de Havilland 60 III Moth Major SX-AAA - peanut

[g_kandylakis]

what a mess...

white lettering on the fuselage was sprayed as well, using suitable artool frisket film for masks.

Very low tack, very easy to peel off. It needs care to avoid bleed though. Or retouching as was my case

[g_kandylakis]

The "A"s, quite a lot of them, had an overpainted central triangle, so this was sprayed again in blue.

The name on the cowl, "ΓΕΡΑΚΙ" or "HAWK" for everyone else except Lurk, was too tiny so it was handpainted. Too small to see without a magnifying glass, so any imperfections disappear.

[g_kandylakis]

Detailing time, yeah! (not really...)

Windshields proved quite tricky, given their small size.

A template was cut. the parts were bent to shape and trimmed to final outline.

Next, very thin Tamija masking tape strips were glued to represent the frame. Painted aluminium, the final resulting parts surpassed my expectations when I started them.

[g_kandylakis]

Some quick crude instrument panes for the cockpits as well.

And panel lines with very thin permanent markers. A combination of gray and black created a better illusion than black alone

[g_kandylakis]

As the time to Nijmegen got closer, the building rythme got faster and the picture taking less.

So, not many pictures of the final steps.

For the final assembly a jig was made using mm K-foamboard. The jig later became the base for the transort box.

[g_kandylakis]

Finished model, more or less

[g_kandylakis]

And here the finished box.

The model is held in position with small velcro tapes

[g_kandylakis]

For the first time in ages, the model was finished enough time in advance of the event, to allow some test flying.

It did not fly properly, badly droing the left wing. Despite initial triming adjustments it was impossible to improve the flight behaviour. Flights of 15-1 seconds were possible but highly banked and not higher.

The problem was too much wasout under the left wings, built in during rigging. So the left wing was rerigged and this probably did the trick.

In Nijmegen the trimming oportunities were less this year. However the peanut flying slots proved enough to get it to flying properly.

A maximum of 34 seconds was achieved from ROG.

When the results were announced, I was greatly surprized to see it got 2nd place in static.
Coupled with a 15th position in flying, it got 8th place overall. Good enough for me.

[g_kandylakis]

My entry for open rubber was my still not properly trimmed Avro F.

Realising that it would be impossible to trim it in time, I decided to use the Moth Major instead. It was flying well enough, so I figured a few less turns would result in more realistic flights.

And indeed the model flew much better than I had expected.

Thanks to Vlad Alfery, most of the flights were filmed at the event, including those of the Moth.

The best scoring flight was in round 1

Quite unexpected, the model got 4th place in static and 5th in flying realism, for a total of 5th overall.

More than satisfied...