Brodak .40 sized Fun Scale Warbird kits

[Mark Mc]

On a lark, I was thinking about buying a Brodak .40 sized profile Zero kit.  I have some money on a pre-paid Visa card, and want to splurge on something for Father's day.  Looking at Brodak's website, I notice that the FW-190 kit is on sale.  Since the description of all the .40 sized Fun Scale Warbirds is exactly the same, just the name of the planes are different, I assume that the wing is the same for all the planes, just with different wingtips for the individual design.  The wings are all 46/48" and 470/480 sq.in. for .28-40 engines.  Am I correct?  If so, I could just buy the FW-190 kit and modify the fuselage to the Zero profile.  I've loved the Zero since I was a kid watching Black Sheep Squadron/Baa Baa Black Sheep/whatever on TV.  The sleek design is just one of the most beautiful planes I've ever seen.  I built several plastic models of the Zero as a kid, but strangely never built any RC or CL models of one.

Mark

[Jim Roselle]

I believe the difference in price is due to the FW 190 being die cut as opposed to laser.

[Mark Mc]

You could go that way or, Brodak also sells rib sets and plans for all the kits they sell.

I thought about that.  But the rib set is $18.00 and the plans are $18.00.  That's about 2/3 of the way to the sale price of $59.99.  Then I either have to bend my own landing gear, or buy the Brodak gear for the plane at $9.00.  Then engine bearer maple and the rest of the fuselage wood and misc stuff included in the kit I'd have to go out and get if I don't have it on hand.  I'm usually a scratch builder, but if I'm buying for a splurge, might as well buy the whole thing and save myself time, and maybe money, depending on what I have on hand or have to buy.  I'm sure I can use most of the fuselage wood, just reshaping and grafting in what I need for the Zero profile. 

I believe the difference in price is due to the FW 190 being die cut as opposed to laser.

Jim, die cut doesn't bother me.  Been working with it for my whole modelling life.  And at less than half previous list price of the kit, I think I could go for it.  Besides, the description on the Zero kit still says die cut ribs also.

Mark

[Jim Carter]

   Hi!  Just for grins, you might want to give consideration to the Brodak Bearcat, CLB-30.  I and some members of our group built them and two of us modified them for r/c throttle control and retracts.  They're a great build and a real hoot to fly!!

[Phil Spillman]

Mike Garman did in fact design all those War Bird kits save the larger ones! He used the original Tutor wing with several changes to make it bigger and more efficient. I have one of the original FW-190's pro-to types as built by Willis Swindell, now deceased. Willis enlarged the wing by one rib bay each side. He Willis also morphed a Zero kit into a Stuka and it too flies quite well as a Stuka! Both of these models are powered by LA .46's but a Brodak .40 would serve quite well for power. I fly my two profiles on 62' .015 lines as measured eyelet to eyelet. 60' lines eyelet to eyelet will also work well all per your choice! My models compete in Profile Stunt and perform well for me not necessarily as well as they might perform in someone-elses' hands! Having just turned 80 I am not quite as nimble as I may once have been!

So the point of all this is that you may go a different way but you may certainly feel confident in using any of this series of planes! They're all quite good!

Phil Spillman

[Gary Dowler]

On a lark, I was thinking about buying a Brodak .40 sized profile Zero kit.  I have some money on a pre-paid Visa card, and want to splurge on something for Father's day.  Looking at Brodak's website, I notice that the FW-190 kit is on sale.  Since the description of all the .40 sized Fun Scale Warbirds is exactly the same, just the name of the planes are different, I assume that the wing is the same for all the planes, just with different wingtips for the individual design.  The wings are all 46/48" and 470/480 sq.in. for .28-40 engines.  Am I correct?  If so, I could just buy the FW-190 kit and modify the fuselage to the Zero profile.  I've loved the Zero since I was a kid watching Black Sheep Squadron/Baa Baa Black Sheep/whatever on TV.  The sleek design is just one of the most beautiful planes I've ever seen.  I built several plastic models of the Zero as a kid, but strangely never built any RC or CL models of one.

Mark

If you loved the Zero this trivia bit will flip your lid. The Nakajima Sakae engine that powered this famous airplane was literally nothing but a license built (originally) P&W 1830 off a DC-3!  To the end of production they even cast the P&W horizontal propeller on the engine casing out of respect.

Gary

[Robert Mudd]

Covering an FW-190 now in all monokote.  It's for fun/practice. Die cut and well done.

Bought a second kit. Great price. Can't go wrong at $60. Would take some work to make the wing look look like a Zero's.

Jerry

[James Holford]

My 109 is patiently sitting in the box in tgr corner waiting to be built. But not til my Twister is done. Which shouldnt be too long after I made huge progress last night by gluing the wing in

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

[Mark Mc]

Well, I ordered the kit.  Can't wait to get it and place it in the queue.

Jim,  Thanks for the suggestion. But I already have a Hellcat in the wings.  Besides, one of the points of this plane will be to hang a .40 4-cycle on it, and the Bearcat might be a little on the big side for it.  I figured the Zero's shorter nose would be great for a 4-cycle.  Although the retracts do sound enticing.

Phil, thanks for the info on the Tutor wing.  I've looked at these fun scale warbirds for about three or four years, and figured it was about time to order one.

Jerry, I'm not going to try to make the wing look like a real Zero's.  I'm just going to do like the fun scale kits and mess with the wingtips.  I'm not a craftsman, and use Monokote on just about everything I build.

Mark

p.s.  Yeah, I know. I should stop building and get out to the park and fly more.  Life, y'know...

[Don Chandler]

I built the Brodak Sea Huricaine and it now flies well. Out of the box it was nose heavy so I measured the distance from the leading edge to the front of the fuselage and found that the fuselage in front of the LE was a 1/2 inch longer than the measurement on the plans. I took the engine and tank off and cut that 1/2 inch off, remounted everything and the problem was solved.

Don

[wwwarbird]

 The Brodak Zero I had was a great flying model with an LA.46. Initially I had a Brodak .40 on it but it just never had quite enough oomph for my liking. Refitting it with the LA was an immediate night-and-day improvement. Here's a thread on how I butchered mine up a few years back:

 https://stunthanger.com/smf/building-techniques/brodak-zero-well-sorta/msg190285/#msg190285