chistech

While so many here are building bigger and bigger planes I will be starting a build thread on a 40 sized Kyosho Skyraider kit that I just purchased. I hope to install electric rotating retracts and a inverted 4 stroke engine. Will be doing Solartex or Super Coverite on the wings and tail with a glassed finish on the fuse. This is a real nice Japanese kit that looks like a Royal kit. Aluminum spun cowl and all perfectly die cut parts separately bagged in groups. Pictures to come.

Joe Butch

My Feedback: (48)

I will watch your build. I have the same kit. Interested in which retracts and engine you use. A friend of mine was an A-1 crew chief on the Ticonderoga during the Viet Nam war. His outfit was the Knightriders. I'll be back! Joe Butch

chistech

Hi Joe,
We've got a guy in our club who also flew the Skyraider too. Not sure of the particulars but will learn more from him the closer I get to paint time. I haven't figured what engine yet either. I have and Enya 46c that I think would be a good engine for it but don't know how well they like to run inverted. Maybe will look for a Saito or OS 40. I am looking at the Lander brand of electric retracts. They are good for 7 1/2lbs so this plane at about 6-6 1/2lbs should be fine. The wing is on the thinner side so tire choice is another thing. I am going to be starting on this plane this week as I just finished up a retract setup on my buddy's Kyosho Corsair. I put mechanicals in the corsair as it is an easy setup in that plane. Not as much room in the smaller Skyraider. Also finishing up a set of floats for my next float plane project. Cleaning up the building area if you know what I mean.

vallawyer

I built one a long long time ago.  It had a Kraft .60 and fixed gear, it was a good kit, like the Royals, and flew well.  I remember painting it with Hobby Poxy, it was pretty heavey.

chistech

Well, my camera was down and I was busy doing a lot of other things. Got started on the Skyraider. When I looked closer at the kit I found a few pieces missing. Some were critical and others not so. The critical ones were a spruce fuse main side spar and a spruce stringer. The other pieces are the thick lower cowl balsa pieces. One of the hardwood motor mounts are warped and unusable. I thought about doubling the front firewall and using a standard motor mount but ended up making a new hardwood mount and using it. I will be using the old Enya 46a upright as depicted on the plan for simplicity and because the Enya spins a 12x6 @ 10K+. It should really fly nice with that engine. I have ordered some electric retracts from Hobby King that should do this plane just fine and I will see how they hold up. Even though the wing is on the thin side the Skyraider's gear strut stays on top of the wing skin when retracted so there should be no problem keeping a Robart scale wheel inside the wing. I have started on the fuse, stab, and now the wing. I am still waiting for the retracts to come in. This kit goes together a little unorthodox as it's not pinned down and started out square on the building board. The are no real build instructions on the plan but it shows the building technique for each major structure. With the fuse you assemble the front bulkheads with the motor mount rail and then start working back with the other fuse formers. With the wing the main spar with the dihedral brace get assembled then each wing half gets built with the assembled spar one side at a time. It is fairly easy to build the wing with a warp in it if the builder is not careful. There is no provisions to keep the wing true when building one needs to be careful.

chistech

Start of the fuse build and rudder. Will need to get the stab and wing done before the fuse can be finished. Pics of the fuse.

chistech

Pictures of the stab build. The stab is supposed to be covered either with film or cloth covering but I have chosen to cover it with 1/32 balsa with a 1/64 ply trailing edge. I will round off the leading edge of the elevators and the light ply will extend off the trailing edge to cover the hinge gap. I will use Robart pin hinges for all surfaces and will glass the the stab along with the fuse. The vertical fin calls for a film covering but will get the same treatment as the stab. I sanded down the width of the stab so that the width will remain the same after adding the sheeting. I will use the top and bottom sheet spar to help make the airfoil shape as shown in the last picture. The sheeting will be glued over the sheet spar.

chistech

Built my own retracts using HK electric units w/homemade functioning struts. Set up the units to rotate. Started making the retract rail support boxes today. Got my new builder's bench finished and down in my basement. Now I'm back working on my models.

chistech

Worked on the wing some more. It's all framed up with the retract rail boxes installed. Boxes need to be epoxied up. It was some work to get the retract angles correct to match the dihedral and to retract enough into the wing. Axles are still long and will need to be trimmed. The retracts even though retract 90 degrees has a nice amount of forward rake because of the way I mounted the units in the wing and the fact that the struts don't need to go completely into the wing as the full size Skyraider didn't either. The HK electric retract units just fit but I needed to sand down the front corner of the retract housing so the top sheeting will clear. Have done as much work as I can on the fuse until the wing is done. Leaving off the front lower chin block is recommended as this will allow me to drill from the front wing mount bulk head into the leading edge of the wing for the dowels.

chistech

Got the wings top sheeted and fit the wing onto the fuse. Wings are a lot of work on this plane to keep from getting a twist in them. Gave it a quick assembly. Starting to look like a Skyraider now.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Very nice. Love the cowl.

chistech

Got the wing totally skinned and the wheel wells done. Built, shaped and hinged the ailerons. Today will get the wing tips on and sanded down. I will be covering with coverite and painting.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Looks good. Nice progress.

