RE: CAP or Extra?
 

Does anyone have a picture of an SSE with the Fiberglass Specialties cowl?

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

After sleeping on it I decided to order the GP Extra .40, so now I will have three kits!

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

I personally keep buying kits and storing them away, for the "right time", right now I have about 10 or so sitting there waiting to be started, the GP extra is one of them. Currently though, I'm either working too much or repairing hanger rashed planes from moving last year. You'll like the extra kit, easy to build, good flyer and has a very wide speed envelope.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

You make me feel better! I am thinking I will build the SSE first, since that one is still available. Of course I have two ARFs that are built and ready to go, which I have not flown. I guess I just need to think of my garage as an aircraft carrier! Fortunately I have a separate workshop so it is not too obvious to my wife how many planes I have. Unfortunately the workshop is only 10 by 7. The next house I buy will have to have a considerable bigger area for planes.

I am looking at the Fiberglass Specialities cowls and Stans cowls and see that they have two versions for the Extra; one that is the same width as the plastic one and the other that I think fits the fuselage closely. Has anyone used the one that fits the fuse?

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

Honestly, I just used the one in the kit, the ABS one, but I made a mold of the pants and had layed up some glass pants for it. I use to make molds all the time back in the day, but now-a-days, I work way too much, so I just buy them, I would suggest getting the standard one. Fitting the flush surface one to the fuse is going to take a considerable amount of time, considering that the firewall is ply and the balsa sheeting is the same thickness as the cowl will be. Unless they offer 2 different ones for the kit and the arf version, I would call them and ask in person.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

Until you put an elevator in the garage to take you up to the flight deck...uh...roof, I would just call it a hangar instead of a carrier.:D

Planebuilder, the SSE has cheeks instead of a cowl, like the trainers and 4 stars.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

I received the GP Extra 300 .40 and .60 kits from Tower along with various parts. Opened the boxes and looked at all the cool parts. The cowls seem huge - very cool. So now I am expecting a call from my LHS to tell me the SSE has arrived. In the meantime I have been breaking and fixing my mine-Edge 540 - the plane is a lot of fun to fly but is so delicate that I seem to spend as much time fixing it as flying it.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

I am definitely loosing it. I just ordered a second .40 and a second .60 from Tower. My rationale is that I will be more confident building and flying the first one if I know I have another! I have started building the .40. Have decided to not get the SSE but to stick with the GP - I really prefer the scale look and after seeing the kit want to focus on building and flying one type of plane. Now I need to find good .40 build threads...

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

Don't limit yourself to the 40 build threads. They both build similar, and the 60 build threads might give you some ideas too.

One thing I was going to suggest if you were getting the SSE was to see if one of the cowls fit from the GP Extra's. Then you could have ordered an extra extra cowl from Tower.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

Somebody got bit by the bug BAD. That should keep you occupied for a while.:D

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

I started by assembling the fuselage and have a question. The directions call for using thin CA. Is thin CA really going to work well? I am pretty tough on the way I handle my planes when I pick them up and start the engine. The interlocking tabs fit fairly well, but my experience from scratch building is having very tight joints for thin CA. It seems like I should use some triangular stock to reinforce/strengthen the joints???

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

Don't use CA, use regular titebond II glue or elmers wood glue, it will build lighter and far stronger that CA, sands easier too. But if you want, it looks like I may be joining you on the build, I totaled the right wing of my pulse XT last weekend, pilot error, I flew right into the soccer goal post on final?!:eek: So I need another fast built bird and I have the extra sitting in the pile, so it's going on the bench ASAP. But I'm limited this week to working on planes, I'm "On-call" for work, so I may have to drop the work and go out at 6PM and come back who knows when? So did you get the wings and tail built already?

