Volare Products

First, the build, then the flight report, with video, below.

In the summer of 2019, before we all had other worries, we witnessed Gene Smith win the FAC Modern Civilian event at the 2019 AMA Outdoor Nationals at the Muncie flying site.  Gene’s model was nicely done and light and put in very nice flights.  I asked Gene if I could produce a short kit from his design and he said sure and that he would send plans to me.

I was a bit surprised when he sent me…sketches – haha!  But I pushed through that and took my time to draw up all of the half-shell formers, keels, and stringer notches.  I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but when it came to building, I only had to make three or four very minor changes to the former designs.

part of Gene’s original drawings

BUILD REPORT

I started this build in January, knowing that I was building an Outdoor model during Indoor season.  As I laid out the keels, I noted that they are narrow.  Were they too narrow?  So were the formers.  I had cut my prototype set out of pretty light balsa and I had to be careful as they broke on the grain very easily.  I added comments and notes to the plan showing how to reinforce them where the grain made them weak.  When I got the keels laid out and started placing the formers, I was pleased to find that they all fit just right.  Even the side keels, with former notches, matched up fine.

I only put on one side stringer to hold things in place hoping that it wouldn’t pull the keel & half-shell structure out of “straight” – that worked, too.  I glued on the other half formers and the side keel and side stringer.  Everything was straight.  I started adding the remaining stringers in pairs – first one side and then the corresponding stringer on the other side.  Where the curves were very tight, like on the underside of the nose, I moistened the outer side of the stringer to make the straight stringer bend (to my will – haha).  Historically, I don’t like Keel & Half-Shell construction, but they do come out nicely, maybe even lighter.

I quickly got on to finish the fuselage and then built the easy parts – the tail and the wing.  I found a full-scale ship to model and set about creating a printed tissue set for the build.  This turned out to be a challenge, even for this simple design, because I had to cover the curved fuselage is sections and had to match up (or try to match them) the panel lines.  The result wasn’t perfect and had plenty of tucks and errors, but it turned out fine.

The windows – and there are plenty on this model, were critical to the appearance.  Gene didn’t include any details about the windows.  The sides are not too bad, but they do take up a bit of space.  The construction, unfortunately, does have one former going through a window.  I probably could have solved that, but just ignored it.  The sides are basically flat and I glued tissue to plastic (with spray adhesive on the cut out tissue) and then glued the plastic to the frame (with canopy glue).

The rear window on the full scale is nothing but compound curves.  I could have done a canopy for the rear, but it is small enough that it can be represented with a flat piece of plastic wrapped around the fuselage.  I glued tissue to the plastic, glued the top edge to the frame, then wrapped it around when the top was set.  I think this worked out just fine.  I feel I tapered the window cutout a little too much, so I widened the base of the cutout on the plan.

The front window could be done in the same manner as the rear window – a flat piece wrapped around.  I’ve done that before on a similar model (my Jumbo Stallion – see pic), but the 3-views and full-scale photos just show too much of a compound “bubble” to reproduce that as flat.  So I tried to model a buck in 3D, but just couldn’t get it right and asked Archie Adamisin if he would take my basics and create a good file that I could print.  He did a great job, thanks Archie!  I printed out the buck, sanded it smooth, and then cut it apart!  It was just a little too large for my vacu-former.  Actually, my design produced a buck that was overly long;  It could be redone, but this will work out. I pulled several as a test and then pulled on that I would use on my model.

I covered this model in a different order than normal (for me).  Normally, I start on the bottom of the model, then I cover the sides, and finally the top surfaces.  If the length requires two pieces, I start at the rear and go to the front.  In my mind, this make the overlaps less visible – the sides cover the bottom and the top covers the sides – and the front pieces cover the rear pieces.  Because I printed the tissue on this model, I had to do everything differently.  I had to put the rear turtle on first, so I could put the rear window on.  then I put on the side windows (with the sides windows overlapping the rear window edges), then the top cowling.  I did the bottom next, but found that the landing gear openings would wrap onto the sides (I cut them off and pasted them on later).  There was enough compound curvature on the sides, that I had to cut the pieces into a front piece and rear piece (this messed up the printed lines) and also had to make snips to handle the compound curse (these made tucks in the tissue).  Ugh – It doesn’t look very good, but it is all covered!

