I have built from a arf kit,so I know how that go's,but I have never built a plane from plans,before. what I am wondering is what is involved? and is the plans scale sized, do you use the plans for a stincel, lay the plans on the wood ,and cut the right sized parts just as the plans show. is this what's invalved? please help,thanks

That's about the size of it. Do yourself a favor and try a few kits first. You will learn a LOT that you will need to know before you start "Plan" building.

As usual, good advice from 'MinnFlyer'

If you do choose to go the scratch route first. build a "kit of parts" first, then build the plane. When in doubt, build paper mockups to see how things will fit together.

Also, the ink from many plans can be ironed on to the wood with your covering iron. If this fails to work, I resort to tracing paper and glue it to the wood with 3M spray.

what did you mean build a kit from parts, I biult a glider from a kit, is this what you ment?

For a discussion on how to build from plans go to www.krc.org/ and click on Information and then on Building From Plans.

Dave Segal

you used the term arf, to people that scratch build this means a model that is almost finished, already covered, and just needs some minor assembly.

If you have put together a kit of stick parts, covered it yourself, and it flew, then perhaps a simple scratch built airplane would be OK for you.

I would not build anything any more complex then the kit I just finished. You would not have the experience for a war bird from plans at this point.

But for a simple airplane you may be OK.

I use stencil cut outs. I make my stencils from the frosty plastic note book covers kids buy for school. I use this cut out as a stiff template to transfer a line tracing to the wood part.

Go for it. Thats how you learn is to try.

Thanks guy's

I use spray glue to attach patterns to the wood and after they are cut out, peel off the pattern. If you make copies of the patterns from the plans, be sure that the copier made them the right size. Many copiers don't copy at exactly 100%, so be sure to check.

thanks again, I'm not shure if I'll go with the plans or not,might just get a kit, just depends on how much a 1/4 scale kit will cost me.

Balsa USA has some large kits that are reasonably priced. The plans could be better, but the kits are usually simple enough that if you have some experience you won't have problems.

What I mean by the plans is that they don't go into a lot of detail. If you can read plans, then everything you need to know is there.

Hi,

For a number of years, I have used a material for templates called See-Temp. I make templates of any part in a kit or on a plan which is not a stock size of sheeting or stick wood. This gives me a way to reproduce a part in case of aircraft damage or in case I decide to build a second model, perhaps for sale.

See-Temp is a flexible frosted plastic sheet (relatively low in cost) which can be labeled with the aircraft name, part name and material used. Simply trace around a part, or lay it over the plans and trace the outline, score the line with a razor knife, then bend it back and forth. It will snap clean at the line. Store the new template flat, away from direct sunlight and heat to avoid curling and brittleness over time. Also, store unused sheets of See-Temp the same way (I often hang mine on a wall with two push pins).

The website is: http://www.seetemp.com/

(make take a couple of minutes to load)

Regards,

Al
[email protected]

Thinking of building a A-10 warthog,bad plan,really like it,just hard to find info or plans,may have to scrach build it.any one have info or plans for a 100" wing span,91 sized engine or simular combonation,please let me know. thanks

I use the copier method. I copy my original plan and put it away. I use this for building on. I have a third copy made for cutting up for patterns. Just make sure your copies are an exact copy of the original plan. I don't like the tracing method. Your lines can be off and it just takes too much time. How well does using an iron work on photocopy transfering? I will have to try it.

I tried using Krylon removable adhesive spray on the patterns and also put it on both sides of news paper placed between each layer of wood stacked for multiple cutting. It sure works nice but you go throught a lot of spray glue.
I'm going to try a couple of dabs of CA to tack the stack together to cut it. This should work ok just as long as the glue drops are small so you can seperate them easily.

ZZ

Zoom...... Try glue sticks to attach copied plans to balsa, cut out part and peel paper off. Works great. You know those glue sticks that look like chapstick in the stationary dept at Wal mart or similar store. Works great and is cheap.

I had thought about the glue sticks but didn't try them on the wood. I use glue sticks for my patterns on a sheet for coping and they don't peel off. I thought they might peel the wood too so that's why I didn't try it. What about the glue residue left on the wood?

I will give it a try!

Thanks

ZZ

Actually I sometimes leave the paper on the balsa but it usually falls off anyway.

rapter30,
I dont know if you were part of the previous A-10 threads but I just bought the Dean Lassik plans (115" ws). I plan on scaling it down to 100". The plans look great at a casual glance. A friend in the club tells me that Office Depot can reduce them for pretty cheap. So thats what I'm gonna try. Will be using dynamax fans with os .91's.
Edwin