Guillows Beaver Build

[scigs30]

I am starting on the new Guillows Beaver kit and will let you know how it goes. The wood is pretty good at 8.5 to 14 lb/ft, not great but much better than the 29 lb/ft that came in the old kits. I am a little confused why the kit came with a large prop and a way too small prop. I have not decided if I am going to build with or without floats. I just came back from Alaska and was leaning towards floats. If I build with landing gear I will finish with the Vietnam Army scheme. Personally I really like the Turbo Beaver more, but this will do for now. Howard did a great job with the design and I have seen Howard's prototypes personally and they look great. The nose block is finally done right and I don't know why Guillows did not go back and make this the standard on the entire 300 series. It would be easy to do since the parts have been re drawn and it is laser cut.

[The Cameraman]

Hi Scigs30,

go for floats, the Beaver just looks right in this format.

[granpa]

You might want to delay getting the float kit until the revised kit comes out.

[scigs30]

what revised kit?

[The Cameraman]

You might want to delay getting the float kit until the revised kit comes out.

Hi Granpa,

tell us more please Good Sir.

[joecrouse]

Do it as a SKI plane!

[granpa]

The original float kit was difficult to line up the floats to the body of the plane. The new kit will have plans for a jig to make that step more accurate and easier to do for novices such as myself. You can thank Kittyfritters for this change.

[The Cameraman]

Hi Granpa,

well that you & Kittyfritters for that.

[kittyfritters]

You might want to delay getting the float kit until the revised kit comes out.

Hey Grandpa!

Don't get me in trouble with the company. There is nothing wrong with the Beaver kit itself. It's the Float kit that had a slight change. The floats are OK. Only the struts were changed slightly to make them easier to line up properly. (Does that sound like an entry line from an old television show?) As far as I know, the float kits in current stock have the change. They have made some changes to my alignment jig, to make it even easier to use, and will post information about it as soon as they can. The Guillow's plant is shut down for the 4th of July week.

Howard

[scigs30]

I decided to go with the floats and placed my order with Guillows. The laser cutting and the quality of this kit is awesome, a great design by Howard. The laser cutting is so accurate everything lines up perfect with no problems. I build with Elmers white glue and I have everything built in 2 days minus the floats. The wings, stab and rudder are still drying on the board but will be sanded tomorrow. The fuselage has a lot of stringers, but once again the laser cutting makes everything easy. Looks like Guillows has changed their tissue that is supplied with the kit. The white tissue at first appears to be Esaki, but a closer look it is a form of domestic tissue. I compared it to one of my other Guillows kits and it is definitely different, I will let you know how it works.

[Pauli72]

That's a really nice, clean looking fuselage scigs. Looking forward to your build photos.

Have you heard if Guillow's is going to start including the float kit upgrade, right in with the regular Beaver kit? Or just keep it Ala Carte. I suppose it makes sense to keep them seperate for the main kit price point.

[Bill Gaylord]

I thought you'd build one of these soon. Maybe you'll motivate me to get mine out on the water. Really need to fly this plane, as it looks promising. Good decision with the floats also. Just not quite a Beaver without them.
So you're not choosing to hand cut all the float formers from 1/32" balsa as I did. Seriously, I don't blame you for ordering the kit.

[scigs30]

Once again, This was a fast build, about 2 1/2 days and everything went smooth. It is a little heavier than I thought, coming in at 27 grams and that could be because of the 14 lb/ft wood that housed some of the parts. Other than that still a great kit. Now I am just waiting on the float kit to arrive.

[bsadonkill]

Looks great, do the new kits include a firewall pattern for .020 engine mounting?

[Wildpig]

Would you be so kind as to measure the wing area of your model? Inquiring minds want to know.