This is my first balsa build and will be my first build log. I've spent lots of time reviewing the existing build threads for this plane and it's close cousin the Guillow's Champ for ideas. I'm actually mostly done with the lion's share of the structural stuff already, but my wife, who bought me this plane for Christmas, encouraged me to post my photos to keep a record.

Some Background (skip this section if you just want to get to the build)

I got into the hobby this past spring by working my up through the ultra-micros, first getting the Hobbyzone Champ, followed by the Parkzone UM T-28, then the Eflite UMX Beast. On the flying side of things, I felt like I'd hit a bit of a wall with the Beast and kept crashing/breaking it, so bought the relatively new Twisted Hobbies 32" EPP Edge 540, which was probably the best decision I've made in the hobby so far. Building the Edge was a lot of fun and took me back to my childhood, when I used to build a lot of plastic models and really simple sheet and stick balsa gliders. Watching me build the Edge is what convinced my wife to get me a balsa kit, and her research lead her to the Guillow's kit.

The Build

Because this is my first build, I'm using the KISS principle to its fullest extent. For the most part I'm using the kit wood, not going crazy with modifications, and just trying to build it solid so it will fly.

The Airframe:
One area where I've made a significant departure from the plans is the vertical stab and rudder, which I've built much sturdier than called for. I did this because I really want a steerable tailwheel, and I know from experience with my ultra micros that the rudders take a beating during taxis and landings. I know Konrad is a big proponent of keeping the tail as light as possible but I've got some ideas for keeping other big-ticket weight items farther forward in the fuse than I've seen in other builds, so hopefully I won't need to add any weight when it's all said and done. I did follow Konrad's strategies in a couple areas, including the very rear portion of the fuse by gluing in a piece with the grain running vertically, and I also left out former B4, which reduces weight and leaves plenty of room for sliding the servos fore/aft to help get the CG just right.

One think I didn't see in any other builds is I built the wings with a 3/32 shim under the outside trailing edge so the washout is "built in." Basically I glued together the trailing edge and wing tips, then put in my shim, then glued in the leading edge and the ribs. It worked great, now I just need to make sure the washout stays in there when I put the covering on, which I'm sure will be no easy task.

I'm waiting to put on the fuselage stringers because I want to drill little holes in the fuse formers as guides for the carbon fiber control rods, and I won't know exactly where to put them until I've got the servos mounted, which leads me to...

The Electronics:
Here's what I'm still waiting on from HobbyKing.

• 18-11 2000kv Micro Brushless Outrunner (10g)
• OrangeRx R610 Spektrum DSM2 6Ch 2.4Ghz Receiver
• GWS EP Propeller (DD-5030 127x76mm) (6pcs/set)
• Covering Film Solid Amber (5mtr) 106
• ZIPPY Flightmax 350mAh 2S 20C
• HobbyKing 12A BlueSeries Brushless Speed Control
• Small Wheel 30x13mm (5pcs/bag)
• Carbon Fiber Tube (hollow) 3x2x750mm
• Carbon Fiber Rod (solid) 1.8x750mm
• Hobby King 3.7g / .4kg / .10sec Micro Servo
• Yak 54 Ultra Micro Control Horns

I feel pretty good about the power combo but if anyone has any thoughts I welcome them. I might go smaller on the battery for the first flights depending how things come out weight-wise, but those Zippy's were so cheap I figured what the heck.

I'm not sure I'll need the CF tube for anything but even if I don't it'll be nice to have around. It might make for some nice scale cockpit bracing, we'll see. I may or may not use the control horns. I learned from the guys over on the Edge forum that old gift card material makes great control horns, so I might end up using that.

I'm still trying to find a source for suitable landing gear wire. If anyone has any leads, I'm all ears.

Without further ado, here are the photos of my work so far.

Built this kit many years ago. The kit was die cut from balsa/oak. Yours looks laser cut, is guillows now laser cutting these kits?

