TOPIC: Shooting Stars and Speedee-Bilt Jets

I have sent off a kit to the estimable John Holman, who has agreed to put it together as part of its 'beta testing. John's first comment was that he thinks it looks great ... but we will see when he puts it together

Meanwhile, I have been putting my own version together. Here is progress so far:





Against my better judgement I decided to round off the fuselage and add some depth to the air intakes (a lovely trompe-l'oeil effect that Howard introduced me to). Note the dark olive-green anti-glare panel and the coloured in original KK pilot.

Now for the flying surfaces!

Building has progressed slowly this week, but here are all the parts - fuselage, wings, tail and fin tissue covered and cleaned up ready for assembly. The weight of all these is a little under 17 grams - not too bad.



More later ....

Looking good!

Gluing everything together, adding wing fillets, filling in gaps and dabbing a few bits of paint I ended up with:





It needs insulation around and behind the motor and a Jetex clip, but then it will be ready to go. Perhaps in time for the SAM Retrofest at the weekend.

That has come out very nicely indeed, so much more convincing than the squared off fuselage edges of the Veron Quicky or Keil Kraft Shadow profile models.

I added two layers of antique Jetex asbestos paper under the Jetex clip and 'Carplan' foil behind the motor. The empty motor has brought the CG forward , so I'm hoping I'll only need a tad of lead in the nose.





Should it stop raining I'll try a few hand glides this evening/

The model is quite a bit different from the original Keil Kraft Shadow model:



But (a) I hope Albert Hatfull would be pleased with this derivative of his design, and, (b) I hope it flies as well (see the video of April's Old Warden meeting on the 'Flying' thread).