Guillow’s Series 400 P40 Warhawk Build: Cockpit Detail: I decided to deviate from the plan’s suggestion of using thin cardboard and instead made the dummy bulkheads behind the cockpit from balsa sheet. This may add a bit more weight but I feel the trade-off for additional durability worth it, particularly as I’m going to be … Continue reading
Guillow’s Series 400 P40 Warhawk Build: I’ve always been a fan of Guillow’s kits finding them well engineered and very comprehensive. Many are now converted to micro RC and I did toy with doing this but in the end I decided to build this one as a glow powered free flight/display and will build it … Continue reading
For no further reason than that I like engines, I’ve put together an MFA Sport 500 ‘power pack’ from an original MFA Panther 46A engine and a collection of spares. The aim was to make a good educational tool at talks and airshow display stands but overall I just think it looks nice sat on … Continue reading
The Kyosho Trainer 40 was introduced in late 1997 in two colour schemes: a rather shocking shade of pink and then two years later a second version in yellow was sold alongside the pink. The yellow version had a host of minor improvements including changes to the nose shape, semi-symmetrical aerofoil and an option for … Continue reading
Writing up my PhD has taken most of my time but I’ve finally finished this project. Comprising the best picks from a collection of second hand parts along with a new canopy and wood parts this machine is now like new. The tail surfaces are from a pre-1990 machine and have the ‘high fin’ found … Continue reading
The Piccolo’s first flights went well. The original NiCd pack, at only 250mAh, doesn’t last long and is further hampered by being quite old. It had enough poke to allow for initial flight testing and fine tuning of the Picoboard. A few small turns with a miniature screwdriver was all that was required. I think … Continue reading
James, Planes and Automobiles 