chistech

Wing is all done with wingtips shaped. I will make gear strut covers that work on hinges and come down on the gear leg when the gear are down later at the very end when I'm adding details. With the wing done and mounted I finished up the lower chin on fuse. The chin block incorporates the lower air scoop. Trimmed the canopy to fit. The front upper air scoop is actually part of the canopy and needs to be painted to show that. I completely changed my mind on the stab and will cover it with coverite and paint instead of balsa skin and glass. No rounded leading edges on the rudder or elevators either. I have too many projects to try and scale this one out too much. Stab, fin, rudder, and elevators are all built and hinged. I have trued up all the flight surfaces and squared up the frame. I now need to cover the stab and glue it into the fuse before I can finish up the rear of the fuse and tail. I have left the bottom of the rear of the fuse off for total access to the linkages to the elevator and tailwheel. The stock tailwheel unit does not have an offset in it and looks strange with the wheel on. I will need to fix that. With the gear up this plane has pretty good lines and looks like it should move out.

chistech

Applied thinned Balsarite to the stab, rudder, elevators, and wing. Used plain Coverite fabric and covered everything. Glued in the stab and faired in the base of the fin above the stab. Will now finish covering the fin with balsa then close up the bottom of the fuse. Will then sand and fill the fuse to get it ready for glass.

chistech

Got the fin sheeted today, the elevator pushrod in, the tail wheel strut bent, and the fuse bottom sheeted. Then what better for an old school warbird than an old school four stroke? I installed an old Enya 46c. Got the cowl cut out and the bottom cowl flap area by the lower scoop cut off.

chistech

Well, it's been almost a year. The Skyraider has been sitting in the cellar waiting till I could get back to it with the help of my buddy. Over the summer I don't get to build much but we were able to get the fuse glassed, primed, then wet sanded. We also started on the canopy area. My buddy painted "Ned" the pilot and did up a nice instrument panel. I built the seat back, head rest, and made a coverite covered ejection seat cylinder at the back of the seat frame. Today I built up some exhaust stacks out of brass tubing and strip. My buddy has now started painting the flight surfaces. The ailerons, elevators, and rudder are getting painted the usual white. Some zinc chromate green inside the edges of the aileron and elevator areas. Will be doing panel lines and some other small details.

vallawyer

Looks good, brings back some memories, like that metal cowl.  I think this had a thin wing because it was originally a control line kit.  Kyosho made these amzing control line kits starting in the 50s, like B29s and B36s and even a B52, you would see them advertised everywhere, and you could get them at Polks or Americas Hobby Center in New York.  They were huge and had metal landing gear.  I'm pretty sure this was one of the original Control Line kits updated later for RC.

chistech

Going by it's looks I would agree on that with you. This has the old school fun scale control line look to it. That is why I went with the old school Enya 46 and we are painting it old school style. Like the old pattern type planes that were painted really well just kind of plain and neat. The paint edges will be hard line and the cockpit, while there is some detail, is strictly limited to the top of fuse deck. Funny thing is on the plans it says the kit was designed for the new "small" equipment. You should see the size of the "small" servos they show on the plans![X(] Huge compare to today's standard servos never mind the mid size Hitec 225's I have in it.

chistech

My buddy got more painted these last few days. The Klass Kote paint is real nice. We used the proper numbers for the Skyraider grey (gull grey) for the top color which almost appears to have somewhat of a pea greenish to it when seen in person. In the pictures it doesn't look greenish at all. The bottom and control surfaces are painted white. Will be using a finer airbrush to apply the details and canopy paint. Once the wing walks, insignias, and lettering are done then it will get the panel lines. (the fuse to wing joint looks like a gap because the wing is not bolted tight)

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

looking good guys.

chistech

Thanks. Hopefully we will get it all done in the next couple to 3 weeks. I am currently doing a frame off restoration of a almost rust free 84' Chevy military blazer. It is going to be "civilianized" with power everything, heated seats, and AC. Should be a real nice truck when done. Perfect for hauling the plane trailer to all the fields and ponds plus getting about 22-24mpg. Some pictures below. Not plane related but pretty neat just the same. You can even see the original chassis numbers the frame is so clean.

vallawyer

Your Skyraider looks great! I think you will want more power, though, and Enya46 4-stroke is less powereful than my Kraft 60, and I felt like it needed the power of the 60. Great project.

chistech

When I test ran the Enya I got 10,900 with a 12x4. I thought that was really good. I believe with a 12x6 I should get just under 10 which should be fine to fly this on. I will see how it goes. I am using light radio gear and our glassing is always very thin and lightweight. I will weigh it up once it's ready and complete. I don't think it will hit the 7lb mark and I fly a lot of Kyosho war birds that weigh more with OS 52's turning the 12x6 at about the same rpm. Testing will determine.

Ted

chistech

My computer's been down and I am on a work pc posting this. Skyraider is coming along nicely. Wing walks, fore top deck, wing and stab leading edges are all painted. Control surfaces are getting glued in. My buddy is drawing the stencils for all the markings and we should be shooting all the insignias and lettering in the next day. I should have my laptop back by tomorrow and I will be up and running as far as posting pictures again. I know this Skyraider is small and almost toy like but I know it will pretty much be the only one at the field like it. I doubt there is any other Kyosho ones out there with the electric retracts either. If it flies like a Kyosho airframe that will make me pretty happy. If the weather cooperates the maiden shouldn't be too far away.