Brown Truck Santa was running a few days behind but today he delivered my Christmas gift to myself.

After opening the box the first thing I did was unroll the plans to roll them inside out so they would flat and thats when it hit me. This is a very large plane! Much bigger than my 4*60. Well, so much for my 48" building table. So I made the trek to Home Depot, 30 second drive to pick me up a hollow core door to put on top of my 48" folding table in my teeny tiny apartment. Of course now, I can't get out without crawling under the building board. [X(]
Dude at Home Depot was very cool and when I told him I wanted a damaged HC door to build an RC plane on, he walked straight over to the regular doors and told me to take my pick. Gave me 10% off and the door cost me $23.40. Have a feeling he has heard of other RCers looking for the same sort of door.

I have been wanting to build this kit for about 6 months now and have used the search function enough to crash RCUs server to learn everthing I can about this build. However, I haven't learned alot and have only found one build thread and those guys have alot of building experiance, much more than I so I may have alot of questions for yall.

Allthough this is not a true scale plane, I will want to build up the LG more scale like than just the two wires included with the kit. If anybody has any suggestions, please suggest away!

The first step in the instructions is to build the fuselage. I will be powering the plane with a Saito 100 GK and is there anyting I need to plan ahead for in advance? Moving the firewall, adding thrust angles etc?

I read where someone who used the stock cowl fiberglassed the inside to strenghten it. I'm totally lost there. Any "How To's" on that?

Ill be breaking from the norm on the cowl I think. Insted of using aluminum, or tape, I plane on using the beefed up stock cowl and hand forming some 0.003" thick brass shim stock I have at work. Back in the olden days before aluminum alot of things were made of hand formed brass or copper and then silver soldered together. I played around a little with that and I really like that look, especially when tarnished and old looking. [8D] And since I may have the brass/copper look going on, Im thinking of doing the rigging in the same fashion. Sliver soldered brass or copper, aged.


Covering will NOT be Monocrap. I'm leaning towards Solortex and know very liitle about it except what I have read here. And thats not much. Ill look on Youtube here in a minute.

About all I can think of untill I start busting some wood out and making a mess on my carpet. Thank God I'm single! My ex would never let me do this. [X(]

Thanks for listening and could use all the help I can get. Thanks in advance.

I've been wanting to get me one of these for some time now. I'll be following this thread with interest.

I met the BUSAguys at Joe Nall last year. Great group of people and great kits from what i have seen. I actually want to build on of thier bi-planes eventually. Going to follow this to see how a BUSA kits goes together.

From what I have seen so far every bit of the kit is top notch! I wont start building untill tomarrow though. This is the type of kit you take your time on. I figure itll take me 4-5 months.

I got my chores done early and did have time to start the build. My first recommendation will be for yall that are used to laser cut kits is, you may have to actually use some sandpaper on this kit. [X(] By far this is the best die cut kit I have ever seen!.

I used medium CA to join the front and aft fusealge sides together and the joint was just slightly different from the drawings. The manual warned of the drawings being different from the actual parts due to the paper being subjected to temperature extreems so I joined the fore and aft right fuse side by fit. It's a good thing I did and I should of thought ahead and layed over the ply doubler before gluing the fore and aft fuse sides. The mark of a good kit is when the dummy gets it right!

I used weights insted of using pins when gluing the ply doubler to the fuse sides. Being a tightwad I used some left over washers from work put in ziplock bags as weights.

So far, so good. I like this kit alot!

Yea or nay on these wheels?

Gary,
I have been working on mine now for a year and a half.
Moves,New House,Ect,Ect.
I went to Wal Mart and found a cheap aluminum pan about the size of the scale cowling. Cut it down and it looks really good. Also adjusted my firewall back about 2" to get a more scale look. Redid the tail surfaces to be more scale also. Next big hurddle is the landing gear. really don't like anything about the stock one. so i am going to try and make a more scale version. I am looking to do a E-IV version with twin Spandues.
If you need some info let me know i have a bunch of pictures and some other files around.
Always looking for more though.

Howdy BRITTURB. Definitly post up your pictures, I'd like to see them!

I considered changing things up for a more scaled look and have decided to frame it up pretty much stock. A buddy of mine just suggested using brass brazing rod for the LG and I think that would go well with my brass cowling idea.

