$$ and Wood

[cliffm]

Plain common sense would say that a premium price should purchase a superior product,ya know,just a small piece of logic mixed with reality,but so,not so. I just finished my Dauntless with movable surfaces,retracts,open dive brakes,permanently attaching the center bomb as loose pieces seem to disappear over time. This was a very enjoyable build and I can't find any real bitches about the wood quality as I hear so many about in Guillow's kits. I just started a build on a much spendier manufacturer's Mustang and the only difference in the wood is the laser cut parts. The thing about laser cut parts is you really don't know much about the quality of the wood until it falls apart in your hand after it so nicely falls out of the sheet and there's not enough wood in the kit to replace it. I'll say it again, thank you for your fine kits Guillows,later.

[SteveM]

The quality of the wood is subjective to your use.

The complaints of Guillow's wood is typically from people who are interested in making the plane fly, for these folks light weight is king. If you're building for display then weight is not an issue and stronger and thicker wood is easier to work with. I also have built one of the "other" kits that was laser cut with very light and fragile wood. I broke the parts many times during the construction and was very annoyed by constantly having to make repairs, but when I was done it was amazingly light, much lighter than anything I could have made from stock Guillow's wood.

That said, I built the 400 series P-51 for electric RC flight using about 95% kit wood and it is strong yet not too heavy. The wood for the leading edge of the wings was heavier than oak so I replaced it. One sheet of formers was significantly heavier than the other so I had to alternate the pieces from each sheet between the left and right sides in order to keep the plane balanced laterally. Not really issues that would bother someone building for display. Also keep in mind that for electric RC flight weight is not as big an issue as for rubber powered flights, that would have required replacing pretty much all the wood.

You also sometimes get "die crushing" of the wood, this is when the die that stamps out the wood is dull and mashes its way through the wood, rendering many parts unusable.

[cliffm]

After numerous repairs to the wing structure while carving, sanding, shaping of the airfoil, the weight of this wing does'nt weigh as much as the landing gear ass'y on my Dauntless. Although the wing is quite fragile in it's present state after covering it should be airworthy. Me thinks that the Dauntless could be lightened up very easily for flight as it has about double the wood content needed for a sound structure and the wing area looks to be more than adequate. Thanks for the heads up on the wood characteristics in the different applications as I hav'nt been around anybody that does the competition flying I really don't have a clue about what means to an end is practicable. Now I'm getting very curious as to how much warpage can be expected during the covering process? Later