B-25 balsa

[Dusty]

Hi, new user here, I'm just getting back into Guillow's kits and picked up a B-25, I was going to leave it NIB for now but couldn't resist checking the parts,the box has some fading from the sun. So, of the five L.E. pieces, two are very light and straight at 4g. one is straight and 6g, and the last two are slightly curved and 9g, at least that's what my cheap kitchen scale shows. Looking at the plans, I might need only three of the pieces, is that right? I think the die cutting is great, is it par for this kit? All the other stuff is mint. I have access to all kinds of Guillow's kits and I hear some are better than others, any comments on that? They would be old! Thanks.
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[Dusty]

Zzzzzz.....

[Xanadu]

It does say on the one sheet that there is "extra "a" pieces included.
So, yes it appears you may have some pieces that will not be required since you are provided with the same sheets double since duplicates for the other side are required.

Check the plans, it will tell you exactly which and how many to use. I do not have these plans anymore, so cannot reference.

[Dusty]

Hey, how are things in Anola, home of Al Simmons? Gee, I still have stuff from the old Gooch's, Cellar Dweller, Big Sky Hobbies...maybe you've been there.

I found out maybe two pieces would be for making your own scale prop blades so that's all of those pieces accounted for. I want to RC this but maybe it's not the best choice, I was also planning on getting the big Stuka, with one engine, fixed gear and a bigger wingspan it looks good but I read the kit can be pretty bad. The Skyhawk is the best one to RC I think, I still have the instructions from one I built in '77, it's beautiful plane! Oh well, since this isn't a rare kit I might try some pretty radical stuff on it to make it a better flier.

[Xanadu]

Things are great in Anola, Simmons is still kicking around and entertaining the crowds.
Yup, been to Gooch's, CD, and Big Sky. Also used to go to St. Johns Hobby Store on Portage Ave. back in the 60's and 70's.
Newest major shop in Eliminator RC on Higgins and is probably the biggest player right now in town. Huge! Tons of planes, boats, cars, heli's, parts, etc. And getting more and more every week.

From my experience the B-25 is not the easiest kit, never mind to rc it.

Here is a link to a list of Guillow's conversions that others have done, along with their build threads. Extremely useful to say the least.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=827861

[Dusty]

I know Eliminator from searches for car&truck stuff, they look like quite the place but you can't beat the old Mom and Pop joints, the new stores don't smell right...(You know you're getting old when a business is an "outfit"...)

Well if I had any intentions to build a scale B-25 I'd build a plastic one but I don't do plastic anymore so as usual I'm going to have to make this one like no one has done before. That's it, I'm getting out my X-acto knife right F'n now!

Actually, the 28" P-40 would also be a good candidate, it's laser cut and has a cowl the right shape to hide an upside-down .049 like the Stuka. To be honest I bought the B-25 after convincing myself I didn't need it but in some miraculous way ended up walking out of the store with it, does this sound familiar to anybody?

[Dusty]

Hmm, don't know what happened to my pics but they looked like sheets of balsa. I sanded through the back of the die cut sheets and used the same method on the white plastic except the nacelles. That's a lot of non-balsa parts and maybe a little weight and drag, I'll just have to work with it but at least the die cutting was perfect.

[Dusty]

Well I might have to retract that statement as I was removing the formers and sure the die cutting was excellent, just not enough of it, there's no "respective notches" for stringers in anything! There are some sort of hash marks where they might go but even those don't look right. I'll have to see if the company can do anything about it, it's obviously defective.

[cliffm]

There are no die cuts for the notches on your formers and ribs just the bottom of the notch has a slice. What I do is put the former or rib directly over the plan,mark them with a pencil and then cut them out with a razor blade. Usually the incision provided will be the bottom of your notch and 2 clean cuts will provide you with a notch of the correct depth. This is pretty much standard on all the guillows die cut kits. Hope this helps.

[Dusty]

Helps? Oh yay, now I feel better...thanks though, I figured it was something like that but I don't remember cutting any notches before. I could use a razor saw, Dremel tool, sanding stick, X-acto knife or just sheet the whole darn thing. These were skinned with aluminium anyway, not fabric!

[Dusty]

Now that the old "Dude, where's my notches?" has been laid to rest I got on with some building. I found out once I actually built the fuse it's not very big and has half the wing area of a Scout. I know the wingspan but you have to see it for yourself. It took several hours to do the fuselage but only about 15 minutes so far for the wing, it's not polyhedral and I'll worry about firewalls later and build it gear up. I guess you could call it 'Stand-off Scale". It's not a shortcut, it's for flying but I wasn't much into jacking the wing up all over the place anyway. Having 100% straight stock helped!

I have the fuselage framed up and it's really nice, all the keels disappear behind each other but I did have to remake a couple of parts. Balsa can be too light I think, it has no strength and it's too soft.

The hardest part about the wings will be shaping the leading edge and I have to decide about controls, you'd think rudder and elevator or elevator and ailerons might be the way to go but I'm thinking flaperons for simplicity and balance. On the other hand, if you're going to do it four channels would be neat!

[Dusty]

It's coming right along and I remembered I had some aileron stock that's perfect for the control surfaces. Which ones to use that will work best I'm still not sure but if it needs tail weight then pushrods and horns will help without adding dead weight. I like the idea of having flaps and a throttle to bring it in for a nice slow landing. I'm thinking you could get all the radio equipment from a cheap or broken foamie plane. Once it's built up I can decide but I have some more mods to do!

[Dusty]

Cores for the tail built, I'll be sheeting the rudders with 1/32 balsa to shape them. Using one of those black mesh drywall sanders makes quick work of shaping balsa! I've decided on the control surfaces, all of them with flaperon mixing, with today's micro equipment and hardware it won't be impossible.

[Dusty]

Getting there with the build but not having the radio gear limits what I can do next, haven't quite decided yet if I'll have to be like Dylan and go electric. Either that or I'm just not telling ...I added one more row of stringers to the top and bottom of the fuselage and trailing edge of the wings. Actually, cutting the notches for the stringers on the frames lets you get the angles and widths exactly right for a nice fit although I did have some bits split off but that's modelling. Make sure the plastic parts will fit before you glue it all up!