500 Series P-40

flash52 · Post by **flash52** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:41 am

I just started A Warhawk kit and And was surprised at the quality of the wood and the die cutting. It was as nice as the 400 Series Fw 190 I just built. The wood was nice with prefect die cutting. Sharp edges with no crushing. A little surface sanding and the parts almost fell out. Still on the heavy side but that's not new. Guillow's must have done a little die maintenance. Has anyone noticed this in this or any other 500 series kit? Did I just get lucky?The last 500 kit I built 6 months ago wasn't this nice.

H65 Driver · Post by **H65 Driver** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:22 pm

I just bought a Rufe, Typhoon, Corsair, and Avenger as well as the 600 series Super Cub 95. The cuts appear to be pretty sharp, but most of the wood is on the heavy side. The occasional sheets of lighter wood have some minor crunching, but overall, not too bad. The wood for the Super Cub is very thin and light but well cut. I also bought the Thomas Morse Scout and am very impressed with the laser cut stuff - almost seems like cheating!

cliffm · Post by **cliffm** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:11 pm

I, too, just finished the major structures on a 500 series p-40 and am very pleased with the quality of the wood and how easily it came out of the sheets. Having just put the final touches on a laser cut nieuport II the guilty feeling like "where is the ugly wood at, or "did I miss something"? What impressed me most was the way everything fit and went together. Now, comes the part that usually eludes me, getting it to fly for the Guillow's challenge. I have the p-40, Hellcat, and spitfire,so which ever makes the best flier will be entered. The motor already broke on the p-40 with less than 100 turns so it's off to the spare parts for an upgraded power source. Later

scigs30 · Post by **scigs30** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 3:34 pm

I too have noticed the wood is not fuzzy or die crushed, but I think that is because it is heavier. The average weight of my 500 series kits wood is about 15lb/ft. I will post a link to figure out how much your wood weighs. I put in the measurements and weigh in ounces and the calculator converts it to lb/ft.
http://pldaniels.com/flying/balsa/howto ... a-density/

H65 Driver · Post by **H65 Driver** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 7:51 pm

I must have missed this somewhere, but it seems that there are actually a few laser cut sheets in my Corsair! All of the fuselage formers and keel pieces are definitely laser cut. Unfortunately some of the other sheets, such as the wing spars are a die-crunched.