I was approached by a long time family friend who also happens to be one of my town's local scale train enthusiasts. C.B. McArthur, a former Army General, is a hard man to turn down. So when he asked me if I would be up to the challenge of painting and weathering a static model for the railroad modelers club layout, I accepted the challenge. Since I am starting a special project I hope to have ready in time for SEFF, and have never really weathered a plane before, I was glad to get the opportunity. Even though it is a resisn cast static model it incorporates many of the techniques I'll need to weather the special project plane, and from what I've been told, my first attempt at weathering and scenery is actually very good. It started out completely unpainted and a creamy yellowy white color and it now looks like a rusting old heap, which is what the pictures I was folowing looked like, so I guess I can call it a success. Several customers at the hobby shop I work in are award winning model builders and they gave me some excellent tips, as well as a big thumbs up on the finished product. So, even though it's not RC, I submit for your approval the "Rusty Little Steam Tender" from rustyrail.com for your approval. BTW. Lmopar69 is the only one who's allowed to disapprove.... LOL...I think it is a scale model of a product that was partially produced by .. someone other than Dodge... LOL..

Bo

I put a maiden flight on the F4 Phantom I got from Ready To Fly Planes.com and RC Groups member Hippo earlier today. The F4 is one of two planes that I purchased. The other is the F-86 Sabre. Both are complete with servo's, air retract system, ESC, and 90mm EDF unit with brushless motor set up for 6S Lipos. No external BEC needed. For the F4, there are only two servo's in the rear on the full flying tailerons and these are the only two surfaces that control it in flight. On the ground, the steerable nose wheel is pushed around by a neat little servo, mounted directly to the retract gear assembly in the nose.
Although the plane came fully painted and ready for decals, I decided to put a special paint job on it. I found it on the box of a plastic model we sell in the hobby shop. The model, by Accurate Miniatures, was a great resource for the paint scheme, even though I could not follow it's example to the last detail.
Flight from the F4 was very scale with a more than reasonable take off run and plenty of power. It is a very smooth flyer. The only negative thing that happend was that one of the quick connect style connectors on the left taileron became slightly loose in flight and wanted to allow the plane to drift right all the time. This happened 4 or more minutes into the flight and since trimming was not helping much, the maiden flight was cut short for me to figure out what was going on. I've attached a few pictures of the plane... just before the maiden. I've made a few adjustments, added a small amount of weight to the tail and she's ready to go again. Enjoy... I sure did.

Bo

Here is a picture or two of a DG1000 glider which I purchased from a customer / friend of mine. He built it and powered it with an AXI motor and custom mount. He sold it to me with everything but the motor, speed control and battery, but I just could'nt justify buying a new motor when I've got 20-30 just doing nothing. As it turned out, none of them fit the custom aluminum mount he had made for the AXI, so I just fabricated one that would and it's ready to go. I ended up using an Extreme Flight Torque 2814/900 or something like that. It throws the very nice Graupner 13 X 7 folding prop with tons of thrust and pulls 35 amps static at WOT. on 3S. Can't wait for a nice day in 2010 ... it's almost the new year as I type this.. to try it out and take it up for a nice long flight. Fingers are crossed.

Bo