The wing struts are elegantly shaped and arranged, to match the graceful flying surfaces. Appreciation of the fuselage (above left) would require a mother’s love. The combination is irresistible. The model on the winding stooge (above right). Start with one loop of 1
⁄8 -inch rubber. Removing the front of the
Peck Polymers engine crankcase gives plenty of room for the rubber. A shot of the underside (below, at left) of the model, showing the light lozenge pattern, landing gear, and turned nose button. The only rigging on the model is in the gear struts.
The Spandau machine gun jackets are made from the photo etched brass kits pro- duced by Small Flying Aeroplanes in the Czech Republic. My Spandau gun jackets never look right when made with printed paper, but these are the real thing. Inex- pensive, very light, and you will never tire of looking over the cockpit and through the crosshair sights on the front ends. I usually aim at my S.E.5 model. I would tell you my son taught me that, but anyone reading this article knows better. You can find a whole range of WWI guns at
www.sfa-models.com. I painted the fuselage and rudder, and the national markings, with airbrushed Tamiya acrylics, which I use on all my mod- els. This is great stuff I highly recommend. A lot of guys just thin and apply with a hand brush, and their models look great too. I made the decals for the aircraft name and work number with my inkjet printer and Testor’s decal sheet. Spray a couple coats of clear Krylon to seal before applying. I over- spray the whole model with clear Krylon be- fore assembling.
Install the wings with about 3 degrees inci- dence. Mine flies great on one loop of 1
⁄8 -inch
rubber with 2 degrees of downthrust and 1 de- gree right. This may change if you use a larg- er 2-bladed prop because you’re too lazy to build a 4-blader, or call Dave. Prepare to raise the rear of the stab a bit during test flights. My model weighs just a little under 15 grams. I consider this to be pretty good for a well detailed peanut biplane. I’m not known as a light builder, so you should have no trouble doing this as well. I have flown this model inside and out and it will do 40 sec- onds consistently indoors.
David’s son, Tiger, packing in the winds. It’s winter in Santa Fe, so winding is done indoors. FLYING MODELS
I never get tired of looking at this air- plane. The long goony landing gear, the short nose with spinner and 4-blade prop, and the raked, elegant wing struts combine for an adorable effect. It looks like the de- sign was thrown together with available parts and half formed ideas, and it probably was. But it is fun to build and flies very well. I will build a larger version from these plans some day, and you might try that too. Send me a photo if you do, and also contact me if you need scale documentation. My email is
glassblade@q.com.
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