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

I don't have the wings or tail built. My only experience building is a scratch built sport plane last year (I built two of the same design) and then assembling ARFs. I started the fuse because I have never built anything like it and it intrigued me. I currently have it taped to together sitting on my workbench. What you say about titebond makes sense because it will fill the gaps; however I will need to untape and start again which is fine. What is the drying time for wood glue? The concern I have is that you have to assembly a bunch of pieces and then get rubber bands and tape on it to make sure everything is square. Is the relative weight between the two glues really significant? I am glad to hear that you will be building the same kit. I am in no hurry - it is really to give me something to do when my wife is watching reality TV or some other crap on TV that I can't stand.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

:):):)I know exactly what you mean! I go downstairs and work on the planes because my GF watches all kinds of crappy TV shows, so I just hide from all the garbage. But yes, the wood glue does take a little longer to dry but it allows you time to position assemblies and line stuff up, epoxy will let you do that too, but it's much heavier than wood glue. Wood glue will evaporate the water in the glue and leave the resin behind, CA will soak into the wood and plasticize the wood. Wood glue is very strong and semi flexable, CA is brittle. It's only good for hardening wood and tack gluing parts, for a better built plane I refrain from using CA as much as possible. I'll tell you what, I'm on a service call right now, but when I get home, I'll clear the bench and set up the extra kit. I'll do a step by step with you and we'll go over the areas to address or reinforce. It'll be easier than you think, in the mean time, pick up some wood glue, I actually use great planes aphletic resin(spelling?), the one advantage of using it is if you have a point on the joint that lifted, just take a warm covering iron and press the effected area down with it, it will rebond and adhere to the ajoining part. But tite bond II or regular elmers yellow wood glue will do the job as well. I'll be on a little later on, feel free to PM me on any questions.;)
Well, off to fix another dead chiller, talk to ya later, and oh,......unplug the cable connection where it comes in the house, that will keep your wife doing house chores for a while, she'll never figure it out!:D

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

I already have various types of white glue, including titebond II. I live in California where aliphatic glue has been banned (at least this is what I heard when someone asked for it a LHS) - probably because it works too well. I experimented with these glues a little when I started scratch building but switched to CA because it is so fast. This time, since I am in no hurry I will try wood glue.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

Alright, I'm home and where was I? O-yeah, clean off the bench, then bust out the plans. I gotta say, I know it suxs but you can only go so far building the fuslage without having the wing and tail feathers done, IE can't lineup the wing bolt plate or pin plate, bottom plate and you can't do some shaping to the tail blocks without the tailfeathers sitting in there to give you a reference. I have built many in jump around order, but sometimes you find yourself painting yourself into a corner and you'll have to wait till something else is done. Did you have your heart stuck on starting on the fuse first?
And there was a question about a GP extra cowl fitting a SSE, no, it won't fit, way too big, width,and height, I've seen a SSE nose, just a little bigger than the .40 that resides inside it, the GP extra cowl will eat up a .40 on it's side without anything sticking out. Maybe a H9 extra 260 in the 480 sized ships would be closer to the square box of the SSE.
Anywho, off to the dungeon to clean off the bench, BTW, what's your building board, I use a solid 3/4 MDF (brown hard partical board) with a ceiling tile bonded to the top 2x4 variety. one 2 x4 setup weighs in at 30 lbs, just to give you an idea of how thick and heavy the board is, which equals stiff and flat, just the way they are pressed from manufacture.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

So putting another build page up seems like beating a dead horse, I figure it this way, if I did a search for builds on a GP extra, I'd get about 50 builds done and posted, so it's up to you, want to continue in this post or start a new one? If you want to start a new one, I suggest "double extra" or "extra double", So the horizontal stab is almost done on mine, all in all, about 1 hour of work, but it's just me fitting the joints nice and tight. I have pic's to guide the build, many out there add counter balances to the horizontal stab, I don't 3D nor did I find the stock stab needing it on such a small bird, so mine is being built per plans outline. A few extra mods here and there from past experences with things failing here and there, but pretty much retaining the original handling charicteristics of this design. BTW, do not gule the fuse together yet, there is a critical mod you'll need to do that is way easier to do when the sides are on the bench facing up at you.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

Go to your local home center and see if they have titebond II. That will tell you if the LHS is blowing sunshine your way or not. I think they are just trying to sell you CA.

You can use titebond just about everywhere they call for CA, except for CA hinges, hardening threads in wood, and hardening control surface areas for control horns.

