Balsa & Tissue Planes

[atomicholiday]

Just curious, anybody here into the old school stick & tissue planes? My dad used to build and fly them all the time when he was younger. I got interested in it about a year ago. Started two projects and still haven't finished either one yet! But they're a fun diversion from time to time when I need something different.

[cobraman]

I built 2 several years ago. A Piper Cub and a P51 Mustang. For me they were very hard and I did not do a very good job to be honest. That is why I never built another one although I would like to do a big scale Gee Bee but I have no doubt that would be a disaster. They didn't have the ARF style back when I built mine but that's really not the same thing anyway.

[Snake45]

I probably own a dozen of those kits, have actually started two or three of them over the decades, have never gotten one finished. I'm severely patience-challenged and can barely get a plastic airplane or car kit together.

[kalbert]

I built (and crashed) many of those when I was younger. I'd like to build them again but my grownup responsibilities stretch me thin and I can only have so much time and money to do hobbies with, something has to go and planes was it. Someday I'll build some again. Can you still get dope? I haven't seen it in hobby shops for a long time. I do see they still carry some Guillow's kits though.

[mustang1989]

I tried to build the Dauntless version.....................................I'll stick with the plastic ones. lol

[Drag Monster]

I have built several. Here is a German Albatross I built a few years ago. This was built using original 1930's plans, most of the kit was scratch built including the engine and interior. It took about a year to complete.

[mustang1989]

That came out really well Bill!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Beautiful Albatross, Bill.

Built and flew several sticks & paper models as a kid. Have a still-boxed Jenny, Spitfire and a Piper Cub on the shelf, rescued from a thrift shop, and a couple of crashed RC ARFs rescued from a dumpster (with two transmitters, receivers, servos and engines !). Also have a huge scale balsa Spitfire, another one started by someone else and tossed in the trash. Not a cheap model, either.

Coolest of the bunch is my fathers Staggerwing Beech, built by him shortly after the end of WW II. From a kit. I believe he musta used resorcinol glue, as it is spontaneously self-disassembling (a problem with resorcinol-glued REAL old aircraft, too!). Should make it easier to restore. I've only ever seen one other one, hanging in a now-defunct bar in Buckhead, buried in a dark dark varnish.

[slownlow]

Here's a Guillows P-40 I did several years ago. As kids we built these all the time. The bi-planes are hard to get the wing orientation right and imagine a Foker tri-plane. I was able to find dope a my LHS. I think some RC planes use it. The only problem I had was using alcohol to shrink the tissue paper rather than water, it didn't shrink as much.

[Nitro Neil]

I'm into racing planes, and there are more kits for racing planes in balsa than plastic, so yes. I have two hanging from my office ceiling - The Jeep and Miss Los Angeles. And I have a balsa & tissue Wright Brothers plane hanging in the living room.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Nitro Neil

[cobraman]

Nice Warhawk. Is the wing decal on wrong ? I thought the star had to point forward.

[Sixties Sam]

I built a few of those stick and tissue models as a teen in the 1960's, then got into radio control in 1972. I still build and fly R/C planes. Those little stick models were tougher to build than the bigger R/C planes. Shrinking the tissue always seemed to warp the delicate structure, making them fly like you know what!

Sam

Edited November 21, 2014 by Sixties Sam

[62rebel]

i've got two of my Dad's Cessna O-1E Bird Dogs in the bedroom; i built one from the Guillows kit WAAAY back around '77-'78 or so, then used the kit instruction plan to build a solid balsa version... built a Fokker biplane that i covered with bond paper, too...... always going past what the makers intended looking for different results. wish i'd kept those two, but.....

i found that working with stick and paper is a little more restful than styrene... i always get the urge to slice-n-dice styrene, but leave the wood framing alone.

[atomicholiday]

That Guillow's P40 is the kit that I tried first. I was making pretty good progress until my daughter got hold of it and poked a hole in the wing. I need to go back and repair and finish it sometime. My doesn't look nearly that nice though. It was really just an experiment to see if I could pull it off or not. I don't plan to paint it all all. I actually intend to try and make the thing fly if possible, but I hear the WWII warbirds are some of the hardest to get to stay in the air.

I still have a British S.E. 5A hanging in my basement that my dad built before I was born. Beautiful old plane. Wingspan is around 3 foot. But the paper is splitting pretty bad in a couple of spots. I don't plan to restore it though since he built it. I like it just the way it is.

[philo426]

I remember building the Guillow's Stuka.I painted it with Pactra Military Miniatures paint and it looked great but did not fly very well.

[Harry P.]

I built a few as a kid, nothing since. BTW, that Albatross is pretty cool. It's my favorite WWI-era plane.

[Snake45]

I've got the "cheap" Guillows kit of the O-1 (Cessna L-19), and then a nicer one by Sterling or somebody. Dunno if I'll ever get either one together.

Come to think of it, I've got a U-control kit of the L-19, too. Solid balsa fuselage and wing IIRC. Have to dig that thing out--haven't seen it in years.

I bought one balsa and tissue kit that had alternative directions in it for if you couldn't get wood cement and dope anymore. I forget what they said to use instead.

Edited November 21, 2014 by Snake45

[Ace-Garageguy]

I bought one balsa and tissue kit that had alternative directions in it for if you couldn't get wood cement and dope anymore. I forget what they said to use instead.

I used to use Elmer's wood glue. Takes a long time to dry and all the parts have to be jigged or pinned as it sets up, but it's very strong...stronger than the old Testors tube glue for wood models. It was casein back then, PVA today. i also had good results adhering the tissue covering with Elmers. Again, it takes patience, and has to be entirely dry before the water-spritz shrinking begins.

Sig still makes both butyrate and nitrate dope for model planes.

[atomicholiday]

"Automatically drops leaflets in flight!!

How cool is that! I love to see it in action.

The last one I built I used plain old Elmers wood glue for assembly and Brodak dope for the tissue. You can get it here: http://brodak.com/brodak-paint-16-oz.html

Edited November 22, 2014 by atomicholiday

[philo426]

I am thinking of getting the Guillows Avenger and give it try!

Edited November 25, 2014 by philo426

[jet]

I was taught balsa building before my first plastic kit. I was very young and my oldest brother taught me how to cut the PRINTED sheets of balsa with a single edge razor blade. It was my first step into being a hobbiest and I loved the feeling of being responsible for taking care of paint brushes, pins, razor blades, glue...lol.

I still enjoy building balsa. I go back and forth between plastic kit projects and balsa projects. The next one is a stick and tissue Citabria which will have a simple remote control system and a Cox engine. I love shaping balsa parts.

Thoughts of converting the design over to control-line operation has crossed my mind. Those are fun. Radios were really expensive when I was a kid so control line was the only option to gas flying. Turns out its one of the most fun.

Edited November 25, 2014 by jet

[Roadrunner]

I started an Fw 190 years and years ago, but never finished it. Breathing all that dope back then, probably accounts for my general wackiness today.

[philo426]

[philo426]

[bill w]

I built the Comet kits when I was a kid, if I remember they where 0.50, 0.75, and 1.00.

I didn't build them very well, about half way through winding the prop the fuselage crunched up and it was on to the next one.

Sometimes I did build them well enough to fly and crash, they where fun to build.