This kit was laser cut. My understanding is that they have converted almost all to laser cut and before long all of them will be.

You should be able to find landing gear wire at any decent hobby shop. A steerable tail wheel is good to have but "err" on the side of lightness for anything that adds weight to the tail. With a model of this size, you need to keep overall weight/wing loading down as much as practical as it directly affects scale flyability and tendency to stall and crash at slower airspeeds. The tricky part in converting small rubber scale models is getting the power and RC bits located far enough forward so that there is little or no need to add nose weight to counter tail heaviness. Use of lightweight iron-on covering ( Coverlite, etc) helps keep rear fuselage weight to a minimum. Your build is a great learning experience. Hope you go on to building larger, more lightly wing loaded models, to experience many pleasurable take-offs, flights, scale maneuvers, and landings.

Thanks for the tips E-Challenged. My plan for the rear tailwheel is to use one of the landing gear from my UM T-28, which I never use on that particular plane. Very thin wire and a very lightweight wheel that will be about the right size. If that causes issues I'll probably just switch over to a simple wire tail skid mounted to the fuse with no wheel, which I've seen on a few of the builds.

Looking great! How is the wood in the laser cut kit? I wonder if it is still the same type wood in the die cut kits?

The wood is probably just OK. This being my first balsa build I'm not exactly the best judge of the wood quality, but when I compare it with what you can buy from the hobby shop I can definitely see the difference. It's fairly dark and kind of mottled. It's also not tremendously consistent across the length of the sheet. There's no question you could go out and buy better wood, make the parts from scratch, and end up with a lighter model in the end, but I'm cautiously optimistic that the supplied wood will get the job done.

I've got a 26 in cub that I fly on the E-Flite 180bl 2500kv and 2s. I came in at 93g RTF, but I'm running an AR6400BL. If you can keep the AUW less than 5 oz you should be in pretty good shape.

Even with the stock balsa 5 oz should be pretty easy to hit with a small 2s set up.

I just ordered this kit yesterday and it will be my first build also. Any advice or tips? How much was your cost for the electronics? And how did you get the elevator and rudder to turn? Also where are the pictures?

Originally Posted by Barrett53

I just ordered this kit yesterday and it will be my first build also. Any advice or tips? How much was your cost for the electronics? And how did you get the elevator and rudder to turn? Also where are the pictures?

Congrats! I'm really enjoying my first build and hopefully will be rewarded with a decent-flying model. The best advice I can give would be to spend some time reviewing all the other threads on the Guillows 300 series high-wing conversions, namely the Champ, the Cessnas, and the Cub, all of which can be found here:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=827861

Work carefully, but don't get too upset if you realize at some point you've made a mistake. It's surprisingly easy to go back and fix most things that you happen to screw up. Also, some of the other threads use some pretty advanced techniques such as the rudder covering fillet and the laminate tail frames that I don't think are worth trying for your first build.

Total cost with shipping on the list of items above was about 80 bucks. That includes a total of 4 batteries and 2 each of the carbon fiber rods/tubes. The worst part is I'm STILL waiting for all that stuff to arrive, which is why you haven't seen any progress since my original post.

Right now the plan is to use the inside of a floppy disk for a hinge. You just make little slits the wood and slide the floppy disk material in with some thin CA. I've never actually done this before but it's what I see on a lot of builds and, other than using the "figure 8" stitching of floss or thread, which I don't like the looks of, it seems like the most straightforward technique. I've tried to find a good video or tutorial on how to make a hinge out of the covering but so far have come up empty. I would consider that technique if I could find a good video or explanation of it.

It's taken awhile but I have some things to update. I am STILL WAITING on my order from HobbyKing, which is getting ridiculous. According to the tracking it is nearby, so hopefully I'll have it early this week.

