There's nothing difficult about building the SFK - it's just bigger than models
you may be used to. My building board wasn't long enough for the entire fuselage
side, so I framed up the front end, shifted the whole thing over, and finished
up the aft end.
Have plenty of glue on hand! The prototype sucked up nearly ten 2 oz. bottles
of cyanoacrylate glue during frame up. Check out BTE's line of CA from Handibond
- it's super super glue.
Covering the STOL wingtips with Monokote was actually fairly easy compared to other wingtips
I've done. As usual, cover the bottom of the tip, then the top. The seam runs
right along the outer edge. Haven't scraped them on landing yet!
Big airplanes sometimes require different building techniques. For example, you
can't just stick pins through the hardwood spars, so I recommend using
wood screws on either side to hold them down on the building board.
There are a lot of differing opinions on radio installations for big models like this. My prototype
uses dual receivers, batteries, switches, and voltage monitors. The rudder servo drives a Sig tiller
bar which controls the pull-pull cables for both the rudder and the tailwheel.
Don't forget to paint your propeller tips, especially on big meat choppers like this.
The large cannister muffler used on the prototype is a 3W product, sized to fit the 3W-75i engine. It's
very light weight and is fantastically quiet. I spent a couple of days trying to figure out a way to hide
the engine and muffler. Finally it hit me, "Who am I kidding?" This is a big model airplane
and there's no reason that big beautiful engine and muffler can't be part of its charm. Take your time
with the engine installation, make it tidy, and make everything accessible.
Many more tips can be found in the SFK Updates which can be downloaded from the SFK page.
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