Let’s get started building a wing for our Comet Cub. Here’s a better look at that first rib. Can you figure out what I’ve done to it already, and what still needs to be done? This piece of balsa began its new life as part of a model airplane just a while back when I […]
Let’s work on that stick-and-tissue Piper Cub some more. Here are the fully assembled tail surfaces. No, they don’t come out of the box that way! You already know that because we left off last time with the bare beginnings of the horizontal tail laid out on the building board. There was a lot left […]
We’ll start with a closer look at that picture of a ragged old cardboard box and the stuff I found inside it. Comet model airplane kits, as produced by Comet Model Hobbycraft, Inc. of Chicago, have been around since well before America entered World War II in 1941. Both their pre-War products and the model […]
The Fairchild PT 19A was one of the most successful of the U.S. Army’s Primary Training aircraft during World War II, and has always been a favorite subject for model builders. I converted this one from an Easy Built Models traditional stick-and-tissue kit designed for rubber powered free flight. In checking my files on this […]
Last time we devoted a lot of attention to “plastic stuff”…windows and turrets. Those details are now in place and securely masked off, ready for painting (which is coming soon). Several series back I also mentioned getting some covering onto the control surfaces…elevator, rudder and ailerons…which are indeed the only “open” structure on a B-17. […]
Last time I showed you a pair of simulated-but-real-looking landing lights. Do you remember my discussion at the beginning of that installment about the ever-present need to weight the value of added detail against the value of the weight savings that doing without them offers? Those landing lights are a good example…I chose to include […]
From John: I was very happy to see your article in the march 2018 issue of Model Aviation.I’m not very good with a computer. I subscribed to Fly RC for years and when I got april’s 2017 issue with your article What about all those Guillows kits ? I devoured it over and over. I waited […]
From Gary: Hello Bob, I have been a balsa modeler since 1950, (Strombecker before that) and read with interest your article in Model Aviation. Where can I order Tissue Paste and Eze Dope here in the U.S. of A. Currently building a S.P.A.D. XIII from Cleveland plans. That’s easy. Deluxe Materials products are distributed […]
From William: I have never been able to find on your website the final stages of your B-17F construction. No. 21 is the last one I can get. Am I missing something here? Thanks for an excellent build series up to that point! I have to apologize for the delay. Please open the updated version […]
From Mark T. I have a Berkeley model kit of an Aeronca Sedan. It is a Henry Struck design from 1949. The wing span is 37 ½”. It says that it can be rubber band, CO2 or .049 for Control line. I need help with picking the electric engine, esc and battery. Also looking for […]