Well that's a pretty kit. Guillows could do with some packaging updating. That "laser cut" sticker, is a sticker. The box, and instructions inside still refer to the kit being die cut. While we're at it... these kits could use a much better manual for construction. But we'll cover those complaints a little later.
Plans are important, these Guillows kits come with decent plans. Speaking of which:
So, here we run into my first little complaint. The detail of the stringers leaves something to be desired. There's several stringers on the turtledeck of the F6F, and one of them ends at the rear fuselage former. The only clue to where that stringer ends, comes from the photograph, not from the plans.
Also, the Guillows planes are built with, well I call them keels. There's a dorsal, ventral, a left side, and a right side keel. If you look at the plans up there, can you tell me where the side keels are? I can't. That came to bite me later.
This sheet of plans, is worth writing home about. Everything in place, an in scale. These are the sort of plans I like to see. There's nothing really to say about these, beyond this is what you should expect to see.
The package also comes with some balsa parts. And the bits to make the plane into a rubber powered plane.
Now, if you look closely, you might be able to see what's missing there. I got two A sheets, a C and D. No B sheet. When I started building, I started with the fuselage. The fuselage really doesn't use many parts from sheet B.
Someone needs to bless whomever started laser cutting balsa. You get parts with labels, crisp corners, and labels.
This is where I got on the first night. Sheet B had the wing leading engines, both side keels for the fuselage, one little bit of the tail, and the wing upper supports.
I think this was 13ish grams. Without the cowling, it looks a little funny.
I was building this on a weekend. I found that Guillows webpage has a contact us form. I dropped them an e-mail. They asked me for a picture of the parts I got, and they mailed me a replacement bit of balsa. I must give it to Guillows, they were quite fast about getting me those parts.
And Viola! A F6F. More or less, this is where the project is stalled. I'm debating on how i'm going to do the RC setup. I'm thinking an 1104 motor, and some 2.8g servos. I think I can get the whole flying package for 15 grams or so. But we'll come back to that in a bit.
I also bought some other kits. The one I chose to build is the Skyraider. It's going to get my AR6400 receiver and aileron servo.
The wings are using music wire to drive the ailerons. I put in brass bushings for the root, and surface pivots.
I even transferred the aileron bellcrank from the T-28.
The elevator and rudder use a spring return, so I can use just a pull string to get control I stole that technique from the DLG people.
Speaking of DLGs, this is my latest version of the DLG Nano. It's 52 grams. I finally built one right.
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