I spotted this model on the Garry Hunter's Plans
Page last year and promised myself that I would
build it someday. Like all modelers, I eventually
get attracted to the strange ones (must be the company
I keep). I was on a two week business trip in Everett,
Washington working with a large aircraft company
and I was faced with the reality of spending a rain
soaked weekend there having done all the tourist
spots already (I’ve been traveling up there
since October 2004). I got the idea to build a model
about 4:30 on Friday so I quickly downloaded and
printed the plans, closed up shop and headed for
the local hobby shop. After combing through the
usual local hobby shop balsa (read “depleted
uranium”) pile, I managed to coax a few useable
pieces.
I scrounged around and found or bought the
minimum supplies needed to assemble a workshop.
The Quakers would have been proud of my minimalism.
I decided that if I could just build the framework
that would be great.
First, a few notes about the plans and construction.
The plans won’t build a 100% scale fidelity
airframe. The booms blend into the top and bottom
of the wing joint much flatter than shown which,
incidentally, is one of those “an then a miracle
occurs here” areas. I struggled with this
for a while trying to figure out how to do it until
I settled on carving up some blocks.
The rear of the fuselage has a quarter moon shaped
opening for cooling air to exit but the plan gives
you the impression that it blends into a circular
section to match the spinner. I like to build wings
with small cross section trailing edge pieces notched
to accept the ribs. I have always found this to
be lighter and stronger. The rest of the wing is
constructed per the plan.
I
built the remainder of the framework per the
plans, but if I built it again I would lighten
up the booms a bit.
There is one other detail that I discovered after
completion of the model. The plan view shows the
position of the tailplane to be too far aft. The
hinge lines of the rudders should be roughly at
the trailing edge of the elevator for clearance.
I didn’t notice this until I started to ink
in my panel lines and surface breaks. I decided
to begin test flights before including the gun bumps,
cooling air inlets in the leading edges of the inboard
wing panels, and panels lines and markings.
