Regulars will know I have a soft spot for the Frog Senior Series models, so when A & DB Models asked me if I would like to review one of their laser cut kits, I jumped at the chance. I chose the Heron, as this is one you do not see built too often. I was very impressed with the quality of the kit and It proved to be a quick and easy build. You can read a full review on my Frog site here.
I have not flown it yet, but if the Widgeon and Linnet are anything to go by, the trimming process should not be too stressful.
Veron Consul
Visitors to Nostalgia Corner on the site will have discovered the Veron Combi kit plans
available for download, and here at last is my finished Consul. Such a simple build
really should not have taken so long; when I was a kid I would have done it in a week maximum!
The model weighs 26 grams without rubber, not bad considering the gloss enamel finish over Esaki tissue.
You can see I had a go at reproducing the colour scheme shown on the box art.
The 7 inch balsa prop is not the one supplied in the kit, but a new one carved to look vaguely similar,
while hopefully being more efficient. I am optimistic that it will turn out to be a good flyer.
I can now report that the Consul did indeed turn out to be an excellent flier, in fact rather too good! I trimmed it out
first using a loop of 3/16” rubber, just needing a bit of noseweight to have it cruising round happily. I did notice occasional
periods of Dutch roll, where the model gently rocked from side to side in flight, but this did not affect flight duration.
The model did not climb particularly high though so I tried a loop of ¼” rubber instead. This made the model much friskier
and greatly improved the rate of climb. Unfortunately the model got into a good bit of air at Old Warden in July 2007, and
after a two minute flight disappeared into the corn field over the road. A search proved fruitless, so I suspect the model
probably ended up in a combine harvester a few weeks later.
Anyway, it goes to show that these simple little models have a surprisingly good performance. Time to build another one methinks!
Peanut scale Laird LC-DE Speedwing Junior
I had been looking for a subject for a new biplane peanut model for a while,
and when I saw a 3 view of this type in a book, I knew I would not be looking any further. The Laird
seems to have great proportions for a peanut scale model, with a very long nose and good tail moment. The colour scheme of black and gold
is also very attractive.
The structure is pretty much scale, and all control surfaces are hinged. I chose the Fairchild engined
version because it has the least number of cowl louvres!
I covered and painted the flying surfaces first, as the lower wing needed to be installed into the fuselage before the lower stringers were added.
As you can see the fuselage was covered with black Esaki tissue
before being airbrushed with Humbrol satin black enamel thinned with dope thinners. The various cowl louvres and bumps were carved from balsa.
Up front is a carved 5 inch balsa prop, basically to save weight compared to a plastic one. This model
has such a long nose that I was worried about it coming out nose heavy.
This photo also shows how the undercarriage wire runs down the outside of the balsa leg, though is not attached to it, allowing it to spring
independently.
Wing registrations are cut from
painted decal sheet, and the fuselage logo and tail registration are printed decals.
The model was finished just a couple of days before the BMFA Indoor Nationals, so no time for trimming (as usual).
Initially it looked fairly promising, as in a straight line it flew nice and stably. However, any attempt to persuade
it to circle were doomed to failure. Small rudder deflections led to a rocking action as it started to turn, then went
back to its original path, and kept repeating this action. If you really pushed the rudder over, it just did a spiral
dive to the floor. General concensus was that the fin and rudder were just too small to compensate for all that frontal
side area, so I am now building a bigger one, and will report back what effect this has.
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I had been looking for a subject for a new biplane peanut model for a while, and when I saw a 3 view of this type in a book, I knew I would not be looking any further. The Laird seems to have great proportions for a peanut scale model, with a very long nose and good tail moment. The colour scheme of black and gold is also very attractive.
The structure is pretty much scale, and all control surfaces are hinged. I chose the Fairchild engined version because it has the least number of cowl louvres!
I covered and painted the flying surfaces first, as the lower wing needed to be installed into the fuselage before the lower stringers were added. As you can see the fuselage was covered with black Esaki tissue before being airbrushed with Humbrol satin black enamel thinned with dope thinners. The various cowl louvres and bumps were carved from balsa. Up front is a carved 5 inch balsa prop, basically to save weight compared to a plastic one. This model has such a long nose that I was worried about it coming out nose heavy.
This photo also shows how the undercarriage wire runs down the outside of the balsa leg, though is not attached to it, allowing it to spring independently.
Wing registrations are cut from painted decal sheet, and the fuselage logo and tail registration are printed decals.
The model was finished just a couple of days before the BMFA Indoor Nationals, so no time for trimming (as usual). Initially it looked fairly promising, as in a straight line it flew nice and stably. However, any attempt to persuade it to circle were doomed to failure. Small rudder deflections led to a rocking action as it started to turn, then went back to its original path, and kept repeating this action. If you really pushed the rudder over, it just did a spiral dive to the floor. General concensus was that the fin and rudder were just too small to compensate for all that frontal side area, so I am now building a bigger one, and will report back what effect this has.
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You are currently on page 11 of 55