Building Your First RC Airplane Kit 

Part One with Devin Troy
Read the full feature on page 10 in the Fall 2011 Park Pilot

The decision to build your first model is usually thought out. However, my decision was thanks to spur of the moment inspiration.

Walking around the main flying site at the AMA 75th Anniversary Celebration, a vendor called Retro RC caught my eye. The models were vintage-inspired, laser-cut and beautiful. I couldn’t help but want one. My dad and I talked with the creator of the kits, and he presented me with my very own bebéMoth. My dad warned me that it might be a big project to take on, but my admiration of the models, coupled with a love for working with my hands, encouraged me to go for it. So we packed my bebéMoth into the van, and I patiently waited until we made it back home to start my new venture.

Colorful, illustrated instructions come with the bebéMoth kit, and so did drawings of all the laser-cut parts sheets.

This reduced, single-page plan makes it easy to see how and where all the model’s parts fit into its lightweight airframe.

Eight laser-cut sheets of balsa are provided in this Retro RC kit, as well as a small hardware pack and a beautiful set of vintage-appearing spoked wheels.

Assembly begins with internal parts for the forward fuselage. Fit of the parts is excellent. Devin Troy uses BSI Thin and Gap-Filling CA.

The completed internal structure is glued over the right fuselage side, and the servo tray is added behind it.

The left fuselage side is added, followed by the upper fuselage frame part. The fuselage deck is a single piece of laser-cut balsa that’s wetted with water and bent to form over a length of PVC pipe. You’ll get to see all that in Part Two.

The bebéMoth tail parts, called the empennage, are easy to build. Flat-sanding is done with 150-grit sandpaper on an Easy-Touch.

Here is Devin’s completed empennage, ready for finish-sanding, then covering with a lightweight, iron-on film.

Read the entire article on page 10 in the Fall 2011 Park PIlot.