Sinbad the Sailor comes neatly packed (above left) with its laser-cut parts, hardware and decals in a clear tube-like bag with a header card. Step one involves using a pencil (above right) to lightly mark the parts with the
well as hardware for the removable hatch, three-piece wing and pull-pull controls. The kit can be built in one of two ways, three if you include the optional motor pod—a tow- line freeflight model with an auto rudder, a simple two-channel R/C model or a three- channel with the addition of a motor and throttle. The kit goes together like so many laser-cut kits, a 3-dimensional puzzle, so full size plans are not included. You won’t need them either as everything fits nicely or lines up. If you build the freeflight version, you will only need a towline. For R/C, a pair of small 3.7 gram servos, micro receiver, speed control and flight battery are required.
Construction
I started by studying the instructions, something we modelers sometimes forget to do. Retro R/C has done a great job breaking down the assemblies in logical steps accom- panied with a picture. The only criticism I have of the instructions is the physical size of the pictures. In a few steps, it is somewhat hard to make out what is being defined. It’s best to read, re-read and study the picture before going onto the step that involves glue. Fuselage assembly: Construction starts with the fuselage and what seems like a daunting task only took me about an hour to frame up. The fuselage proper is built like the hull of a boat, bottom first, top next followed by stringers. A light ply “skin” is attached on
associated part number as outlined in the parts layout within the instruction sheet. As is common with many current laser-cut kits, there are no full size plans; however, scaled down three-views help with parts location and layout.
the tail of the fuselage and is used to help key in the tail group and keep everything aligned. There are some compound curves here, so avoid the temptation to glue it on all at once. For this, I used Titebond aliphatic glue, full strength. I first glued the bottom piece onto the main keel, allowed it to dry, and then used a trick I had learned years ago in model rock- etry. The top section of this part must curve a bit so I applied a thin layer of Titebond to the top center keel and wiped off most of it, leav- ing a thin layer behind. I did this same proce- dure to the mating surface. I waited a few minutes, and then ran a small bead of Tite- bond to the keel again, pressed the piece on, and secured it with a metal stationary clip. Thirty minutes later it was dry and strong and much lighter than epoxy or CyA. The kit has been designed to be built as ei- ther freeflight or as an R/C model. Pay care- ful attention to the instructions as some steps only involve either the freeflight or R/C construction. Finishing up the fuselage will entail sanding the nose, made up of seg- mented balsa parts, and giving it a nice smooth, rounded finish. The hatch is made of a series of balsa formers on a ply founda- tion. Like the nose, it must be sanded to give the Sinbad its shape. This method is much easier for most modelers versus the sheeting method.
Once the main construction of the fuse- lage is done, the instructions tell you to cov-
er the fuselage. This was a different route than I’m used to and I’m not sure what the reasons are behind it, other than to maybe give the modeler a break in between build and covering sessions. I, however, elected to cover my model after all the assemblies were done.
This brings us to our next item of busi- ness. If you remember that spinach eating sailor, Popeye, you might remember where he ran into Sinbad the Sailor and had to res- cue Olive Oyl. Appropriately enough, the pi- lot for this kit is a character of Olive Oyl her- self. Not only does our pilot, Olive Oyl, look like she is piloting Sinbad, Olive doubles as the models tow hook and skid. In fact, she pivots on the freeflight version and actuates the auto rudder. Neat!
piece of wire and two decals for Olive. I constructed Olive per the instruc- tions, then painted on a few coats of Polly Scale Clear acrylic, sanding between coats. Add the decals as you would any water slide decal, and allow at least a few hours to dry. Once the decals were dry, I applied a coat of Polly Scale clear acrylic to seal the decal in. Tail: Building the tail assembly is rather straightforward. There is really nothing new here other than one must simply remove for-
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For our purposes, she will mainly act as a skid and add a bit of fun to the cockpit. Con- struction is simple with three pieces of light ply, a 1
Construction starts with Sinbad’ssignature fuselage. The curved and flowing lines (above left) are easily replicated thanks to the laser-cut construction. Plywood is used on the keel for added strength. A light ply plate (above right)
FLYING MODELS
is used on the top rear section of the fuselage to help with alignment of both the horizontal and vertical stabilizer. Jim used Titebond wood glue to successfully bond the light ply to the compound curves of the fuselage.
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