spitfire twins

[twospruces]

hi all,
I ended up having two of these kits to finish. The first kit lost its cowl and canopy. Before i knew about the parts service..... i decided to make both cowls out of balsa, and I attempted to make canopies by pulling heated clear plastic over a plug. the canopies turned out ok,...but I then realized I could get new ones...so I did!!!

To ballast the noses, I made straws out of paper and glued some .177 pellets inside. then I started placing the lead tubes into the nose. seemed to work ok.

I hope to get them flying. I did no weight savings to them...tail heavy...

I also used some nice red cedar to make the landing gear struts.

[twospruces]

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[Wildpig]

I also used some nice red cedar to make the landing gear struts.

Did it come with the kit?

Did you make the landing gear detachable for flight?

[twospruces]

If I had known about some of the tricks people use a little earlier, I would have definitely made detachable gear. I am certainly learning, the more I hang around here.

In the past few weeks I have picked up a 500 series Hurricane, a 400 series Zero and the mossie. The Zero and Hurricane will be rubber flyers, and I will use as much of the info here that I can to make them really fly. I'm also keen to get a 900 Typhoon and see how nice of a flyer those can be. I have an old .049 and .020 engine... maybe I'll do something with those sometime.

Other projects on the go or in the queue - a DPCM SE5a, and a 2001 Lightning (which I got when I was twelve and 1/2 completed way back when). And I am building with my 2 sons the 4102 Flyboy, so they can start to learn a bit.

Biggest bang for the buck lately...

http://www.rubber-power.com/sparrow-catapult-glider.htm

I have built 6 of these for my boys and some others in the neighborhood. They are just great; they fly really well and are quite durable.

[twospruces]

lots of progress today... ready for color! I've got all the plastic bits on, and the twins have one coat of 50/50 butyrate.

Painting the sky blue underside looks like it could be a tricky task...masking tape seems to not want to stick...

I think I'm on a good pace to finish these toys off for my boys in time for the holidays. I'll post more photos in a bit; maybe after color is on.
I'm sure they will be too heavy to fly nice, but that's ok. It is a tradeoff - looks or mass.

[twospruces]

that was a bit of work. going to make the other one the opposite phase. I had lots of trouble keeping the dope at a nice consistency..had to keep adding thinner. Overall I'm happy with that result. bottom side will be pale blue.

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[twospruces]

Finally I got these two models done. The boys like to play with them; let's see how long they survive! I wanted to hang them, but they said no...

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fun activity but way way too heavy to fly.... I think each plane needed 10 grams of lead to balance them (IIRC).

[Mitch]

Very nice looking Spitfires. You say in your posts you have a DPCModels SE5... Is that his kit or the Guillows reproduction? He sells both. I was thinking about buying a few of his SRK's of the old Guillow 100 series. (Long OOP and no longer copywright). I was thinking to start with the SE5a and the Fokker D7, I expect both of those to be potentially good flyers. But right now I have too many things going on.

Mitch

PS. For static display may I suggest you spray the props black. I think that simple job will enhance your models very well. I have even taken it a step further and made 3 and 4 blade props for static display:


When this prop is painted and placed in the model with a colored spinner it looks much better than the red "toy" prop. I believe some of the early Spitfires had 2 blade props.

[davidchoate]

I like your choice of camo. Still visible while flying, yet still looks like camo. And I've been wanting to try to make my own cowling too. I often use Spruce ,And plywood when needed although its not in the kit.

[twospruces]

@Mitch,
Re DPC - yes it is his kit not the repro of the 100 series SE5A. I will definitely get to that one! ( my kit list is absurdly long since I grabbed some cheaply priced models from A2Z at closure...)

I appreciate your suggestion to paint the props black..I probably will. I'm not going after a true scale, just wanted to do a reasonable job wrapping up a project. My kids won't care either way, they just like them and that's great!

Steve

[Angie332]

WOW!! That's sweet you made those planes for your boys. And really neat you made the nose for the Spitfires the look as good as the plastic ones let me know how long they last. Just curious. I was thinking about making one for a friend of mine son.

[davidchoate]

I gave a couple of my older planes to kids. They last around a minute or two If the kids are 5yrs or younger.

[Angie332]

WOW! Ok maybe I'll wait till he gets older..LoL theses models take me a while to build. So far I am 3 weeks into this hellcat