I have already let on that I am a pushover for the real old time kits, the stick-and-tissue jobs that those of us who were kids during the ’40’s and 50’s learned to build with. In those days, even if you knew what you were doing, your only options were to preserve the plane as a shelf model …safe but not very challenging, do your best to fly it free flight using rubber power as designed, or stick one of those new .049 glow engines in the nose knowing no matter how well it might fly, if it didn’t vibrate apart it would die young of aggravated castor oil soakage.
I appreciate being able to use my skills as a grown up model builder along with the miracles of electric power and micro RC to make these little models do the things we didn’t even dare to dream of, back then. (A note to kit collectors…I do not presume to work on those pristine vintage kits, but there are plenty of the old ones around that are beat up and/or incomplete and I welcome the opportunity to give them one last chance at glory.)
Here’s what I’ve been up to during an unplanned vacation from the FLY LINE Great Lakes project:
Who knows what this is? (It's an Ercoupe of course, but from what original kit? What have I changed? How big is it? What covering and finish will I use? Let me know what you think.I'm guessing that it will take me another two weeks or so to get everything the way I want it to be, and then start waiting for the weather to do its thing. I may wait until I have flight shots to show you the finished model, or not...we'll have to see how it works out.