of the Czech Republic
man! Jaroslav
"Jerry" Forst
fiberglass fuselage
showing mold details
either the Aces rules in Europe or the 2105/2610 Scale rules of RCCA in the US. This is my second RSKit, the first being the Russian IL2 Stormovik.
The planes both feature a semi-symetrical airfoils and are constructed in similar fashion. The appropriate engines are .21s in Europe and .25s in
the US. Both kits are highly prefabricated and can be assembled in a week of evenings to be ready for flight. If you wish to detail the planes with
authentic paint and camouflage schemes you can add another few nights of sanding and painting to your build time.
The kit features a fiberglass fuselage with the rudder moled in, a separate fiberglass cowl, white foam wing panel precovered with obechi, balsa stab
and elevator. The accessory package includes the spinner, canopy with framing, a pilot bust, aileron torque rods, a hardwood push rod with end
fittings for the elevator, and wing attachment hardware.
The workmanship in this kit is evident in each component. The fuselage is molded in two halves that are then joined by the factory so that you have a
finished fuselage when you open the box. The plywood firewall is pre-cut and shaped to fit into the front of the fuse. The cowl slips on a lip molded
into the front firewall. The panel line detail is molded into the entire fuselage and the engine cowl flaps are also duplicated in fiberglass. Hopefully by
looking at the three close-up fuselage photos you can see the degree of detail designed into this kit.
The wing panels, are in a word, exquisite. They are carefully packed in bubble pack to avoid any dings in shipment. They are very light and require no
sanding before assembly. The included leading edge and trailing edge material is straight and hard enough to serve its purpose. The ailerons are
pre-shaped as are the wing tip blocks.
One final thought before we start: I usually scratch build my planes rather than building from kits. On the surface scratchbuilding has always
seemed to be less expensive than building from kits. After receiving the TA152 I am seriously rethinking how I will build in the future. The cost of
materials to build my two Fulmars was about $30 each. But, I had to purchase a foam cutting system, band saw, and locate and pickup the foam,
glass rods, ripstop, coro, etc. For what I spent on materials, travel, tools and time I could have had about 10 of the TA152 RSKits. Nothing I can build
even comes close to the workmanship on the fiberglass fuselage, with its scale accuracy and very light weight. Something to think about.
Ok, lets start building
Construction begins with gluing the leading edge and trailing edge balsa caps onto the wing cores. The balsa caps are clearly labeled and are
longer than needed so they can be trimmed to fit once dry. I like to use Pica brand Gluitt white glue to attach wood to foam. It is a very easy to sand
glue that has outstanding adhesive properties. I spent about 10 minutes gluing the edges to the wing panels and then set them aside to dry.
The aileron torque rods were made up next. The kit includes the threaded wire for the torque rods and a tube for them to ride in. The two three inch
sections of aileron stock, pre cut to size, were grooved to accept the torque tubes. This was done by marking the center of the aileron with a Great
Planes center mark tool then cutting the groove with an Xacto knife and then clearing the slot with a round file. The torque tubes were roughed up
with sandpaper and then glued into the center aileron wood with thick CA. Be careful to note the shape of the short aileron stock blocks. Note the LE
face on each, it has a 90 degree corner on its LE and this must be down (guess who didn't pay attention to this) so that you make a left and right side.
When the LE&TE strips on the wing panels you will need to plane and sand it down to match the wings airfoil. I used one of the oldest but most
useful tools in my shop, a twenty year old Master Airscrew razor plane, to bring the wood stock close to the obechi wing surface. Over the years I've
found that laying down a strip of masking tape over the wing surface near where I am sanding and planing will keep the tools from gouging the wing
surface. The total time to shape the wing panels was about twenty minutes. Once the panels were sanded out the aileron torque tubes were added
to the wing trailing edge. You will have to extend them slighty past the inboard end of the wing. Because the wing is tapered so are the ends of the
short pieces of aileron stock. If you don't extend them you will end up with the trailing edges of these short pieces being tapered away from each
other creating a gap at the center of the wing when you join the panels together.
Well that's it for night #1 - about two hours of on and off work interruppted by calls to dinner, to the phone and various honey-do's.