What was the most difficult kit you have ever built ????

Life expieriances are fun to discuss, especially when there over with!!!..........

Two kits in one box....both official Peanut Scale kits - whatapain! Could of built a Giant Scale P-51 in the time it took to build those two planes....

Jerry

CAI Panther. It was an early one, nothing fit, the gel coat flaked off over nearly 30 percent of the airplane, and in the middle of building CAI advised that major portions of the fuse and wing joint area would need full carbon reinforcement to avoid wing joint failure. Otherwise it was a snap.
Mike

WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL, did it snap?

Jerry

eventually yes, but thats another story. Failed servo on flap at takeoff, very impressive snap.

Ikon 'N West Beaver!!!!!!! Biggest piece of junk I have ever seen!!!!

Sig Ryan STA, flew crappy too!! Its in Airplane heaven now

House of Balsa 1/12th scale P-51 Mustang Flew like crap as well. Hated it......

I got a Royal Zero 25 size, thought at the price it would be a nice fun fighter, but its bloody scale job, how to make a round fuz, sheet it? nope, damn planking, i got sick of making it, and its sitting in my shed under loads of junk, i will finnish it, but i wish it was easier, and i wish that damn former hadnt snapped into 5 bits when i put the stringers in.
but for the price, HELL!! what a kit, ali cowl, details on real zeros, even got a office for joe to sit in.
But... then i got this Cambrian funfighter for a tenna all built and covered, pained green and brown, i just added details, and looks damn good i thinks, and its the first plane i have that can knife edge right PatternSpit

Martuka (old Royal) B-17. Plans were part Japanese, part English. Wood was metric, die crunching was fair, hardware was poor quality, but those spun aluminum cowlings made the whole thing worth the effort!

Bob

By far the Wing Mfg P-38. It was the short kit and part of the problem was that it was the first time I had cut parts from plans. When they didn't fit, I had a professional builder I know re-cut them and they still didn't fit like the (rather lacking) directions said. It took almost a year to finish it, including glassing and painting, with lots and lots of cussing, but it was impressive in the air powered by 2 YS-53 four strokes. Now that I have that experience, I feel I could tackle almost anything, even a Marutaka which, by the way is my next project. Another P-38, of course.

Turbine Connection/Planes Plus F-86.

This is a giant size F-86 designed for turbine power. Kit came with the foam core wings already sheeted with carbon fiber blade spars. Trailing edge of the wing was coming apart where it should have been glued together. You could pull the sheeting away from the foam core without removing any foam. The left wing, when measured from the rear spar to the trailing edge was 1/4 inch longer than the same dimension on the right wing. The right wing was 1/8 inch longer than the left measured from the forward spar to the leading edge. The control surfaces were to be cut from the foam wing and the cutouts were already drawn on the wing. The only problem is that the cutout marks on the left wing did not match the corresponding marks on the right wing. The wings were supposed to have a layer of carbon fiber cloth laminated between the balsa and the foam. Well the bottom sheeting had the laminate but the top sheeting did not. the plans were not plans at all. they showed a profile of the plane without any meaningful details filled in. The instructions were 2 1/2 typed pages which things like "join the spars", and "install the landing gear". What a nightmare! The CG wasn't even shown on the plans and not even menytioned in the instructions at all. After several years, I am still working on this beast.

The hardest kit that I have ever built was a Stearman PT 17 from a Sterling Kit. This had to be the method used to build the first full scale of this plane. Everything was bend this piece to fit, cut to fit, or the nose was bend and cut to fit with two different radials. Everything was balsa with the fuse being built in two parts and then the two halfs were put together. I'm glad they are out of buisiness now. I worked on that plane for about three years, I would be flustered and would put it up for a while and then start again. I build two other planes during the time I was working on the Stearman.

What a Hobby, you don't have to be a little crazy, but it helps.

It was a Pica Aeronca Sedan. This was because I had to rebuild the kit before I could build it. I wish I had just bought the plans and scratched it !

Would have to be A Smith Mini Plane I am finishing up. Not because it is a bad kit or that the wood was crooked, but because it was partially built by someone else. It was 50% built when I got it, but I have easily spent more time trying to fix mistakes than I would have if I had built it from the start. At first I thought it might have been a first attempt at building by someone, but I have decided it had to have been a "professional" job to be messed up this bad.

