Heart Break P38.

The more progress I make with this kit the more I'm tearing my hair out trying to get it right. As previously mentioned I think this is an early production kit. - By early I think I mean it was made by Ugg the Caveman with a blunt chisel and a stone hammer. There are that many errors - some minor, some major, that I am of the opinion that only a very experienced and patient scratch builder would have any hope of finally getting the bloody thing into the air. To call it ARF is a bad joke and the fact that it's partly factory assembled makes getting it right a frustrating task. It always takes longer and is harder to correct some one else's mistakes than to build it properly in the first place.

I have read a number of reviews of what appears to be the same kit - my example had no manufacturers name on the box or the paper work - and I have yet to see any one who is, or has, experienced the same problems that I have. I can only assume that my kit is a very early production sample - when it appears there was no quality control or - I've been caught with someone's poor quality fake copy. Unfortunately I have no come  back as the original local supplier is apparently out of business.

In the next day or so I will publish a full list of all the errors I have encountered with this kit - hopefully it might save some one else buying a load of crap like mine has turned out to be. The full list will be published on the P38 build page.

The list of problems I have found in the construction of this kit are now published on the P38 build page.

And Now !!!

Yeah well - and now I've been seduced by a Lockheed P38 Lightning! One of the blokes in my club had been admiring my Ugly Stick Float Plane so one thing led to another and it turned out he had a P38 kit lying un-built in his shed. Now A P38 has always been an aircraft I've admired - more so because in WWII the RAAF used 3 of them for photo recce. SO - we swapped didn't we and what I ended up with is one of the Chinese ARF kits to play with. All 90 inch wingspan of it. Now we all know about Chinese ARF kits - particularly the early ones so I expected that there would be some fitting to do and a few problems to iron out. Never the less a quick troll around the internet suggested that this particular kit does make up into a good model. So this is what I took out of the box and laid out to see what I had: - 

then I done a quick "dry fit" assembly to see what problems might present themselves.

I'm going to use a pair of OS 61 4 strokes in it although the specifications call for 2 x 45 2 strokes but I'm confident it will work out OK. I'm going to start a page on the build as soon as I tackle the assembly and I'll note any problems - and successes I have - stay tuned.

Oh! - Don't despair - I haven't given up on the Hirobo or the Kalt Heli's - I'm waiting for a few final parts to turn up for one of the Kalts and I've managed to get the Shuttle ZXX to hover - at eye level - without having a heart attack or loosing my head.