Traditional balsa wood free flight aeroplanes.

[Cycleops]

Blimey that sounds a serious reaction. I was being a bit cautious because my wife can be a sensitive to things like this as well. I've actually set up a small super glue station outside and was experimenting with glueing the Pilot's wire landing gear onto the balsa former.

I was working on my chopping block in the back garden. I put some super glue into an Acorn shell and used the pin to spread it over the parts, seemed to work quite well and thankfully no reactions. Luckily I don't need to use it too much.

The squirrels must think you’re nuts.

 

[Reynard]

Blimey that sounds a serious reaction. I was being a bit cautious because my wife can be a sensitive to things like this as well. I've actually set up a small super glue station outside and was experimenting with glueing the Pilot's wire landing gear onto the balsa former.

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I was working on my chopping block in the back garden. I put some super glue into an Acorn shell and used the pin to spread it over the parts, seemed to work quite well and thankfully no reactions. Luckily I don't need to use it too much.

It was pretty nasty.

Although I will say that the model is built from laminated card, so I was using superglue in quite large quantities. Trouble is, most of the glues in that category are pretty nasty stuff anyway...

 

[Cycleops]

It was pretty nasty.

Although I will say that the model is built from laminated card, so I was using superglue in quite large quantities. Trouble is, most of the glues in that category are pretty nasty stuff anyway...

There are now low odour cyano glues which won't cause your eyes to water or skin to grow boils:
https://www.thegluepeople.co.uk/tgp-brand-c-1_78/cyano-low-odour-20g-p-11.html

 

[byegad]

Like many kids in the 60s I was into Airfix kits and it was a time of excitement and learning new skills. The heady aroma of polystyrene glue and enamel paints in tiny tins, the varied streamlined shapes of the aircraft, even being motivated to find out more about the prototypes in the local library were unexpected pleasures that a detached observer wouldn't deduce from looking at my collection of what were probably badly assembled and painted models. Although I got better at it as I got older and some that I built and painted actually looked pretty good, I couldn't claim to be a great modeller.

Are such kits so popular today in this age of electronic entertainment? I suspect it's more an adult thing nowadays. Imagine letting your kids loose with a selection of such potentially poisonous substances today.

I did enjoy ready to fly stuff, simple balsa gliders and rubber band fliers. I bought a complicated balsa biplane kit which in the end my dad had to finish. There was the scenario of the house reeking of balsa cement, parts pinned to a board with colourful headed pins while the assemblies set. Then the house reeking of dope which magically tightened up the tissue paper covering of the wings. With both my parents being smokers I'm surprised that they didn't blow the house up. Despite all this effort, I never got it to successfully fly.

My younger brother was never into the kits as much as I was but he did get our dad to build an impressively wide wingspanned glider with the same meticulous procedure as above. The big day came when we all went to the nearby sports pitch and it had its first proper flight. It had had some hand launches previously to sort out the trim but this was the first trial using a line. The idea was that the glider had a rearward facing hook, the line had a ring on the end, you ran letting the line out as the glider climbed then at the maximum height you jerked the line back, or it came free on its own, and soared. The rudder was trimmed so that it would fly in a circle so it didn't just disappear over the horizon.
Unfortunately, none of these things happened. The ring didn't release and we watched in horror as, despite our dad frantically jerking the line, it flew at high speed into the ground, hitting with an impressive crack and sending bits of balsa everywhere. Our dad's face was a picture, and we couldn't say anything. We gathered up the bits and went home. That was the end of the balsa kit era in our house. My dad had a lot of patience but at least for the time being, he'd had enough.

I've still maintained my interest in aircraft over the years and built the odd kit but no fliers.

I sympathise. We built a 6ft wingspan glider. A burning fuse in the tail would, after 30-60 seconds burn through a rubber band which, as it snapped, released the rudder, so allowing it to circle slowly, we hoped, to earth. The same rearward facing hook(s), there were three which were used depending on wind strength, were used to tow launch.

