I would like to start a discussion of what a perfect kit should be. Before I list my wish list, I would like to give you some of my background:
I am a relatively new arrival on the stunt scene. I've been flying as a kid but I would not call that kind of flying "stunt". I decided to learn pattern in March of 2003 so that's my "stunt" birthday. I moved all the way from beginner to expert class and won contests in each class. Over the years I have had an opportunity to build models from kits AND from scratch.
I own/built contemporary style kits produced by Dare Designs, Brodak, RSM and Sir Walter Umland. The kits are all great but ALL lacked one thing or another. By contemporary I mean that they are all using modern kit format(laser cut, prebent hardware, good control systems if included, CAD drawn plans, etc). I have also found them all lacking some elements so I would like to list what I would consider "Modern Complete kit":
1) Laser cut everything. ribs, formers, weight boxes, adjustment hatches. Most importantly, kits should include plywood jig parts. UHP kits had it right!
2) Mold everything that can be molded: top, bottom blocks, leading edges, parts of cowl, etc. The days of carving top and bottom block are over! Top and bottom blocks should be molded. Kits should come with lasercut plywood formers that can be glued onto a straight piece of plywood, space between them filled with pink foam from Home Depot, foam shaped and wood molded over the buck. I don't expect the kit to include the buck, pink foam or moulded parts, just the plywood formers and balsa sheets to make the part.
3) Speaking of getting rid of carving blocks of wood. Kits should come with CF wheelpants, wingtips and engine cowls.
4) If design calls for fuse mounted LG, include CF landing gear. If using wire wing gear, the landing gear wire should come bre-bent.
5) Speaking of landing gear, let's stop the old hardwood block approach for wing mounted landing gear. They are heavy and useless. Keyed lucky boxes are so much lighter and easier to work with and they allow for easy LG removal. Lucky box parts should be lasercut.
6) Quality of kit wood has improved tremendously. Most kits come with super light wood and therein lies a problem. If a design calls for solid sheet flaps or elevators, the wood for those components should be stronger. Soft flaps twist a LOT. The basic premise, the kit should include appropriate type and density wood for each part.
7) Fuselage formers need to be stiff and NOT unidirectional. Most kits come with fuse formers out of a single sheet of balsa. Balsa is strong in only one direction: along the grain. They break easily if any kind of force is applied from another direction. To make it stiffer, the formers come solid of with very small lighning holse which can contribute to control pushrod rubbing on formers. A better way is to use plywood and cut out large lightning holes. I found that a 1/8 plywood(not light ply, the real stuff) former with cut out holes to 1/8 wall width will always come the same or lighter than equivalent balsa former while having 10x better stiffness.
Bob Hunt has it right: we should be using molded leading edges. I've molded leading edges on both built up and foam wings and leading edge consistency is amazing!
9) Hardware. The kit should include all hardware(wheels,screws,prebent wires, etc). If a kit is of a modern design, chances are, the designer used proper control geometry. If so, the kit should include full control system that uses CF tubes with inserts, adjustable neutral and elevator slider. If the kit is of a classic design, I would still prefer the kit included control hardware with modern geometry or at least point to a place where one can order the set specific to the kit. In other words, I want to call some place and ask for control systems for kit X.
What are your "wishes"?
Topic: My perfect kit! (Read 3635 times)
