House of Balsa .15-.20 size P-51 Mustang

[Bayou Boy]

I am considering the House of Balsa .15-.20 Mustang for my OS .26 four stroke.

Has any one built this airplane? I could use any suggestions you might have.

Don

[Russ Miller]

This model is really fun. Mine has a Magnum 30 installed, which is plenty of power. Came in at 2 lbs with no landing gear. I installed a rudder but its not needed. If I'd do it again, I'd use a 15-20 2C, no rudder,and a smaller battery pack. May be able to get it down to 1 lb 12 oz. Only negative thing is its difficult to hand launch by yourself, nothing to hold on to. For less than $40 you can have a ball.

[Bayou Boy]

Russ,

Thanks for the reply.

Sounds like you might be in trouble if you dont let go of yours soon enough with the 30 Magnum on it!

Don

[mdugas]

hi ,mine i used stanard four channel and gear,easy to run off
ground ,very lil rudder needed if any ,easy plane to
it slows down good ,so is easy to land slow .
there wire wire in mine was from the brittle bacth so
had a gear leg snap clean off ,so i made new ones,
easy to fill carb whith dirt on a nose over whith a 2stroke
so a 4 stroke should be better to avoid that
covered mine whith small chrome monokote panels so it
had the panel line look .
good luck
mike

[WYDAH]

Hi,

I've been considering this kit too. Any pictures of yours with the chrome monokote panels Mike? Anyone put retracts in this kit? Will they even fit? Or perhaps too much weight?

[mdugas]

hi ,unless you going to move the spar ,and other mods
the main wheel has to fit between le and bottom spar.
a 3/4 dia will fit ,be hard to get a 1'dia wheell in
so i never tried this as this would be to small a wheel
for dirt gravel or grass .rco had a tread working on adding
le kick and moving spar so decent size wheels could be used
but ,that no longer exist
good luck
mike
will try posting pics,need to scan then first

[WYDAH]

Hi,

Thanks for the info. I was afraid that retracts were not going to fit very well. I just can't picture a Mustang flying around with the wheels always down:( It sounds like a very good flying model, and the price seems good too. Was just hoping to be able to throw on some mechanical retracts and have a nice plane.

I still might do it, and would like to see your color scheme with the chrome monokote.

Thanks again.

[mdugas]

hi,almost finished pic,wing origionaly in aluminun monokote
fuse in chrome panels

[mdugas]

hi finished pic,not sure if detail will be high enough to see
panel lines

[WYDAH]

Wow Mike,

Now that is one nice looking bird! What engine do you have for it? I'm definitely going to have to try one now, retracts or not it still looks great.
Do you fly combat with it, or just do the "scale" flying? I don't want it for combat, just a cheap first warbird to fly around the field.

Thanks for the pictures. I really do love the looks.

[spitlover1]

just shows it doesn't have to be big to be beautiful

[mdugas]

hi
thanks,
id fly it just for some fun flying ,just had a plain 20 in it.
plenty of power for me,
nice looking biplane by the way
good luck
mike

[ED209]

I built one of the HoB Mustangs last spring and have been flying it all summer. It looks and flies great. Mine has OK retracts powered by a Cirrus lo-profile hi-torque retract servo. The motor is a Mega 22/30/4 with a Jeti 40A brushless ESC, powered by 10 cell packs of 1950mAh Ni-MHs. I made mine up in the paint scheme of Miss Marilyn II from the 55th Fighter Group. It's not the easiest plane to take off and land, but it's a blast to fly!

[WYDAH]

Another very nice looking build.

I've got one coming. I'm going with glow power though, a .25 ball bearing. I'm considering retracts, but am afraid they won't hold up to a grass field. Sounds like a blast to fly. Hopefully it's a quick build, and I can get it finished before the snow flies up here.

[easytiger]

I have built three of them. Fun airplane. Don't put in retracts, don't put in a four stroke. Don't sheet, glass, and paint it. Finish it with four channels and monokote like the designed intended, and you have a beautiful flying airplane. I had a 15 in one, was a little mild for my tastes, up to a 28, which was maybe a bit much. I would not want to put in a four stroke, it's just not a four strokey type airplane.
I still have the fuse of one I turned into a P51B somewhere.
Anyway, this is one of the best bang for a buck planes out there, and it flies just great. I think it's a big mistake to try and turn it into something it is not, a five or six channel plane.

[vt325xi]

Originally posted by easytiger
I have built three of them. Fun airplane. Don't put in retracts, don't put in a four stroke. Don't sheet, glass, and paint it. Finish it with four channels and monokote like the designed intended, and you have a beautiful flying airplane. I had a 15 in one, was a little mild for my tastes, up to a 28, which was maybe a bit much. I would not want to put in a four stroke, it's just not a four strokey type airplane.
I still have the fuse of one I turned into a P51B somewhere.
Anyway, this is one of the best bang for a buck planes out there, and it flies just great. I think it's a big mistake to try and turn it into something it is not, a five or six channel plane.


