HPA

This build is a continuation of a project started 40 years ago. My father and I constructed a 480mm (18.9") span Humbrol Tiger Moth.

The kit included nice light balsa for the sheet fuselage and tail, built-up wings and rather thick and heavy vacuum formed fuselage top decking and nose cowling.

We originally built it for rubber power, unpainted with a bright green propeller. I have a fond memory of it flying well for a short straight flight in my front garden. This strong positive memory ensired my motivation for free flight scale decades into the future.

Later; disaster struck when I was admiring (playing) with it on the floor when a large piece of chipboard was knocked over onto the model. On removing it; the plane resembled a swatted fly. The wings were intact, but the top wing was now touching the bottom with no gap. The fuselage was splintered and flat. Luckily; the vacformed parts were robust enough to survive. The undercarrage legs were splayed out wide, completing the swatted look.

This was a point of descision for me; was this  setback going to move me away from aeromodelling and onto something less risky, such as stamp collecting? I showed some strength of character and stayed with the hobby.

My brother, who I accused of knocking over the fateful board, a bureau lid, helped draw up replacement parts.

A new fuselage and tail were mated to the original wings, which were patched where the struts were forced through the tissue. The hardest part of the restoration was in digging out the ends of the broken struts from their recesses.

Unfortunately, this time I badly brush painted the model in unthinned Humbrol enamels. This increased the weight, which did not help the 2nd and last flight of the model.

A brand new Telco CO2 motor was installed with lots of downthrust and maybe some side thrust. A test flight was conducted over the short grass of a football pitch. A sharp left spiral dive into the frozen turf destroyed the inner rib bays of the upper and lower wings. This ended the career of the model. I kept the plan and the parts.

I was recently delighted to find the plan and print out of parts on Outerzone.
https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=13059
I was supprised to see the same funky green propeller and blue acetate for the windscreen.

Looking back, I am impressed with the kit. The design was simple, with the complex double curvature parts ready made, in plastic. The top deckings was rather thick and heavy; being.l made from the same plastic as the nose cowl, which the propeller nose bearing fitted to.

The balsa, in my particular kit, was nice and light. Important for the fuselage and empenage. The kit captured the important aspects of the full sized plane without the complexities of a strict scale model.

I decided to remake the kit and get it to fly! I will reproduce the attractive yellow scheme from the box photo and have procured some yellow Asuki tissue.

Annoyingly; I have the complete remains of the original model with the exception of the most complex and time consuming to reproduce part. The nose cowl.

Since I will have to make a form for this I decided to replace the three top decking parts as well.

I have rough cut the vac form moulds. These are the most onerous part of the build so I should concentrate on it. Once complete, it will be plane sailing for the rest.

I will power the model with a restored Telco CO2 motor. The original plan suppliment recomended no right thrust and  5 degrees downthrust.

Can anyone confirm this recondation or suggest more reasonable values to start with?