Got the fuselage sides done and theres not much to write about. Everything went very smooth, all the wood is excellent and the instructions are clear enough for even us old dudes. [X(]

Looking good! I've been interested in a Balsa USA sopwith pup for sometime now. Maybe for next year.

Been eyeballing the 1/4th scale Pup myself. That a really good looking plane and that might be my first venture into gas.

Ok, this is where I ran into my first issue. The instructions call for pinning down the right fuse side on edge while trying to tack glue in F-8 and F-5. I couldn't get that to work for me without growing a third arm/hand. Since the fuse sides are curved and not much of the edge makes contact with the building board, I decided to roll the dice and add F-8/F5 the old fashioned way. Flat on the board using a square.



Hope this doesn't bite me in the heiny later.

The next step was to glue the F-1 Firewall in and in the instructions they show a bottle of CA in this step, but again, I broke the rules. I used 30 minute expoxy and a square to make sure everything is true, I hope!

The last pic is what a true kit builder does all the time. It's of my finger full of CA smoothing things out and then sanding it to get the paper towel off that I used to whipe it with. lol

Trudging forward with the fuselage build and a couple of issues popped up which is my fault for not follwing the instructions to the letter. When joining the two fuse halves together I noticed that the right side was allmost flat and the left side had alot of curve to it. I anticipated that and had a plan, and thank the balsa Gods it worked out.

With a little braceing, twisting and cussing I was able to get the fuse sides pretty close to eachother curvature wise and the only thing I'm worried about now is I have a slight left thrust in the firewall. I think I can take that out while sheeting the rear of the fusealge though.

I have this kit . I bought the scale wheels and gun as well as the decal kit . I plan on going gas . I' ll be watching your build , keep us updated ,, this will be my first build ! Thanks for the post .

Pictures here are of some diagonal cross brace tweaking to help make the firewall straight and some added weight to form the top sheeting before I glue it in place.

I just made a mistake and I blame New Years Eve and had nothing to do with enjoying adult beverages. [X(]

I glued the main landing gear blocks backwards and insted of the grooved part facing outwards towards the ply doubler, they now face inwards. After installing the LG wires, I like the look better than whats called for. The only issue I may have is that now the wheels will be about 3/4" closer together than the plan calls for.

I plan to add an extra block of wood here and fill the slot with expoxy.

I'm about to sheet the foward underside of the fuse and then its onto the wings.

More build pics.

I have the fuselage built as far as I can go untill I build the wings. I ended up with a slight twist in the fuse but nothing I can't tweak out. I have only done the rough sanding and will clean her up more after I mate up the wings and the other appendages. And it warms up outside. Brrr. 54 degrees F. [8D]



Onto the wings.

Oh BTW. I need to give some credit to Balsa USA on the quality of this kit, the wood and the instructions. I could recommend this kit even for a first time builder if they take their time with it, read the instructions and study drawings well. Allthough I made a couple of mistakes, it's my fault and an easy fix for anyone with experiance.

To be honest, I spent more time taking pictures and talking about this build than I have actually working on it! I have about 2 1/2 days on it and really only about 10 hours of bench time on it.

Great thread Gary.  The fuselage looks very good.  I had recently looked at BUSA's site and my conclusion was that their models look very good and my next plane may just be one of theirs.  I will be watching your thread to see how it goes.  BTW, I cannot say I am crazy about those wheels.  I would probably go with wire spokes.  As far as covering, I agree about Monokote.  Do not use it.  I have not tried the solartex yet but I have read many good things about it.  I have also read good things about Stits covering.  I am using Sig Koverall fabric on my current build and it gets easier everytime I use it.  I buy my paint from the local auto parts store.  They mix it for me there and it is high gloss and fuel proof.  I didnt even have to use a clearcoat.  Keep it coming brother.  We all love the pics.

Thanks guys. I am having a blast building this plane and it's been a joy sharing it with everyone. I have the right wing allmost framed up and will some pics later.

Some wise Chinese dude once said, shut up and take digital pics foo! [X(]

The right wing is allmost done and I think Ill take the rest of the day off and pick some guitar or something. Ying and Yang, the balance of things, yadda dadda.

Gary,

Measure the left and right side of the wing prints. The prints for my Pup were longer on one side than the other. Was a gritch trying to square the wing to the fuse... [:@]

Should I go by the cuts in the wood?