I scored some ODR (one design racer?) and Shrike (the hard-to-find pitcheron) wing cores at a garage sale today.

I would like to inexpensively get started building something with them but I don't know where to start. Any suggestions for making something cool without a kit?

Scratch building a ODR is pretty simple. They are designed to be easy to build. You could probably get someone who has one to lend you the plans. The fuse is just a simple wooden box. The tail is sheet balsa.

The Shrike would be a little harder to copy. The fuse is more complex, and the wings need wing rod tubes and drive pins, and then you've got to deal with the wingeron linkages, etc.

If you've never scratch built before, start with the ODR.

Thanks Brian, I will look for the ODR plans.

I was not planning on making a shrike with the shrike cores. I was leaning more towards a scratch-build-one-of-a-kind, based on a similar planform. Ailerons instead of wingerons.