General questions about rubber powered building and flying

[jpuke]

I took about a 10 hiatus from building models (marriage, kids, career, etc.) but I dug into an old foot locker about a month ago and found that I stocked up on about 10 Guillows kits. I used to build these consistently but I never had success getting them to fly, just powered descents. With youtube and other sites I've found a new interest in everything balsa/rubber power so I'd like to ask some general question and I'm hoping some more experienced modelers can help me out.
1) Can Guillows kits be made to fly as they come out of the box?
I recently finished an Aeronca Champ that I'd lightened quite a bit by removing wing ribs and extra wood and it had the promise of flying but it promptly smashed itself after being hit by an unexpected gust of wind. I've seen all over the internet that people take the kit and use the plans to re-create the entire thing out of "contest balsa" and they have fantastic flying models (see "scaleflight.net") but I've also seen photos and comments on virtual aerodrome (see scigs30's stuff, specifically about the 500 series Hellcat) where a stock kit was used and it flew fine. Not sure what to believe.
2) What's domestic tissue vs. Japanese tissue and what are the differences? Where can you buy tissue?
3) When people say they used thinned dope on a model, are they talking about the fuel-proof nitrate stuff that I've used on control-line planes or something else? Any mention of specific brands would be useful. I switched to white glue dope after getting tired of the smell and expense of the nitrate dope. (Pactra, I think it was)
4) Contest Balsa - I'd like to scratch build a Guillows kit from this but the only thicknesses I've found are 1/32" and 1/16" that seem thin enough for the kits I have (500 and 900 series). Is 1/32" strong enough to re-create everything for a 900 series kit?
5) Stringers - what type of wood are the stringers in Guillows kits made from? I ask because yesterday I was trying to sand them thinner for a 900 series deHaviland Chipmunk and my sanding block caught the end of them and I snapped the entire sheet of strings in two. Would 1/16" contest balsa be strong enough for a replacement or is it a different grade of wood entirely?

That's all for now. Any help would be appreciated. I look forward to finally FLYING the models I build.

Thanks,
Jeremy

[Supercubber95]

Welcome to the board! I'll answer best I can: 1. Yes, they will fly out of the box. I have used the kit wood in all of my planes, and they all fly great. 2. Japanese tissue is stronger and lighter than domestic. I used Easy Built Tissue (find it here: http://www.easybuiltmodels.com/parts.htm)
(you can also find Japanese tissue there) for one of my models. It works excellent, but me being a cheapskate, used walmart tissue on the rest. They fly just as good, just harder to apply. 3. I don't use dope, I use white glue but I think they are talking about butyrate dope. Different stuff. 4. Use 1/16 wood. The wood that comes in the kits is fine for starting out again. Once you have built a few you can use contest balsa, although sometimes the kit stuff is just as good. 5. 1/16 square strips of balsa. Hope this helped!

[jpuke]

Thanks Supercubber!

Do you use CA glues on your models or wood glue? I've switched to Titebond lately because my CA ran out and it's expensive, it also seems to sand better. I'm also wondering which one is lighter, but I imagine that depends on my own economy of its use.

I used CA glue a lot when I did this as a teenager because I could use the accelerator and have a model done in near a day - not always with the best results.

[Supercubber95]

I use white glue (100%, don't water it down to 50% water and 50% glue like you do when you use it to put tissue on) because I think your finished product come out better because you have time to change the position of a piece if i got out of line just as the CA hit it. For quick repairs I use CA. It takes me 4 days to a week ad a half to build a model, but I'm satisfied when it's done. Sometimes I wind up re-tissuing a wing a couple times, but overall I think Guillow's kits fly good right outta the box. You'll get better advice than I can give you from several others. The forum master of rubber free flight is Scigs30, the master of the "biggies" is Bill Parker and the master of of static models with etreme detail is none other than David Duckett. Have fun!

[BillParker]

Here's what I've learned about flying the durned things on rubber:

1.. until you're good at it, a high wing plane is better than a low winged one.

2.. make a nose block. (search for it on here, you'll find it)

3. Line of thrust needs to be down and right. (search some more)

4. do test glides in a "tall grass" environment untill you get it trimmed. Post it notes will come in handy. (search)

5. wind it up and toss it. If you break it, it means you get to buy a new plane kit.

my 2 cents...

bp

[Squishyp38]

"and the master of speed building flying models is, ......... or, was.............. squishyp38!"

lol

[jim]

hi there im also trying to get one of these kit's to fly as you ive seen people can do it from the box
im getting close with a messhersmit bf109 kit 401 i built in the extera wing surface area as shown on plans made some really nice test glides

as for doping i use a cellulose baced dope and thinners i airbrush it on
smells bad
i think the nitrate stuff only needed for fuelproofing
u can also use banana oil or white wood glue
ive never tried either of them

ive started using jap tissue i read here it was stronger and i wanted to experiment with coloured tissue rather than painting

really good tip i got here was replacing the rubber from the kit with some better quallity and a good rubber lubricant

i went from 200 turns on the motor to 600+

hope something here helps im no expert