PHOTO: ANDY ZANER PHOTO: CHRIS SUSICKE


The NitroPlanes StarfireARF for 100mm EDF, belonging to Chris Susicke, sits in the driveway awaiting its trip to the flying field (above left). At a little over $100.00 this model has huge potential for modelers. Intake lips and ducting will be a requirement for Greg’s, and retracts were fitted to Chris’s for more “realistic” jet flying. This is what happened when Andy Zaner introduced his three-view drawing of the T-38 to a Kinkos enlarging-printer and a stack of blue foam (above right). At 144 inches long, it should be easy to see in the air. Greg’s re-work-in-progress: Colorado Air Guard version (at right). Not a lot of work, but it will definitely be different on the flight line!


(in my case, the excellent Spring Air www.retracts.com 602s) and to add intake lips and ducting for a 90mm fan. I have not decided whether it will be a 6S, or 8S setup; there are advantages to both setups, but it should be fun, and I already have the re- tracts, a fan and motor! (Now I just need more time in the workshop!) Continuing with the EDF theme: I make


a daily check of the EZone, scratchbuilt EDF forum www.rcgroups.com/scratchbuilt-edfs- 686/ and came across a very diminutive model (144 inches long!) of the T-38. Being built from blue foam, it is not really “high- tech” but man-oh-man am I paying atten- tion to this one! Several are being built, for both twin 100mm fan and single 120mm … so it will be interesting to see if this comes to fruition! This is a thread that is well worth looking into. Changing propulsion mode: last month I


talked about the color schemes available in smaller/local air museums and showed a photo of the F-86D at the Pueblo, CO mu- seum. It varies in color depending on the light. Jim Newman, retired RAF, lived around military airplanes most of his life, morphed his love of all things “plane” into careers as an aviation artist, former colum- nist, etc, etc … copied me on an e-mail ex- change he had with a friend of his dis- cussing the “light blue P-51s” from WWII.


Well, anyone who has ever had winter- killed/dormant yellow grass rendered vi- brant green in their processed photograph understands color shift. This can occur dur- ing processing where the processor (either human or computer) interprets grass as green, or due to bad/old chemicals, or what happens with color negatives: age. Jim’s face-to-face conversations with the guys fly- ing the aircraft revealed that they were painted according to MILSPEC… i.e.: Olive Drab. I know, darn! There goes my next scale paint scheme! Illuminating to me (having heard several lectures on the reason for 4×6 cameras and only black and white film for archival land- scape photography) was that there had been more than one standard for black and white film. So, interpreting an old photo could be problematic in attempting to convert the im- age to color for our models. Oh well! I can hear it at the contests: It has to be scale! It is exactly the same color as on the box! Since I mentioned the F-86, here is a progress photo showing the stock scheme, and my modification to the Colorado Air Guard scheme, keeping in mind that I want- ed to keep the re-painting to a minimum, and using the stock stripes to the maximum (my middle name is lazy) so as to get her into the air as simply, and rapidly as possible (though it does need to warm up … a lot …


Upcoming Events Desert Jet Storm Florida Jets Tucson Jet Rally


Sun Valley Jets Top Gun


FLYING MODELS Feb. 10–12 – March 1 4 March 9–11 April 13–15 April 27–May 1


Speed World RC Club Field, Phoenix, AZ


Paradise Field, Lakeland, FL


TIMPA Field, Tuscon, AZ www.timpa.org (map)


Sun Valley Field, Scottsdale, AZ Lakeland-Linder Airport, Lakeland, FL


CD: Frank Tiano 863-607-6611 www.franktiano.com


www.tucsonwarbirds.com (registration)


CD: Frank Tiano 863-607-6611 www.franktiano.com


63


first! Yup! You need to dig up last month’s column to find the differences between total scale and sport scale, and it is not overtly ob- vious (envision a full face smile emoticon here!). New turbine engines from Wren—or


should I say a reprise from the past. Wren has brought their SuperSport (18.5-pound thrust) engine back into production due to popular demand. It had been dropped since the venerable MW54, now known as the 75 (for 75 Newtons) at 17.5 pounds of thrust, and the 100, at 22 pounds of thrust, bracket the SS. If you are interested, drop Ron Bal- lard a note at: wrenusa@centurylink.net, or a call at 260-701-8936. More turbine information comes from KingTech, where they are planning on a 190N engine for the “Big Boys” but also a 100N (22-pound) and a 35N (7-pounds or so) engines to be released in the spring. Talking with Barry Hou, the company has realized that the economy has many looking at small- er aircraft and are in the final phase of test- ing the completely re-designed 100, and 35 “G” series engines, but he couldn’t/wouldn’t tell me more. I think 2012 will be a very in- teresting year for propulsion systems, both EDF and turbine. Well, I’m out of space, so until next time:


Stay warm, keep busy with the building pro- jects, fly safe, and trust in thrust!


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76