It's taken a month of fairly steady work, but the repair/refinish of the HobbyKing DC-3 I'd reviewed for RCGroups is advancing nicely.

As of this writing, I've laid down and sanded two coats of primer since completing the repairs, filling and sealing the model. Summer heat is a problem; despite the Polycrylic sealer, the EPO bubbled up in places very quickly when I was working outside. I've fixed the bubbled areas and I'll be doing the final coat(s) of primer one part at a time - and very quickly!

I'm sharing the mocked-up model and the fantastic Callie Graphics decals. A few more detailing decals are on their way from beautiful New Mexico and it won't be long before I'm ready to wet sand the primer - and apply the paint!

Pictured as well is the DC-3/C-47 cockpit kit from Park Flyer Plastics. Owner Keith Sparks has an assembly and painting thread posted here at RCG which I'll use to paint and assemble my kit. I ordered a couple of dummy radial engines from PFP, but per my recent entry in the classifieds, I'm looking for at least one intact cowl to replace the one whose "engine" was damaged in the crash.

I've had the pleasure of dealing with Banggood.com for several years and if anything, their choices of real hobby-grade models has become very impressive.

Such a model is the new Ranger G2 757-6 from Volantex RC. No, I'd never heard of the company prior to my Banggood contact "BG Tobey" offering this model to me as a blog review subject. If I may be so bold, I believe we'll all be hearing from Volantex more and more in passing months.

For an incredibly low $72.99 with free shipping, Banggood will deliver a PNP Ranger G2 with all electronics mounted and ready to go. All one needs to get flying is a suitable radio and batteries. Banggood's ordering page has a link to the recommended batteries, but those recommendations come with XT60 plugs while the ESC in the Ranger has a Deans Ultra-Plug clone.

No matter; this is a very nicely done all-EPO model with a wonderful finish, good fitting parts and quick assembly. Even the control surfaces are hinged! If I had it to do again, I'd pick up some servo extensions for the receiver and Callie Graphics decals.

Assembly is quick, made easier by a well-written manual. Decal application was a real bear; getting them to lie down properly took a lot of work. Again, I highly recommend Callie Graphics.

Two canopies are provided, one "bubble" and one which will accept an adhesive-backed action camera mount. FPV is no problem since the Ranger G2 is purpose built for FPV with an opening in the nose for a...Continue Reading

"Project C-47 Rescue" hit a milestone earlier today.

I finished the filling and sanding.

That, friends, was a big job. I plan to hit a couple of curved areas with a sanding needle, but other than that, every part is repaired and ready for sealing. I may go the Minwax Polycrylic route since it's less expensive than Foam-Tac Foam Finish. I should have more than enough in a half pint of the Minwax to cover this rather large model...and I don't want to weigh it down. The YouTube thread I've been using as a reference showed the example model being sealed with something like eight coats. I don't think I'll need quite that much! The prototype is intentionally rough looking, but I'll still keep my model reasonably smooth. It just doesn't have to be that smooth.

Most of the Hobbico HobbyLite filler was sanded off with the recommended 180 grit sandpaper and the remainder did a stellar job of filling the numerous scratches, gouges, cuts and countless injection marks. I didn't weigh the parts before or after, but all of the components including the fuselage weigh practically nothing.

Pix and more to follow.