| Well, my plane arrived from Sunshine Hobbies...
Upon unpacking it, I found that one wing panel was pretty well
destroyed in shipping. They are sending me a replacement tonight.
Now, a quick review of the kit....
This is the only ARF from Sunshine that does not come pre-covered.
It is all balsa/ply, incluing the wings. (I was expecting that
the wings would be foam core..) The workmanship and balsa are marginal
to Ok. There are lots of bad cuts and a few pieces that already
cracked.
I must say that the kit is complete though. It comes with ALL harware,
including landing gear and wheels, fuel tank and even a servo tray.
To finish the plane, you have to join the wing halves, add the tail
feathers, cover and install radio and engine. The only "modeling"
that you need to do is shape the cowling cheeks that are on the
fuse.
It should be ready to cover in no time. I am not sure how well
it will stand up to busting balloons at Rhinebeck....
One question though....
In what direction should the grain go when you put the webbing between
spars in the wing?? I believe that the webbing grain should be
vertical. They added webbing with the grain horizontal. Is that
the correct way??? If not, all it adds is weight and a false sense
of security.
thanks,
jeff
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| Now that I am covering the Sunshine Eindecker, I thought I would
give a brief product review...
First of all, the Eindecker is apparently the only Sunshine model that
doesn't come "just install radio and engine". So comments about
this kit may not have any bearing on the rest of their line..
Well, when the kit arrived, one of the wing panels was broken during
shipping. I called, and they immediatly sent a replacement panel.
This arrived a few days later. Super, except it was the wrong side.
Another call, and a few days later, I got the right panel.
The wings are built up wings. You glue the halves together and
add wingtips. The wingtips are very flimsey balsa sheet. I added
a doubler to the tips. The center section took some work to get
the pieces to mate correctly. They could have made this much easier
by supplying a wedge, ala the great planes kit.
Now, for the fun part... Since the eindecker has a shoulder wing,
the cockpit is glued to the top part of the wing. Well, it is also
the cockpit that has the hardwood blocks for the wing dowels. Getting
the wing to sit correctly on the fuse, then getting the cockpit
to sit correctly on top of that was a real pain in the arse. The
curves in the fuse and the cockpit did not match the wing very well.
This was the worst part of the kit by far...
I believe that the kit should at least have the option of using
rubber bands instead of 2 dowels in the front and one hold down
screw in the back. This would have made putting the cockpit in
immensly easier, as the dowels would not have to line up exactly
right.
The final step that I added to the wing was removing and replacing
the webbing as mentioned in earlier notes. The grain in webbing
was parellel to the forces, thus there was no real support provided
by them. This was easily done, but if they had done it right the
first time, it would have save a lot of time.
The fuse is built from balsa and light ply. Not a bad job and it
looks fairly sturdy. As I mentioned above, I had to do some work
to get the wing to mate correctly with the fuse.
The next step is to add the tail feathers... The rudder and vert
stab are 1/4" sheet balsa.. The horz. stab and elevator are stick
built. Kind of a wierd combination, but everything went smoothly
here.
Now, the other bear... The eindecker has 2 cheek cowls. Instead
of sending ABS plastic cheeks, like other kits, they send 2 blocks
of balsa. You then need to carve and shape the cheeks, not only
so they are round, but also so that they fit the engine cowl. This
was not a big deal, but when you are selling an "Almost ready to
cover" kit, this is a real drag. I am also finding that covering
it, with it's complex, concave curves are really tough. Now that
I have finished, I can see how glass/paint would have been much
easier. Perhaps after Rhinebeck I will strip off the covering and
use the plane as practice for glass/painting.
At this point, the plane is ready to cover. It took me less than
2 weeks of light evening work.
Hardware wise, they really give you everything. Fuel tank, motor
mount (the firewall is pre-drilled), landing gears and wheels, hinges,
control horns, and pushrods. For the pushrods, they use dowels
and supply the wire extensions. To attach the two together, the
dowel is drilled and a channel is made that the wire fits into.
Then, to keep the wire in place, they use a piece of heat shrink
tubing. That was a nice, quick and sturdy method.
The plane is about 1/3 covered now. I will update this when finish
it all up and give it a try.
cheer,s
jeff
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