Guillow's Avenger

The model was designed for rubber power or a small glow engine, I fly electric RC and can tell you an electric motor + battery can weigh more than a glow .049. However, the new more powerful motors and smaller Li Po batteries you might get away with it. It depends on the wing loading, which is somewhat of a equation. Were you planning on making it RC or free flight or control line?

I used Clear Dope to put colored tissue on over the balsa.  That helped by sealing the balsa and making painting a lot easier. The tissue covered any minor seam cracks. Then I brush painted them with the colored dope.  I still have a few bottles of clear and a couple bottles of colors.  When I build the next one, I'm planning on trying watered down Elmers glue to put on the tissue and then trying to spray paint it with acrylics. It should work well.

I'm not sure if putting an electric motor in it will solve the weight problem or not.  I've never tried it.  They say on some of the kits that you can do it with electric or even small gas engines (.049 - .051 I guess). Gas is very messy and I wouldn't use it on tissue/stick models. Either way, you'd have to be sure to balance the plane carefully to get the Center of Gravity right.

Hope that this helps.

Jim 

What do you use to seal the balsa sheets?If I put a suitable electric motor in it will the weight problem be overcome?

Philo,  I used 1/64" sheet to cover the airframe when I used to build them for show.  It adds weight but works fine.  You have to be careful when sanding so you don't go through the sheets.  

I have these kits sitting in my stash and I have 2 with the frames finished and no covering sitting on the top shelf.  Comet - Supermarine Spitfire II                                                                                                                                    Comet - Aeronca Chief                                                                                                                                                Guillows - Fokker DR-1 Triplane                                                                                                                                 Sterling - Spad                                                                                                                                                               Sterling - Sopwith Camel                                                                                                                                               Herr - Fokker D-VII

I've found the Herr kits to be very good kits.  Make into fine builds. My grandsons like to watch me build them.  However, they don't care to try it themselves.  Maybe one of these days.

Jim 

P.S. I still love the stick and microfilm planes but don't have the hands to apply the film to the frames anymore.

philo426

I wonder if thin balsa sheet can be used to plate the airframe?

Too heavy. If you want to fly It, you need to go with tissue. Unfortunately, Monokote and the associated lighter versions may be too heavy as well. As posted earlier, the Guillows kits were heavy to begin with.

Now, with that being said, as a static display...1/32 balsa would be great 

Just don't put your finger through it.

I went to Hobbytown to purchase a 3 bladed prop to replace the goofy red plastic prop included in the kit.(I realize it might be necessary for rubber powered flight but still goofy)   

I wonder if thin balsa sheet can be used to plate the airframe?

Don,

You've just answered a question I've been mulling over for YEARS!  If thin card stock or sheet styrene work well for covering Guillows type models, I'm thinking lithography plates or even soda can aluminum would do the job as well.

philo426

I have some Monokote that is a plastic like covering that you put on with a heat gun like shrink wrap.Since it is white,I was thinking of doing the Atlantic Coast scheme of two tone gray.

The problem with any fabric, paper or thin plastic is that when it pulls taunt it goes flat and the fuselage will become faceted, like those PE models.  Even though the formers are curved, the covering will pull flat when heated to shrink it (in the case of monokote, or just water shrinking with tissue).  You need something that will hold the curve and doesn't need to be pulled tight.  Again, if you are building it to fly, that is something else, but if it is for static scale you need a heavier covering.

Wing unit off the paper.  

Yeah that stuff sure was nasty!

Again it brings back memories ,anyone remember when you could walk into a hobby shop and say,hey I need some dope

Yeah i was concerned that the monokote might cause warpage perhaps I should use the tissue after all.

I build stick'n'tissue models often and if you intend to fly the Avenger, Monokote is much too heavy - even Lite Span is a little heavy. Shrinking the Monokote is likely to warp the structure as well. Tissue would be best even if painted. If you don't intend it to fly, weight is unimportant.

Outstanding!! I built and flew several of the Guillow's kits as a kid. And I just purchased a P-51 kit for me and my son to build in the spring. Hope you enjoy the build and thanks for sharing!

Hello!

I have built a 1:32 Hellcat back in 1997 - brought it to Poland from Australia. I just doped it (it had a nice navy blue tissue) and after it lost its undercarriage after the first flight, it flew quite well. Of course, if you are going to paint the aircraft and add detail, flying them babies after that would be a nonsense. Nevertheless, those kits are something special! philo426, good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

I have some Monokote that is a plastic like covering that you put on with a heat gun like shrink wrap.Since it is white,I was thinking of doing the Atlantic Coast scheme of two tone gray.

I cover Guillows models with thin card stock or sheet styrene instead of tissue.  Tissue doesn't represent metal covering very well, but good card stock or styrene sheet does.  Tissue is fine for WW1, but for later aircraft, use card stock or plastic unless you really want it to fly.

But then, the Guillows models do not fly well anyway.  They are too heavy.  Too much detail, and the wood is not selected for lightness, but for strength.

A relative of mine just gave me one of Guillows' 1/16 scale P-38 kits. No idea what I'm going to do with it yet. Too much to build already. They are neat kits, though.

--Chris

It is 1/32.I will measure it once completed!

Stick and tissue baby, gotta love it. A stick and tissue Stearman was my first flying model.

Cool. Brings back memories. Everyone should try their hand at stick and paper at least once.

Cool!! What's the scale, and how big will it be when you're finished?