Winning the Auction
It’s always fun to win something; like, say, an auction. It’s been a long time since I built a kit so I jumped in. When the auction was announced I scoured YouTube and RCB, RCG, and RCU to see what I was getting into. Pretty impressed with the kit…but was in for a surprise.
When I started going thru the parts it appeared I was missing key things; such as the formers. After more research I discovered there were three versions of the kit. And v3 was really slick with all laser cut formers and bulkheads. Alas, I have v1 or v2. It is a traditional stick build kit which means each former is built by hand.
The kit is comprehensive. It has all the hardware, flying wires, hinges, etc. It also contains all the fiberglass parts such as cowl, wheel plants, and wing fillets. The fillets are a nice addition.
I have an eight foot bench in my basement shop and need every inch it.This is not the largest project as I built 1:3 Piper Cub from a stick kit many year ago. The Waco comes in a very close 2nd in term of wingspan and fuselage length. But has the benefit of TWO wings and not just one. I have built biplanes before so I have that going for me. I love Bipes and have seven of them; from kits to ARFs).
The biggest challenge will be the lack of a good manual. The manual was written for the V3 kit. It’s 30 pages long and contains ONLY 55 photos. There is a lot going on with a bird this big and this leaves a lot of stuff invisible.
And what appears to be a missing drawing. Plans include a left upper wing and center section drawing. Straightforward enough to build all four wing panels.However, there is nothing representing the lower center wing section. I continue to scout the internet and YouTube for better visibility.
