Rolled an oldie out of the hangar

I've been reading the stories and looking at all the old and and new builds. This can really breathe life back into a old bird. I built this DC-3 from what I believe came from American Modeler plans from the early 70's. Not being real impressed with the airline version, the militarized C-47 just had to be built. I built this plane 30 years ago and have carefully stored it all these years. Many mistakes were made in my early days of building.

Knowing what I know now, I would certainly have changed many of things, the airfoil being one of them. In order to retain the scale like appearance, I left it alone. The wing itself is entirely sheeted top and bottom so she's no featherweight. All in all the plane just draws attention and looks extremely cool in the air. My son recently treated me to what I think is the coolest part of the model, the cowlings. He spun these cowlings from aluminum and made these for me. I wanted to cut small slits around the perimeter of them and flap them out just like the real plane.

The two Cox Babe Bees needed the entire shotgun blast. This weekend they got the full treatment including polishing of the cranks. These are dual ported Bees from the 80's. Originally this troop carrier had 2 Black Widows up front. Those 2 got donated to the Brodak F-82 twin and these units were installed. The engines haven't been run yet and are eagerly waiting to rev to life.

Towards the fall of this year, I attend a contest in which there is a event known as fun scale. Basically you want a plane to resemble a real plane as accurately as possible and provide any documentation you can find. This isn't a stunt contest where your being scored on maneuvers, although any maneuver you do does get scored. You write down what maneuvers your going to do on your score sheet prior to flying and the order you plan to do them in. The most important part is doing 10 level laps for appearance at 4-5 feet in front of the judges. If all goes well, I plan to install and have a paratrooper disengage from the pushrod. The device is in the making and will be triggered when I give the model up elevator. In addition and this is still undecided, I want to make a hook and pick up a tow glider that was used for the paratroopers.If I can get this to work my son will be in the circle with me flying the glider right behind me as I tow it. I hope all goes well.