Darren Bitzer’s, Jerry Bates A-20 Project

The plans call for (2) Zenoah G-45’s plus Sierra Giant Scale gear.

Darren has not picked out a livery scheme as yet as there were so many variants flying for many of the Allied nations.

We look forward to hearing more about this project in the future!

Brandon Archer’s C-130 Hercules Mk-2 ARF

Brandon shared his Avios C-130(from Hobby King) project.  He’s looking to take this C-130 V2 on sale recently) from a civilian, cargo transport to a US Air Force Vietnam camouflage, paint scheme.  He started the process of removing the waterslide decals with simple masking tape, and will probably utilize several coats of poly acrylic for some of the areas that became a little rough from the tape.

Brandon looks forward to getting his airbrush out and doing lots of weathering.  In addition to the aesthetics, he still needs to adjust the flap mixing to achieve the proper geometry. He hopes to get a maiden flight this spring. 

If anyone has the drop tanks for the Avios C-130 please let Brandon know as the cargo version does not come with them and HK does not sell a replacement.

We look forward to seeing the finished aircraft!

David P. Andersen’s, Thomas Morse Scout

Dave gave away two (2) sets of his 1/5th Thomas Morse Scout Plans.

Built by Thomas-Morse Aircraft in Ithaca, New York in 1917, it was a compact single-seat open-cockpit biplane of equal span and a 100hp Gnome rotary engine.  The S-4 made its maiden flight in June 1917 in the hands of Paul D. Wilson. Twelve planes went to the Navy.

David Andersen, thank you very much for your generosity and thoughtful gesture!

We look forward to seeing you in February!

Our next meeting will be on Friday 2/24/23, at 7pm.

Sherwood Hegen’s, Huge Box-O-Plans Give-Away!

Sherwood tends to build/rebuild a plane every month and people keep giving him wrecks for him to rebuild & fly.  They have also been giving him scratch builders' plans so often that he has boxes of planes he’ll never live long enough to build.

To relieve the load he brought in several boxes of rolled and folded aircraft building plans to give away.  Many of the members attending were treated to the search through the boxes for a gem they would want to build.  I found a new set of RCM Ki-15 Mitsubishi Babs plans (by David P. Andersen) for my future warbird build!

Roy Maynard’s, ¼ Scale SPAD XIII Kit Build

Roy brought in his SPAD XIII fuselage for review. This kit was distributed by Proctor-Enterprises based in Oregon but is no longer available.  The kit was made by Peter Barth from Germany.  Roy’s kit is 1/4 scale but Peter Barth also made a 1/3 scale kit.

Roy purchased his kit around 2000 but did not start it till just over a year ago.

The kit has pretty good scale fidelity.  Fiberglass cowl, side plates, and belly pans help with construction.  The landing gear and cabane struts are molded fiberglass with 3mm threaded rods incorporated in the mold.  Roy tells us he added a spring-loaded tail skid. The motor is a Valley-View RC 30cc twin (same as an RCGF 30).

The model is covered in oratex, and like the full size uses pushrods in the lower wing to engage bellcranks on the outer lower wings.  The bellcranks have another set of pushrods attached that go straight vertical to the ailerons on the top wing. Independent aileron servos will allow differential aileron throw. A single internal pushrod goes to the elevator and the rudder is pull-pull cables.

The model is dependent on flying and landing wires and multiple turnbuckles for fine adjustment.  Roy says he will be following Rusty Freeman’s lead with leather cockpit coaming.  Rusty shared his technique. Roy will be using tanned pigskin leather which is very thin and cheap.  A foam tube is glued to the edge of the cockpit.  Then a pre-trimmed leather piece is wrapped around the foam and secured to the out and inside edges of the fuselage with contact cement.  Then 1/16 holes are drilled to facilitate using a leather sewing awl to use thread to tie the leather down.  Videos are available online on the technique.

Currently planning to paint in a 5 color camo scheme with latex paint when the weather warms up and have the model flying this summer.

Scott Russell’s, P-51 Cockpit Kits

He uses his skills in CAD to then create full 1-to-1 cockpit models within the software that he then scales down to fit into whatever size aircraft is needed.  Only minor changes are needed to some components to make them easier to manufacture.

Once he had the CAD work completed, the cockpits shown during the meeting were assembled and painted in about a week each.

Brian is looking for new projects to do, so any suggestions are welcome. Cost is open to discussion. Brian is willing to provide completely painted or just components, whatever the individual needs are.