rwright142

I am looking for suggestions for my winter project. I am interested in giant warbirds - F4U, P51, etc that are 1/5, 1/6, or 1/7 scale. Suggestions? Also, which retracts would you recommend for that kit? I am not an expert builder but I am going to take my time and learn the tips of the trade. My preference is the 1/6 or 1/7 Corsair but the kits have been discontinued. I will settle for the 1/8 if I had to but would rather build larger.

Thanks in advance for you suggestions.

Richard

ron9844

My Feedback: (65)

I have a Meister scale 100" Corsair that I purchased about 6 weeks ago and I am not going to build. I have 2 sets of plans, short kit ( formers,wingribs,etc.,no sheetwood),cowl,canopy and cockpit kit all from Meister scale. His airplanes are very easy to build and they fly great. I spent about $330.00 for the parts if you are interested I will sell for $275.00 shipped. Moving to 3D style airplanes.

Ron

taildragger01

My Feedback: (10)

in most giant scale circles the plane would have to have a WS of 83" or larger. Ziroli is allways a good choice for the 1/3 to 1/5 scale. as far as 1/5 1/8 go with topflite kits. go to Towerhobbys. com they have a great sellection. I my self have two of there kits one is the 1/6 scale P40E warhawk with a 63" WS and the other is a P51 A mustang 1/6 scale both I have bulit the wings and tail fethers but halted work to build my Ziroli SBD Dauntless 100 ' WS. I will let both kits go for 100.00 and I will throw in a set of mech retracts with Olio struts for the P51A. oh ropart is the best retracts on the market

Hooked-On-RC

My Feedback: (16)

Nothing beats a Corsair or a Spitfire. Both Beautiful planes to watch fly although the Corsair is harder to fly than the spit

taildragger01

My Feedback: (10)

I know I have built the pica cousair and it was a bear in the crosswinds, not to mention the landigs. you would think the gull wings would have made it mor stable. as for the spitfire I have nerver had the pleasure of building or flying one although I have seen them at the field and all I can say is graceful. I like the dive bombers and the fortress

RC4U

IronBay formerly byron kits makes a nice F4U kit and you can get everything but the engine from them. I am going to start building mine this winter. I have talked to numerous people, all of whom give it high marks for being a very stable and fun plane to fly and easy to land.

rwright142

Thank you for your reply and your information!

rwright142

Ron,

Thank you for your reply and your information! However since my building skills are not up to the level using the short kit (I assume) I will have to pass on your offer. From what I have read, I think I need the full kit. I visited their website and the plane looks great!

Thanks again, and I wish you well with your building. Also, I have read a lot about 3D but what does that stand for? I know it means the plane can do advance aerobatics, but have wondered. I am new to the sport and am learning a lot - especially from gents like yourself.

Best Regards,

Richard

rwright142

Not a bad price, but I want to do all of the building myself. Thanks for your reply.

Richard

rwright142

I attended the "Warbirds Over Indiana" flyin over Labor Day weekend (on Sunday only) in Muncie, IN and videoed and took a lot of pictures. That was my first exposure to the full scale planes - man was I drooling! I bet I sounded stupid when I asked one of the pilots if his plane was a Top-Flite kit and he just looked at me and said, "No I built her from scratch." Needless to say, I felt like crawling in a hole! hahaha The detail was very impressive. Someday I hope to be at that level.

I agree with you about them being great planes. I also was impressed with a Stuka that was there. It seem like a very nice flyer.

Take care,

Richard

M Gill

I cut kits from Ziroli, Don Smith and Bates palnes.

If you are new to giant scale I would suggest a few Ziroli designs:

P-47 (the 92" wing span if you want giant scale, but the 70" is a nice sized project)
P-40
Zero

These kits are all fairley simple. One piece wing. Crutch design. If I had to rate them as flyers (they all fly well) I would say Zero, P-47, P-40.

Mace Gill
The Aeroplane Works
http://www.theaeroplaneworks.com

taildragger01

My Feedback: (10)

Hi Mace, good ta see yer still ontop of things. I have emailed Aeroplane Works a few times and I am very impressed with thear kits an Ziroli recomends them highly for thear precision cutting. I realy like the fact that they supply everything in thear kits A++++ for the quality and support they give. if you are a beginner and are intimadated by the size of the giant scale warbirds then buy from Mace and his crew plenty of after sale support.

rc34074

My Feedback: (5)

rwright142 - have you seen the top flite 1/7 corsair kit? your original post said you would like a 1/7 scale corsair and the top flite says it is 1/7 scale.

other than that i would think that if you went larger- say 1/5 scale- you could get the top flite 84.5 inch wingspan mustang kit.

both of these would have very detailed instructions books which would make your first warbird build easier.

for the top flite corsair i would say the question is the retracts- the available rotating retracts are not real durable. but if you land carefully the robarts can be ok, from what i have heard. there are fixes that some have described here on rcu to beef them up.

for the big top flite mustang you have a choice of robarts which are good but not perfect and sierra which are very good but also fairly expensive and a bit heavy.

ed

rwright142

Ed,

Thank you for your info. I have seen the Top-Flite 1/7 kit and would definitely get it if I cannot find the 1/5 or 1/6. What do you think about Century Jet retracts? They seem to be cheaper than the Robarts but is that a matter of "you get what you pay for?

rc34074

My Feedback: (5)

for 60 size retracts spring air is the best. but since you will need rotating retracts you can't use spring air because they don't make rotating retracts- at least not yet. beyond that i have seen problems with century jet in a friend's top flite 60 size mustang several years ago and now will not use them again. others say they have success with century jet. so for 60 size i recommend the metal frame robarts as i have seen them work although they have their faults ad as i said before there are some recommended fixes with for them that other pilots have come up with if you search here on rcu. there are two other possible sources who are working on 60 size rotating retracts, robinaire and sierra. but they don't have them in production yet from what i can tell. but i have not built a 60 size corsair myself because i am waiting for a dependable source for rotating retracts before i go there .

i have not used large scale century jet retracts or seen at close hand anyone's experience with them so i do not have an opinion here. for my world gs mustang i used spring air gear- their 400 series is very strong, but they are not as scale looking so i bought the robart 622-5 for my top flite mustang despite the possibility that the plastic cams may break. it should be ready to fly next spring- as you can see i am not the world's fastest builder .

ed