This is my first Balsa kit. I am having a heck of a time building it. Is there anybody with better plans on this kit. Sometimes I look at the tiny pictures and cannot tell what is being glued where!

It was very vague when it came to the engine mount. I finally figured it out by looking at the plans in the background on one of the pictures and saw that it was a .30 series engine mount. I purchased all the parts for this from Tower Hobbies and have a GMS .32 engine ready to install into it. It is basically the same size as the .25, just a little bit taller and lighter too!

Any more pics of the finished and building process would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Richard

[vt325xi]

I found that my GMS .32 engine will not fit without major mods to the front end. So I finally ordered a OS .15 LA in blue from Tower Hobbies. This engine is MUCH smaller and puts out 1/3 as much power. Hopefully it works ok. I always find I can never go fast enough.

[easytiger]

This kit has VERY good instructions, in my opinion, but it's your first balsa kit, so you are going to have some issues anyway...I don't think you can do much better than the instruction booklet they give you...but I don't think they intended it for first time builders, either...
The OS15 is going to make a pretty mild model, if you can never go fast enough, try the OS15CV or something else...

[vt325xi]

easytiger ,
Thanks a lot for the heads up on the engine. I may just do that, go with the CV buggy engine that has been modded for airplane use. It is rather expensive though! I currently fly a Duraplane Aerobat and with a Tower .46 (aka GMS) putting out 1.75 hp it's still not fast enough for me. I also have a Hobbico Spectrum pattern plane with a TT .42, it too is not fast enough, so my worry was with the .15 LA that it would be fast enough so that's why I initially bought the GMS .32. But it looks like there is no way to put that engine in the HOB P-51 without major carving to the nose. Then it won't look like much of a P-51. If you have any pictures of your .25 in the nose, I'd appreciate seeing them. And thanks for the words of encouragement about the ease of assembly on this model. It's still confusing sometimes but I guess it could be worse, there could be just a sheet of plans and all the parts and NO instruction.

Thank you,
Richard

[Brian Nixon]

I built my .20-sized House of Balsa Mustang for electric: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=76813

This is a great-flying model with no bad habits. I'm building another one that I'll power with a Norvel .25. I figure I'll side-mount the engine so the exhaust blows along the bottom of the fuse. Did you consider side-mounting your .32 to get it to fit better?

[easytiger]

I don't have any pics of mine...
I built a total of three of these planes over the years. I had an OS20 in one, that was very decent. I had an Enya 25 in another, it was great.
But in one, I had a Mecoa Wildcat 28, and it HONKED. I mean, it was FAST. And FUN. But the engine was unreliable, would never idle, worthless junk engine. At full throttle, though, wow.
I think you SHOULD be able to fit in the 32, but yeah, it's going to stick out. The 28 did. Compare the size with a Norvel 25, that may be a better choice. For the cost, I think you will get more power/dollar from the GMS or Norvel than the OS CV15. You WILL be dissapointed with the LA15.
Side mounting seems like a good idea. All three of mine were inverted.

[Twostroker]

I had one that was a blast to fly, as a matter of fact it was my second plane. It was powered by a number of engines, first was a OS20FP. The 20 was a bit tired and unreliable so it was swapped out for a fresh OS15FP, while the engine was strong and reliable it was very scale flight to say the least. Finally the plane got a new OS25LA, this one was great fun! We were all new to the hobby and nobody thought it would last more than one flight, but it lasted many. As a matter of fact I sold it when I was done with it for a profit. Come to think of it there was a $100.00 bet as to weather it would survive the first flight from such a Greenhorn. So I have fond memories of my little Mustang, it was a good plane.

[vt325xi]

That is an absolutely gorgeous plane! Did you use Chrome covering or the recommended Aluminum covering? I have both just in case.

I think I will give it another go with trying to stuff that GMS .32 engine in there! The problem is the carb body is rather wide so I may look at mounting it sideways instead of inverted.

Thanks for the picture.

Richard

[Twostroker]

I used chrome monocote on this one. Good luck with the 32 you will need a shoehorn to fit it, there just isn't that much room. When the 25LA was bought for mine at the LHS the plane was brought in with me to test fit engines and the LA fit good. Too bad it wasn't bigger because the guy behind the counter offered me the FX for the same price.
Here is a picture of the second one built with flaps. This just shows how green I was when playing with these planes, it didn't need flaps, but it was fun. It slowed it down almost too much it looked like it was going to drop at any second but never did.
Tim

[dcutaia]

Hello,

I am new to this user group. I purchased an already built House of Balsa P51 plane. The .20 size. Does anyone know the balancing point for this plane?

Thanks,

DAC