My rc planes "JU-52 by Hobbyking" -crashed-

"JU-52 by Hobbyking"
and  a complete mod log of my attempts to be flyable

 The  Ju-52 was purhased by Hobbyking nearly  2.5 years ago. The packing was really good  and  leaves a feeling that  you may have purchased a fine model . Not really... 

It comes  with  one middle brushless motor  which is rather high powered and capable to fly the model easily . It was also easy to balance the model using a 1300mah lipo battery . The other opion was to use a 1600mah  lipo  but I wanted to conserve some weight... I was true...  .

The model comes  already colored with the lufthansa colorscheme  but my plan was to  repaint it  to a Luftwaffe camo . First  I wanted to be sure  that it is capable to fly  and then to start painting . 

    Here is the photo  from the hobbyking website. The  side motors  and propellers are dummies . The propellers can spin freelly . One good thing I saw was that the wheel system is trully robust  and stiff . On the other hand, it doeas not have any kind of "suspension" but who cares  for a model of 1 kg  how hard it might touch the tarmac? The tail wheel is rotating  together with the  rudder  which is very helpful even for such a small model .

First Flight 

   My instructor  just said that the model is really insane !  Let me explain. I  tried three or four times to  fly it straight . No way to do so. It constantly  tried to flip over . In detail it was tip stalling . It was  awful to have such a nice plane in the air  and not be able to  fly it  nicely. So I  gave it to my old instructor with much experience who  replied the the model is INSANE ! Trully bad. the only solytion he gave is that I could try to turn using  some rudder  and trying to keep it level using the ailerons. This was a little better  but  not something  even ok !  

Back to the bench

    I   came back on the bench   for some changes . I  made a more secure  battery mount system , removed  some  weight  and certfied  then that the best solution is to use the 1300mah battery . Less weight means less wing load  and less wing load means  less likely to tip stall . I also did some aerodynamic changes   . One was to  remove 1 cm from each tip  of each aileron .  the other was to make a change  on the servo horns that move the ailerons in order to have less   travel  when moving down and more  travel when moving up . This was not a big  change but made me feel that when  turning  it could provide less drag in the inner wing.  A final change was to add some  wash near the tips . I put some weight  on the wings (roots and tips ) and  I used a hot air gun to  put some  heat on the foam . Be careful  , minur heat is needed to do that  and  in case you insist more than some seconds the result will be  total wrapping of the wing ! 

Back to the field...

   I was trully curious  what the result would be . I tried it some times  and the result... 

 the same ! 

Be sure that I tried with many different  balancing solutions  with no significant change . Maybe a more  front balance  could be more  right  but  then  it  could not fly straight! 

Back to  the  bench  

    I wanted to remove the self spinning  effect  that accurs  due to the single motorr installation  and of the massive middle propeller . I have already tried to  remove this effect  by cutting of the edges of the propeller with no result . Also  I tried smaller propellers  but  there was no thrust ... . My  idea was to  try to convert it to a three motor. I made some tests and saw  that  a two motor (side ones) would be more effective as  there would be more than enough power and  less weight . So I  did it . 

   I removed the dummy motor mounts and  the dummy propellers .  I  found out that  the whole model is already designed for such an installation .  There are inner motor mount fitting locations  and (the most important)  inner tubes in the  wings for the wires .  Afer about an hour , it was ready . I made a bench test  and saw that  the power was very good ! 

   After  all that  shit , I re-balanced it  and then I ...

painted it  

This was a  true  silly idea as I did not know  if  the result would be flyable.  Anyway I used  acrylic paints  to paint it  with my airbrush . Not really funny as a work  as I do not like to use these paints. But  they are the only solution as  they to not attack  on the foam . As  the result was likeely to be a disaster  I did not try mo do any detailing . I only did  my effort  and installed a tail gunner installation . The Lufthansa one did not have such  things . 

    Overall , the weight was the same .

I was counting on some benefits here regarding the two motor conversion :

-no self spinning effect from the single big propeller.

-more wing air flow from the side motors

-less  useless  drag from the side motors that we dummies  before the converion.

-the luftwaffe camo made me feel  nicer !!!! 

Back to the field 

     

 Here are  the last photos  of the model. The first one is togeether  the my beloved  Fw-190 . Behind them , is the  tarmac. You may see how narrrow it is .