I've managed to get the gear, the hatch, and the cowling finished in the last week or so. I got some small rare earth magnets and used those for securing the rear end of the hatch. I was going to use them for the front as well but even though the balsa-based solution I ended up with looks heavy, it's lighter than the magnets would have been. I also used magnets to secure the cowl. I had to shave down a bit of the firewall to get the metal inserts in the cowling closer to the magnets to get a more secure connection. I'll need to give some thought to cooling once I get my motor in and get a better idea of how everything is going to fit together.

Getting my Dremel set up with the sanding drum has made forming parts about 1000X easier. Wish I would have figured that out a long time ago. Really hoping my HobbyKing order shows up soon.

Looking good, BTW every order I have made with Hobby King took three weeks to get.

I think they get bogged down clearing customs, I`m betting the actual time in transit is less than a week.

Looks great. Thanks for the update.

I might have to build one of these too.

Long time no update. As you can see I am finished except for the finishing. Before I spent another couple of hours painting, putting on decals, etc., I figure I'll get the maiden out of the way. The blue painter tape is temporarily holding the windshield on because I still need to do some detailing around the window bracing. Here are some notes for others.

1) My somewhat carefree attitude regarding tail weight was a mistake, as I ended up needing about 3 grams of ballast on the nose to get the CG right.

2) I gave into temptation and attempted the tail fillet. It took several tries but eventually I managed to get some acceptable results. It's not perfect by any means, but for my first ever covering job I have to say I'm pretty pleased with my results.

3) The wire landing gear that came with the kit looked ridiculous, so I covered it in some shrink tubing and managed to get pretty decent results.

4) For my control rods I used the same rods that are used in the Hobbyzone Champ. My brother and I both have one (highly recommend this plane if you're just starting) and his had a bad brick, so he called Hobbyzone and they sent him an all new fuselage with the brick installed and a complete new set of control rods and rod ends.

5) When putting holes in the covering at the tail for the control rods to exit, I made a major mistake and put them way too far back. As a result I ended up with long slits instead of small holes. This is probably the worst part of the model and if I decide to do some deconstructing and rebuilding, that is an area that I would definitely fix. The hole should be about 1/3 of the way back from the last former between the last former and the very end of the fuse.

6) I wish I'd paid more attention when making my wings and instead of just doing every other rib I would have spread them out evenly and made sure that the little uprights that go from the mid-point of the struts up into the wing (they aren't installed yet on mine) have a rib to attach to. Right now when I install those struts they will just be attaching to the covering and won't be adding any structural stability at all.

7) I was very pleased with the results of using 2mm carbon fiber rod to brace my cockpit. I think it looks very scale and the triangulated structure is extremely strong.

8) I had originally mounted my receiver just behind the last fuse former that defines the "cockpit" but ended up having to move it forward to get the CG close. I managed to get it pretty well tucked into the front of the cockpit below the instrument panel, along with the ESC. I am a bit concerned about having the receiver so close to the ESC, but I'll make sure I do a thorough range check before the maiden. This is the one thing I see that could be a show-stopper.

9) I was pleasantly surprised by how strong the floppy disc material hinges were. I am not happy with how large the gaps are between the fixed and movable surfaces, mainly a result of my not realizing how quickly the CA was going to set up once I got the floppy disk material into the slots in the control surfaces.

10) My finished, ready to fly weight (with battery installed) is 116 grams, or about 4.1 oz.

11) Last but not certainly not least, Behr "orange peel" paint (available at Home Depot), number S-G-290 is darn near an absolute perfect match for HobbyKing covering film solid amber number 106.

That's it for now. As soon as I get a relatively windless day I'll do the maiden. My wife, who has watched all of this transpire on our kitchen counter since Christmas, is super nervous for the first flight, and will be there with the video camera.

Gavronm, I am also a newbie to this, like yourself, but must complement you on a beautiful looking plane. I hope it flys well for you.

Are you in Alaska?I sa your inspiration plane photo, looks like an Alaskan cub with those big donuts for tires.