Instead of locking the parts together and wicking CA into the joint, apply a little titebond to the edge of the parts before assembly. Then go back and lay in a fillet for extra strength. If you want to see how a build is done with titebond instead of CA search for RCKen's Pay It Forward PT40 build.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

planebuilder - no I am not stuck on building the fuse first. It was fun just putting the pieces together to see what they look like. It actually looks pretty strong.

Regarding the SSE I ended up not buying that kit - since I now have two .40 GP Extras and two .60 GP Extras I figure I have enough kits for now! I really prefer the scale look of the GP.
As far as a build thread I don't think it make sense to start another. Just use this one. I am not that motivated right now - just having fun playing around, so I probably will make slow progress. I have a ton of work going on right now so my time is very limited - 20 minutes here and there.

My "building board" is a 7 x 3 plywood work bench that I put a poster board on top of to pin through the plans. Definitely not as flat as the board you describe. I may setup something similar to yours.

I was playing around with Titebond tonight and was really impressed with the strength of the joints. It will definitely fill more of the gaps than CA.

JR - They still sell Titebond II here but the chemical make up of it may be different - just like the gas is different so we have to pay more than the rest of the country!

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

20 minutes, sounds about right for tack up of the titebond II, I just finished the horizontal stab, it's not tough, if you've scratch-built before, it should be a walk in the park. Just simple cut and fit of the sticks. If your looking for measurements, I'll include them, the center of the stab to the edge is 6 & 7/8", on either side, the angle to the rib edge is 5/8 back from the outter edge and the front down is 7/8" like the manual states. I think the toughest part is getting the two cuts on the diagonal braces correct and tight. With that said, 1 1/8 x 1/4 x 24" stick for the diagonal braces is not enough, you'll have to dip into another stick, but it's not a big deal, if I remember correctlly, there is plenty of wood in this kit to go around. I am taking pic's and saving them up for sub assemblies, I'll post them as I complete a section. No rush, it's your first kit build, just make sure every joint is nice and snug, use titebond II and all will be fine. I think sometime tomorrow I'll do a write-up on the steps, just aim for one structure a night and before you know it, you'll be covering it. Speaking of covering,....Plastic or fabric? I'm thinking koverall and dope for mine, but the last one I had was monocote and held up fine. As far as the building board, I go that route because it's cheap and it is stiff, a 2 x 4 ceiling tile and MDF board will run you about 12 bucks, it will not warp, especially in the west coast.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

Alright, so let's get the show rolling, this took me about an hour or so to frame up and glue, I usually take my time cutting and sanding to acheive a good tight fit. When the structure was done, I just wiped off any excess wood glue with a damp rag and weighted it down to cure over night.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

Thanks - the pictures are helpful.

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

So, you start her yet? Do you want more of a step by step pic setup or is this format fine? I guess this is fine, but the parts in the manual where they just say do the same to the other parts is a little confusing to some. I'll be doing some pic's all the way through each part. BTW, don't put the pins like I do in the picture, holding the gusset in the outter corners, chances are, you'll break the cross brace removing them, I did it on bolth sides, the last pic's are with new cross braces added after breaking the parts from removing the pins.:eek:

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

Well, I'm moving along alright, a little slow but it's just me trying to be too picky on fit and finish. I found that when I build-n-show on this site, I tend to do a project but end up redoing it because the quality reflects your personality. I also found out that the camera does show every imperfection, at some point, you have to settle, but the general feeling of pride and craftmanship get's in the way. So here you go, a little further along, I've been up since 6:30 AM and really need to go to bed soon, my buddy is coming tomorrow and were working on his boat sitting in my yard, so 9AM in the morning I'll be working on a vessel. Life could be worse thou?!

RE: CAP or Extra?
 

Your pictures are great. That is all I need. I know I can figure it out from the plans, but seeing your pictures makes it that much easier.

I have been way too busy with work, but can't complain; these days it is good to have work.

I have not started but may start tomorrow.

What type of boat are you working on? I passed up a chance to go sailing tomorrow - haven't been in years.

Regarding covering my only experience is with Ultracote and Monocote. Ultracote worked well for me and I struggled more with monocote. I didn't know that anyone used anything else except on scale models.