RCU Forums - Cambrian ME 109 Kit Build Reference

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Nifty little plane. Unless you want to scratch build or work from a short kit 1/12 scale is kind of scarce in the US. these days.

Matt - It is very scarce in Australia as well. In over 23 years I have been here, heavily involved in flying RC with two clubs and participating in events, I have never seen one... Last time I saw one was in the couple of years when I started in the hobby, some 39 years ago... When I bought my ME-109 a friend bought the Cambrian Hurricane and we shared the shipping costs, but his aeroplane is still in the box and probably will stay there for many years.
At the club, when I took the ME-109 for the maiden flight, the club member that assisted me with the hand-launch was very amused as he only ever hand-launched electric models. He was stunned by how well it flew. I gave him a rug to clean the oil from his hands ; )

Cheers,
Eran

That sounds consistent with the way things are here in the US. 1/12 scale was pretty popular in the 1990's with scale combat. I never really got into competition but a lot of the planes were fun to fly. At first there was a lot of variety but it evolved to where the Ta-152 was the only competitive plane and people got bored or just moved to the other combat groups. I built this 109 about 20 years ago. It was pretty but was never successful due to engine issues.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...5bba9d4de9.jpg

Matt - It looks great. Do you remember which kit it was built from (if it wasn't scratch built)? Is it tissue covered and then painted?

Cheers,
Eran

Quote:

Originally Posted by erans (Post 12830217)

Matt - It looks great. Do you remember which kit it was built from (if it wasn't scratch built)? Is it tissue covered and then painted?

Cheers,
Eran

It was built from a short kit from Lazerworks. It was a Tom Stryker design published in Model Airplane News in May 1992. Apparently there was also a kit from Progressive Miniature Aviation. It was glassed with lightweight fiberglass cloth and Kwik Poly and then painted with Top flite Lusterkote. Kwik Poly was a very low viscosity polyester resin. It only had a bout a 3 minute pot life but it would wick into the cloth very easily and spread very thinly without needing to squeegee or blot the resin. it was tough and very lightweight. The plastic canopy wasn't available at the time so I just built it up out of balsa. Sadly the guys who ran Laserworks and Kwik Poly both retired some years ago. They were both one man operations with no one to carry on. Lustercoat is no longer available. On the upside I see people using water base poly urethane over 3/4 oz fiberglass with good results and the plans are still available on Outerzone.