produced in the late 60's as it tells you to cover with silk and dope. At any rate the thing has a jillion parts, a nearly round planked fuse, and a lot of guesswork needed to finish. I'm now trying to figure out exactly how and where the wing hold down blocks are supposed to be installed as the plans leave a few questions. Anyone who has built one might drop me a hint? Looks like the blocks stick out from the fuse according to the plans, and I don't like that. Another few years and I might get it done. Hope it flies better than the other gentleman's whose Ryan was his hardest kit also.

Bruiser-RCU

My Feedback: (1)

This was my first scale airplane that I fiberglassed and painted. The wood was so dry CA glue did not want to kick off! The fuselage was too skinny, probably so a K&B .61 (they were the powerhouse back then) could get it in the air. The retracts were all wrong and there were many blocks of wood that were like pine that had to be shaped. Thank god for belt sanders!

About a year later my friend (who build professionally) was building a Royal FW190. The plans and instructions were so much like the spitfire plans it was uncanny.

The end result was okay though...

-Bob George

Omurru

Spectra II, Plane is an amphibian with a T tail and high wing, with engine mounted on the top of the t-tail. So far it's taken me 3 months just to build the Horizontal staiblizer and because the plans are older there are many modifications to be made to the airframe and the positions of things to fit in modern day electrics engine and equiptment...

Wing is fairly simple except for the 25 degree slant and water tips at the end but HZ has given me alot of problems gettin it right and the right shape and the fuse don't look too good either, built in left and right halves from the look of things, ply braces all over the place ply backbone through the tail, engine pod and getting it right and the fuse is sheeted with up to 20mm of balsa at parts which means lotsa sanding....ain't gonna be fun....

But the worst part is I got a set of plans one very small picture of the finnished product and nobody in the country with one which makes it hard to get help. Dunno if any of you guys know this model but if you do or have built one or know someone who has please contact me...I need you help!!!

hattend

My Feedback: (20)

Maratuka Bearcat. Plans were in Japanese. Good thing they had some drawings. Came out very nicely though. The diecutting was almost like a laser cut kit, the spun aluminum cowl ring made making the cowl alot easier. Lots of planking involved but I would rather plank than carve.

It was almost like scratch building only you already had the parts cut for you. I actually enjoyed it. Can wait to start the Cessna 337 or the Staggerwing which have exactly the same construction techniques.

Don

hattend

My Feedback: (20)

Bud, I think it all depends on which kit you get. I have the F8F Bearcat, the Staggerwing, and the Cessna 336. All of them are, for the most part, planked. As a matter of fact, the only blocks that had to be sanded in the Bearcat was for the tailcone and wingtips.

I look forward to building my Staggerwing and Cessna even though they will probably be just as hard to build as the Bearcat. I got great satisfaction from building the B'cat.

promag

SIG SKYBOLT

Very difficult to fix the wing/cabane struts. Old system kit.

The model flies very good, with GP 61.

I use ailerons only low wing, and not good to maneuvers.

The system that links the wings is very poor and pull out d uring flight, loosing upper wing and crash!!

hookemut

My Feedback: (3)

After 46 years of building R/C models-the TopFlite Stinson is hands down the most difficult that I have ever tackled. It is now covered, and clear doped. I'm sure that it will fly great, birthing has been a chore tho!!
Jim

fr8dog

I have heard some people bad mouthing the Ikon kits, but so far I love mine. I am building the Curtis Robin and althouth there are basically no instructions it has been fun. The most diffacult part so far has been building the scale landing gear. It is a mess of brass and metal wire and tubes with solder all over it basically. My soldering skills aren't the greatest, but I figure with all the practice I am getting here I will be great at it in no time. I think the hardest part is going to be making the cowl scale which may be a big mistake. The full size bird has small cooling lavours something like 50+ all over the cowling. In a moment of my stupidity I thought, gee it would be cool to make those, so I started cutting slits in the cowl where the lavours go. I then took a heat gun in one hand and a glove in the other and proceeded to make the lavours. After I got the general shape of the exit hole I took some fiberglass cloth and epoxy and shaped up the rest of it. I have about 5 done so far so in about 5 months I should have them all done!! Hopefully they will look great and I won't have to cut anyother air exit holes in the cowl when I am done.

Crash_N_Burn

You known fr8dog, you are doing it the right way.

So it takes a year to finish, you'll probably be enjoying your building for long after that. Plus the others at the field, they will be compelled to mimic your efforts. It will become a standard in which to judge.

Life's short, but not short enough to rush the things we love.....Doing it right, taking the time, is what really matters...

Happy flying, my friend.

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Heck guys, Wisconsin winter are so long, fr8dog should be done any day now....oops, it is ONLY June, so summer hasn't started yet

Jerry

PS Southern Wisconsin was WARMER today than it was in Sunny Alabama !!!