2022 Black Sheep 500 Series Contest

[kittyfritters]

Went to the Black Sheep Squadron Guillow's 500 series at the "Grassy Knoll" this morning. It was hot and (hit 104 F a bit later) and the wind came up and blew us out about 10:30. Dave Gee was first, P-40, Don Butman second, Spitfire, and myself third, Hellcat.

Dave got an interesting lesson in model finishing on the field. When deciding on a color scheme remember where you are going to fly it! (See photos.) He says that the next military model he builds to fly there will have a target tug paint scheme.

KF

[Scott]

A very well concealed P-40,the enemy will never spot it from the air.

[kittyfritters]

My personal lesson from the contest was that I need to pay attention to stresses when I make a modifications.

My Hellcat, an old, die cut kit (15 lb wood) built 12 years ago was extensively lightened. I had run the parts sheets through a thickness sander and even with the old wood it came out at 28 grams with rubber. I have been building a torque box under the cowls of some Guillow's models with full plastic cowls to support a removable nose block. (The pictures are from a Rufe build, not the Hellcat.) The torque box was glued directly to the face of former F1. This, along with an agressive, but heavy, Ikara prop, actually provided enough weight in the nose to balance it with all the lightening. As it turned out I should have added some 1/16 square stock to provide more glue surface where the box was glued to the former because a mildly bad landing broke the torque box off the former and with the cowl glued to the fuselage there was no easy way to repair it at the field.

KF

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[Ray Klein]

I lost a Me 109 because of the camo splinter scheme. I can relate. Lol

[Bill Gaylord]

When I first flew my AR 16/43-19 the ailerons were to small and was barely controllable. It hit lines close to a tree line, and came down easily repairable, other than a nacelle coming off. I looked forever in the area and could not find it. Finally I looked up in the trees, and it managed to lodge itself about 12 feet up, of course with the camo facing down and blue facing up. It was very well camouflaged.

[Scott]

Great work on that model,Bill.