It was ballasted in the nose with over 1lb of lead! That was the problem. While it flew well, we never dared fly it near anyone else. A pound of lead with several ounces of balsa and such coming in to land with some speed was likely to cause some damage to unsuspecting heads.

One day the wind was right on the edge of what was 'wise'. Inadvertently towed off using the 'low wind' hook, she went straight up, looped and came down at some speed, inverted with the wind, now a gale, behind it. The 1lb of lead is some several feet deep in the boggy surface of Westerdale Moor. It was certainly more that three feet down, which was the depth we could reach with a stick.

 

[Reynard]

There are now low odour cyano glues which won't cause your eyes to water or skin to grow boils:
https://www.thegluepeople.co.uk/tgp-brand-c-1_78/cyano-low-odour-20g-p-11.html

Ah, thanks for the heads-up, I'll look into that

 

[newts]

You can get superglue with a rapid activator. Try not to stick your fingers!
https://www.toolstation.com/mitre-a...cCc1od4Gmm2smsX1WSsaAgk1EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[youngoldbloke]

I've my son's part assembled Keil Kraft Fairey Gannet somewhere in the garage, along with 3 finished aircraft. Rubber powered. I remember them flying quite well. I made numerous KK kits when young, you could buy the rubber by the yard in the local model shop, along with balsa, cement, dope etc. I graduated to designing my own freelance aircraft, drawn out on paper and then transferred to the balsa using tracing paper. I remember the last one I designed and built had a V shaped tail, Jetex powered. I have fond memories of building a Jetex powered Hawker Hunter and a DeHaviland Vampire*. Both Keil Kraft. I eventually managed to melt my Jetex engines when I tried producing my own weedkiller based propellant, and then I got into cycling ....


*edit - could have been a Venom, it was over 60 years ago

 

[Mark Grant]

It was pretty nasty.

Although I will say that the model is built from laminated card, so I was using superglue in quite large quantities. Trouble is, most of the glues in that category are pretty nasty stuff anyway...

For card models try Deluxe Materials 'Rocket Card Glue'. It's good.

 

[Reynard]

For card models try Deluxe Materials 'Rocket Card Glue'. It's good.

Thanks, that's looking like a decent alternative.

I started the model in lockdown (January), and being a total newbie, I just used what was easy to get my hands on.

 

[Cycleops]

Deluxe Materials do a great range of products and cover just about anything you'd need for model making.

 

[Mark Grant]

Deluxe Materials do a great range of products and cover just about anything you'd need for model making.

I've met the owner / maker of the glues a couple of times at model shows. A nice bloke.

 

[chriswoody]

So a little bit more work off and on with my son on the Pilot. The undercarriage wire in this kit is pre bent, it just needs gluing to a former, which I did with superglue and sandwiching between some horizontal strengtheners. Once it's dry, then the formers are glued to one fuselage half and then the other half is glued on. The nose former was a right pig to get right, the balsa is pinched in under tension to meet the nose and I had nothing to clamp it together so I had to hold it with my fingers, but it kept springing apart. A right carry on, when it was finally dry, a bit of sandpaper lightly applied removed any incriminating gluey finger marks! A few horizontal braces go in as well to add strength to the whole structure.

The rear half of the fuselage is again formed with some smaller bulkheads and strengtheners and an elastic band was used to pinch the end of the fuselage together whilst the glue set. This end didn't put up too much of a fight, it was just a little tricky to make sure it was straight and in line.

The stack of square pieces on the drill bit, are the nose block pieces. Once dry, the smaller squares slot snugly into the square hole in the front of the fuselage and the larger squares will be sanded smooth to form the contours of the nose. We've also made the laminates that will form the wheels, again they just need sanding before fitting. It's quite a simple and basic kit, but really enjoyable nonetheless.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Has anyone added the world's dullest fact, that balsa is classified as a hardwood?

My work here is done.

 

[Reynard]

Those large plastic clips you use to keep cereal packets closed etc are a real help to keep things in place while glue sets.

 

[Cycleops]

Clips, clamps and elastic bands are pretty much indispensable when building kits.