Nice view here . Excuse mee for not painting teh Balkenkreutz   but  I had a feeling that it would be useless....

 Here is another one . Lets suppose  that it is in the Malemee Airfield  just after the  battle of Krete . 

The  end :  

     Some  throttle  and the model  starrted to  run. Some  more  stable  thrust and the model  took some  height  (1m) . With  a blinkof the eyes , the Ju-52 left tip stalled  and hit thee ground . Many parts were cut off , broken . 

I took my razor knife  removed all interesting parts  and put the  hull and wings in the bin. 

 I was finally free !!! 

Do not  buy it  even if it is  beautiful  !  Better  find some plans  that have  a positive feedback(that have good characteristics ) and build a bigger one by your own ! Much better   ,be sure.

N scale layout "Hills have Castles"

Hills Have Castles !

 There is  a view of the left hill . I made a base for the castel  and then fit tested it many times . After that , I was bale to  start building the road with blue foam chips.

 I then  used the faller putty to cover all the area . When dried (it has a curing time of  10-15 minutes)  I was able to spray the  first color layer.

 Another view  a little more far.

A more overall view ! The 1/33 of the layout is trully colorful  and the rest is .. grayscale...  .
I  , here ,  have no clue  what to build in the front left corner  and on the  far right corner. Maybe  two farmhouses  could be nice .

N scale layout "Front Area Detailing"

 Some flocking here  but the  result is trully not satisfying

 More flocking  and  I tried to make  a simple fence .

 Another view of the fence

 Here I put some sand arround that divides the whole area in segments  and  make the layout more live!  If there is a path around  then there might be  some people around too!

The main switch house  is permanently glued  in place . First  I  washed the building with  paint oils. Before permanently positioning it  , I put an aluminum tube  inside . I can  aferwards use it  in order to pass through a houselight .

N scale layout , "Coloring the whole project"

 The next step was  to  wash the  rocks  with  oil paints . Various mixes of grey , brown , black   for the darked areas  and  light grey and white for the highlights   provide  a nice finish .

    Here I put some  grass on the hill . The  rocks  now seem better  and the overall area is now more colorful !

 Another view of the same step .

Here is a more close view of  the front area.

N scale layout "More Details today"

 I put  some grass  on the table here. I trull y wanted to see some color on the layout ! Not ready of course as  it needs much detailing .

 I primer painted the  main town hill . Also some coloring here and there  and I am ready for the next steps .. weekend coming...

 Another view

Amore dramatic view from the industrial segment.

N scale layout "Painting and Ballasting"

Here are two photos  of the newer arrangements. I  primer painted the walls  with light grey and the  concrete road and construction site. Then  I used  a darked  grey to mark the  darkerareas and show some depth . The track area was darkened  too. 

Finally I used a lighter coating  to "enlight" some areas such as the middle of  the street .

 Here is  the ballasted  tracks . I used the fine N scale ballast  which is nearly  similar to sand . I fixed it permanently   first by spraying  it with water/alcohol mix  and  then  with mixed with water  white glue .

 I can show here  the  town area  where I arranged  the rock site which surrounds it.

 Another view of the ballasted area

 A more compete view...













 I can show here a better view of the industrial area . It seems more live  after all that  coloring and shadowing . I trully look forward to  start putting the grass ...

 

Berlin 1945 , Ho Diorama

Berlin 1945  "the Hotel"

 1/87 scale  , HO

    I  would like here to present a   project  I started just for fun   and it turned to be   a lovely result   of  a dramatic idea .  I  wanted to reproduce a "checkpoint"  in  Berlin . For this reason  I chose a 8.8 flak  that  stood  on the  tram  tracks  showing this way that  the siege  has started  an  all  services (like the tram ) have collapsed . Two soldiers  are fleeing  behind the frontline (which is actualy presented by the  checkpoint itself) and two others (I need to build more)  , who man the gun , are curiously looking at the horizon  for the upcoming  Rus ... 

Here  is the  result  until now  

 A  front  view .  of  the  small diorama  . 
The figures are PREISER   WW2 series . 
The  gun is  Roco  Minitanks 
The  hotel was a  nice Vollmer kit . 
The tracks are old  Roco  ones . 

 

Here is the  whole  diorama without  the  figures and some  wheathering missing

Here is  how the story ended....