About three years ago, I read about a home design model featured in a slick cover magazine. I got a set of plans and the problems began from there. The A/C on the plans did not resemble what was pictured in the article, and the text in the article did not pretain to either. If you looked real hard, the model on the cover did not match the one in the article. The plans were computer drawn, but the length of the fuselage was different by a 1/2 inch between the top view and the sideview. The formers were in different positions in each view, and the wing went from low position in the article photos to middle position on the plans. The outline of parts shown on sheet two resulted in a fuselage thinner than the first page of plans by about 1/8 inch. Looks as though they omitted some balsa sheeting, but did not thicken up the parts to compensate. The pictures in the article showed wood parts around the nose area not noted on the plans, and the cockpit looked more forward than the plans. The pictures in the article plainly showed capstrips on the ribs, and the text mentioned it too, but the plans did not show any. There was no way anyone could come up with Hoz-stab parts as the rib details were not on the plans, and the construction part of the text mysteriously ended after the wing and fuselage construction were described. They showed eliptical shaped tailplanes, whereas the plans had squared off ones. However, there were pictures in that article, and that was supposedly sufficient to complete. To help in the confusion, there was a note on the plans to see the certain issue for construction details and pictures of the finished model.

Two months later the magazine had a booth at the Pasadena AMA show, and although they were very cordial greeting initially, a large fellow had just began ragging them about his problems with the very same model. One thing I overheard explained was that there were five prototypes made and each was correcting or simplifying something found during construction. The exhibitor mentioned to the big fellow if he would have read the first paragraph harder, he would have noticed it was only a "Concept" model and open to individual interpretation. With that statement the big fellow went into a greater rage. I was about to add my two cents when the sole exhibitor turned and walked away. A small young girl later monitored the booth, and all she knew was to hand out brochures.

I got a complementory issue and never subscribed.



Wm.

Great flyer from what everyone tells me. Built one about three years ago for a friend and sold to Tim out in Minn. before it was flown. Many have refered to them as a box of lumber and that they are. Get this, 1/4" thick sheeting on the fuse. First thing I said when I opened the box, are you kidding me, what did I get myself into? Yea, you ever tried to bend this kind of wood, don't care how long you soak it, just give up, say a few nasty words and walk away in frustration. I have had some others ask me to build a Nosen kit since then, I don't think so, never again.

It was a gp p-51 and I put DB retracts and a 60 in it. took me over 4 months. (guess I should have built a trainer first) .
Flies great but it was way to much for a first plane. In fact I just recovered it and ordered a new flight pack for it. Still a soft spot in my heart for that plane.

Uh oh! I've got that kit and those retracts up next on the building board!

It's not my first kit, though, so maybe I'll be OK!

It was just my first build (first rc plane of any type) I learned a whole lot from that plane. Today it would be a fairly easy build for me. Still I dont enjoy the thought of doing the retracts again.spent more time on them than I did building the wing.
It's a exellent flyer, you will love it.
John

John , do you or anybody else know if the Royal kits (Marutaka) have improved any as to what they were years ago when you got a box with a tree trunk in it , and a good luck wish!...Bud

NO THEY HAVEN'T CHANGED. JUST GOT THE P-38 FROM MY WIFE FOR CHRISTMAS. WAS A LITTLE SURPRISED. HOWEVER, THE ROUND COWL ONES STILL HAVE THE ALUMINUM COWLS, IF THAT'S ANY CONSOLATION.

P.S. SORRY, MY KEYBOARD IS STUCK IN CAPS LOCK.

TIM

The most difficult, but in long run the most rewarding was a Royal P-51D Mustang. This plane took about 5 years to build. I would reach a point where I was stumped, stow it in the attic and go on to another plane. At some point I would stumble on to a "oh thats how you do that" get it back down and eventually finish the project. There were several trips to the attic.
Gene

John,

Do you remember the particular difficulties you had installing the Dave Brown retracts? Things LOOK pretty straight-forward in the instruction manual and plans....

running the control rods and bending the music wire legs so they fit just right is the pain. I set my mains up so the axles were even with the leading edge. I bent the legs about 2/3 the way down to do this. Probably the hard way to do it but I did finally manage to get them even and true. The DB music wire bends pretty easy out of the box, so after you get it set just right reharden it and save yourself a lot of grief. And the wheel wells........cant explain .
you'll see, the balsa is the best way to go, the styrofoam was impossible for me to manage.
John.