Saturday, May 16, 2009

Will Hobby AT-6 - Adding the transfers


Well time to add the transfers. Now I wasn't sure whether you soak them in water before applying them but I can assure you, you do not (I could not find anything in the instructions!!). Just cut them out, remove the backing and apply carefully. It turns out they will take the same amount of heat that the covering takes to shrink it, so you can seal the edges so that they should stay on longer. Best to apply them before you assemble the aircraft. Then fuel proof the areas around the front were fuel seepage can occur (unless its electric powered of course). Mine will have an ASP 46 up front. Not sure how the muffler will be routed but I will find out very soon (who said put a four stroke in it!!).

Will Hobby AT-6 - Tailplane


The completed tailplane ready to glue to the fuselage. Cut away the covering where the tailplane is glued to the fuselage to get a good strong joint. I used the supplied horn as it should be up to the task.

Will Hobby AT-6 Harvard installing the cables for the servos


I wondered how easy it would be threading the servos cables through the holes in the center wing section but it turns out it is not too difficult. Once they are through, tape them in position so they stay in there while you continue assembly.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Assembling the Will Hobby AT-6 - Wing Servos


Here is another view of the wing servos ready to be mounted.

Will Hobby AT-6 - installing the servos in the wings


Unless I have misinterpreted the instructions (pictures only, no narrative at all), the servos are retained in the wing by screwing them to balsa. I don't think this will last very long at all so I glued a ply facing on the balsa mounts and will screw the servos to the ply.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Assembling the Will Hobby AT-6


I read a suggestion on the internet to replace the supplied hinges with "proper" hinges which I have done. The replacement ones have a metal hinge and also have holes so that the glue can pool in them and help get a better bond.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Will Hobby AT-6 Harvard for 0.46 engines

Well I purchased one of these off a certain New Zealand on-line auction site. Its probably the cheapest ATF one the market for what it is. See here for the details http://www.willhobby.com/product/plane/na1.asp. Its reasonably well made but the accessories are cheap (they had to save money some where) and will need to be replaced. I will post the assembly here.

Actually I should mention that the instructions which come with the model are just drawings only so I have documented my assembly of the model to help anyone else would might run into issues assembling it as the instructions could be better. Note that I don't consider myself an expert modeller; I have seen vastly better constructed models than mine, I have built models over 40 years (oh!!) so was around before RTF models caught on.