Oops, I forgot to mention – I was printing on red Esaki and if you know red Esaki, then you know it has as bluish tinge to it.  I bought some Pan Pastel Red chalk and rubbed it into the back of the tissue.  It really didn’t change the front much, but the back was now red.  i hoped it would come through after sealing, as my full-scale choice is bright red.

Then I did something I have never done in all my years of modeling:  I used dope on the model!  I broke down and purchased some Randolph Non-taughtening Nitrate Dope and matching Thinner.  I measured it out 50-50 into a glass jar and brushed it on.  One coat for the Fin (which had been damaged after covering (grr…), two coats for the wing (the wing also has two puncture holes in it! double grr…) and horizontal, and three coats for the fuselage.  The red chalk came through a little bit, but maybe I should have tested the red chalk on white tissue.  Of course, Design Master Carnation Red spray would have been perfect, but then my black stripe would have needed to cut and applied afterwards – ugh, choices.

Moving on, I decided to go with a stacked prop – I chose a 7″ x 9″ pitch.  I use this size prop on Embryos.  What’s the connection?  Well an Embryo is 50 square inches and my Outdoor Embryos weigh in at about 20 grams (and fly well on a loop of 3/16″ rubber).  This Cessna came out light at 20 grams and has 66 square inches, so I thought a 7″ prop would be ok.  I also printed a spinner.  I finished up the prop and spinner at about 9:30pm on the night before the contest.

FLIGHT REPORT

I was nervous about taking a model of this size to an Indoor contest.  I’ve seen Paul Boyanowski fly many larger models indoors, but for me, this is something new.  This would be the largest and heaviest model I have attempted to fly inside.  Even as large as the Ultimate Arenas facility is, I know very well how hard the walls and ceiling girders are – they are unforgiving.  Heavy planes can and will sustain damage.

I got to the facility a little early.  I got set up and got the Cessna out before anyone was there.  I had put a short loop of 1/8″ in it – maybe it would be under-powered, but it wouldn’t be overpowered and zoom into the hard boundaries of the building. I gave it a few test glides and added clay to the tail to get a good glide that still remained a tad nose-heavy.  I put about 500 turns into the motor and gave it a very cautious toss – wow, it flies!  I tweaked the Gizmo Geezer nose button for just a little down and a little more right and wound it up to 1000 turns.  As you can see in the video, I was rewarded with a very stable 54-second flight!  Truly amazing!  This was all before the contest started and I didn’t really care how the rest of the day went – it was a great success.  I must say that if I had crashed out of every event I would not have been very happy, but I didn’t and how well or poorly I ended up in those events was certainly eclipsed by the flights I had on this brand-new airplane.  My best flight was 88 seconds on 1900 turns on a longer motor.  I am probably stalling out a little on the high-torque launch and that can be trimmed out.  And if I can carry slightly more weight, I can put in an even longer motor and break two minutes indoors.  Oh, I won FAC Scale with my 88 second flight – a win on the first day of flying is always a good thing!

Here is the test flight video, followed by more construction photos.

Over the past few months, I worked with Bernard Guest and Liav Hershkoviz to make improvements on the Band Burner DT.  Earlier this month, I received a new batch from Bernard and Version 2 is a vast improvement, not in operation (that is the same), but it application.  It is now more compact and of a standard shape with a “housing” for easy mounting.  Here is a series of photos – and a video – showing the new product, a new charger, and some little accessories I designed for my own use (I will probably include the 3D printed protective case in those that I sell).

