Building the Stinson SR-9 (1)

At just about the same time I was planning those structural changes to the little Berkeley Super Cruiser, I decided to go ahead with a project that had been lurking around the edges of my imagination for a couple of years. This one is a bit bigger.

You’ve seen the ads for the Top Flite Gold Edition 1/5 scale Stinson Reliant, right? That’s right, the 100 inch span job, that hulking classic 1930’s gull wing beauty that’s been on the market as a kit for a couple of years now. I needed one…to convert to electric power, of course, and to build to the highest standards I can manage, but without the pressure of trying to make it into a Scale Master’s or TOP GUN contender. You know, my version of a fun scale model for easy afternoons at the club field.

This airplane really is humungous. I’ve built and flown larger models…both my Taylorcraft and Aeronca K are quarter scale jobs with nine-foot wingspans…but even with a few inches less span this Stinson is imposing. The fuselage is almost a foot wide at the cabin. I have seen a couple of them at various flying fields, one with an electric conversion. There is nothing simple or quick about this airplane, but for model builders who are willing to take on the challenge, the Stinson is worth it. This airplane has got soul!

This is not the sort of project where you grab a handful of parts out of the box and start sticking them together. Top Flite has provided a well written, carefully thought-out instruction manual. I suggest that you follow their advice and get familiar with it before you cut or glue anything…and then be sure not to skip over the fist step in construction, which is to make an inventory of all the kit components. Quite a few of the die cut balsa and plywood parts are too small to carry an embossed part number, so you must ID each part with reference to the parts layout illustrations and mark each of them as necessary. I’ve included a photo of the kit box with only the balsa and ply parts sheets included… that’s a prodigious stack of lumber. You don’t want to lose track of any of it…check out my next shot where I am going through the marking each part drill. All the molded parts, and there are plenty of those, too, are out of this particular picture.

Next time around I’ll have some actual building to show you.