This is the new Band Burner, with its 3D-printed housing, and the 30 mAh LiPo battery

the bottom view of the Band Burner and housing.

the side view of the assembly (battery installed) showing the housing’s cross section and how the battery sits immediately under the circuit board.

my 3D-printed protective case for the back. without this, the battery (typically) inside the model’s fuselage and subject to beating by the rubber.

how my protective case slips over the Band Burner’s 3D-printed housing.

my 3D-printed base for a “mousetrap” bail for DTs. It has a hook for one end of the Dental Band that will be burnt by the Band Burner. This standardizes the DT Band Mounting (removed excessive stress from the DT itself). This can be used on fuse-burning DTs, as well.

here is a graphic illustration of the base plate

How I have mounted the Protective Case and the Mousetrap Bail (with 0.025″ music wire) on a test board. The case being glued to the board with CA makes it a permanent part of the fuselage – the DT can be removed at will. The Mousetrap Bail is also glued to the fuselage, with the tiny hook in linear alignment with the hook on the Band Burner DT.

the band Burner DT mounted. Also showing the Hummingbird Variable Charger, specifically designed for these tiny 1S LiPo batteries – and an adapter cable that connects the new battery with the charger. The charger works off any standard USB-Output source (computer, battery, wall wart, etc).

Version 2 of the Hummingbird Band Burner allows the battery to be re-charged without removal of the DT from the model. Simply unplug the battery and plug in the charger.

the Charger, attached to a battery source (not shown) charging the battery with the DT installed.

Showing how the Band Burner DT is set up with the Mousetrap Bail – ready for action (see video).

Here is the video of the Band Burner DT with the Mousetrap Bail in action:

You can find the Hummingbird Band Burner DT HERE

You can find the Hummingbird 1S LiPo Battery Charger HERE

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Peanut Scale models.  And I really like to make WWII fighters in Peanut Scale – they don’t always win against bigger models in Combat, but they can shock the troops when you get a good flying one.

Back in 2018, I went to the AMA Indoor Nats in Rantoul, IL.  There I met George Nuñez, who drove up from Florida with a car load of models (he probably had 20 models with him!)  One of those that caught my eye was his Peanut Yak-3.  Not only was it cute and clean little plane, but it flew great (he beat my Barracuda in WWII Combat).  I asked him about it and he said his son, Jonathan had designed it.

George Nuñez at Rantoul in 2018 and some of his models. Note his Yak-3 front and center.

I always meant to ask Jonathan about it, but many things got in my way.  Eventually, his plan was published in the Nov/Dec 2019 issue of the NFFS Digest.  I contacted Jonathan and asked him if I could kit his plan and he consented.  It took me a little time, but I finally got the plan redrawn (I redrawn plans to create the parts).  I made some minor changes (replaced the hollowed out block for the lower cowl to what I call stringer/formers and some other minor changes).  Then I had to convince myself to start building.  Once I did, it went really quickly – just a few days from nothing to covered model.  Final weight without rubber is just a smidge under 9 grams.

By the way, I grabbed the tissue patterns from the asisbiz website – a site for computer gaming skins.  This is a great resource for WWII tissue layouts as the entire surface of the gaming aircraft needs to be covered, just like out models – and those artists go into great detail.

While my model hasn’t hit 20 seconds, yet, I know it will.  At 9 grams without rubber, it is just too light to test outdoors – even light breezes carry into the trees surrounding my yard.

Here is a link to the short kit, complete with vacu-formed canopy and spinner: (HERE).   You can download the tissue print file, too (HERE).

Here are my build photos.

3D printed canopy and spinner bucks and resulting pulls

ready to start building!

tail surfaces

the second side being built

going 3D on the fuse

installing the block that is the nose

showing the upper stringer/formers

showing the lower stringer/formers (after sanding)

setting the dihedral

covering underway (with printed tissue)

radiator scoop ready to cover

radiator scoop covered

underside of finished model

top side

“Yellow 19” in Poland 1945

“Yellow 19” in Poland 1945

composite – with photo, artwork, and model

the end of the last outdoor test flight

retrieved without damage

Before I took my 12-year-break, I flew with all the old-school Cloudbusters from the 80s and 90s.  One of those was Don Campell and this is his 1997 design, the Tweety Pup.  Ever since I drew up Don’s Tomahawk Embryo, I have wanted to do this model, too.  It is a sharp-looking, stand 20 feet away, almost-semi-scale model designed as a play on the Cessna o-1 Bird Dog.  The wing and vertical are very similar to the O-1, and the fuselage is similar, but lengthened significantly.  And, since I just did the Bird Dog as a Dimer, it was only natural that I tackled the Tweety Pup (plus, I just lost my everyday Embryo).

For this build, I decided to go back to basics, building like a “normal” or even new modeler.  No striving for lightness, building with “regular” wood, heavy plastic and wire, and a off-the-shelf plastic prop.  In addition, I am testing a new tissue, a possible replacement for Esaki, that comes from Japan.  This tissue has a nice feel to it, has a definite shiny side, the back side is a little rougher than Esaki (you won’t get front and back confused).  It is only marginally heavier than Esaki.  People are working to get this in production (if people like me give it a thumbs-up) and we’ll see in a few months if this can be done.  I’ll talk about the tissue more later on.

Jump right over to the product for sale HERE.

The Build

This build was kicked in the pants when I lost my DeHavilland Discard at the Cloudbusters contest a couple weeks ago.  We have one more outdoor contest this fall and I decided to have something to fly.  I quickly traced Don’s plan and laid out parts so I could start building.

This is built entirely out of 1/16″ balsa.  I designed this for quick building – almost all of the tail feathers’ parts are pre-cut, and all of the upper and lower fuselage cross pieces are pre-cut.  This removes the tedium  of measuring, cutting, fitting – just build the sides and pop out the crosspieces and glue them in.

The wing goes together in the traditional manner.  I do include trailing edges with built-in gussets for the ribs.

Back to the Tissue

Again, I am testing this tissue.  So I decided to use several treatments on the tissue, in application and finish.

For the tail feathers, I used bare tissue for the fin (except a small print) and the horizontal is covered in fully printed tissue.  I cover these dry and flat.  when they were finished, I sprayed them with clear Krylon (or whatever the spray-can clear is that I have on hand).  They are not shrunk with anything; I do this to resist warping (covering variation #1).

The wing was covered with bare tissue on the bottom and full-printed on top.  Again, these were covered dry, gently tautened during the gluing process, and then sprayed with water to shrink.  This tightens the tissue, but less-so than covering with damp tissue.

The fuselage was covered differently – I covered it with damp tissue.  Since I didn’t know how this tissue would react, the flat sides on the fuselage allowed for a reasonable test.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The tissue dried nicely and pulled taut – I am very happy with the results.  Even on the arched turtle decks, the results are great.  Sometimes tissue pulls really tightly and causes stringer to dip under the stress.  This tissue shrunk just the right amount (cue Goldilocks and Baby Bear).

The noseblock and wheelpants were wood covered with slightly stretched tissue.  I do this by putting glue stick on the solid wood and rubbing damp tissue over the curves.  This worked well, as expected, although I did have one stretch separation – which is typical of this type of covering (at least for me).

I sprayed the finished wing with clear, and the fuselage with white Design Master White.  It is flat white and so I sprayed some of the gloss clear over it.  While I didn’t over coat any of these with the spray, I didn’t hold back (for lightness).  It all looks good and the tissue handled it all well.

I finished up the build with some heavier plastic than I normally use for the windscreens and side windows.  Of course, along with heavier plastics, came minor frustrations of trying to glue plastic to balsa.  I got through it without too much damage to my psyche.  The plane was finished with full 1/32″ wire on the landing gear (usually, I use 0.025″) and a off-the-shelf plastic prop.  The model came out at 22+ grams, not too heavy for an Outdoor Embryo – that’s satisfying.

I test flew the model in my back yard yesterday, and am happy with the potential.  Of course, I need a larger field (hopefully, that will come Sunday).  Here’s what happens regularly in my back yard.  Note:  planes don’t get up there without FLYING.

UPDATE:  After a few trim flights, I got the model sorted out.  It climbs out well on a 7″ prop with a loop of 3/16″ and Maxed on its third official flight, winning the Embryo event!