Building a CAP 232 0.10 Kit - build log and pictures

[Sunstorm]

Hello all.

I have recently bought a Cap232 0.1 Kit from SHS.

This would be sort of some build notes plus perhaps you all can get the insight of how balsa planes are made....



Here's the picture of the CAP 232 0.10 sitting on a...CAP 232, I suppose.

The picture is from OK Models website at http://www.okmodel.co.jp/

The product website is here.

http://www.okmodel.co.jp/catalog/airplane/Cap-10/index.html

Due to my excitement, I have not taken any pictures of the pre-built review.... I'll be grabbing some pictures to refer to from OK models. Anyway I'm sure they appreciate the free publicity...

Now.... on to the build.


The kit is the same as any other kit. Upon opening it, you will see a lot of balsa planks with the part shapes lazered into them.



So, we'll start with the instructions...at the beginning.

Step 1 - make the engine mount. Some extra work is needed as I'm going to convert this to electric.


Stock engine mount


Measure, and hack off some parts of the 'noses'


Epoxy mounting plate to the engine mount - reinforce with ice cream sticks. Later on we'll firewall mount a motor on.


Prepare the other small parts, like this


and this


Lay out parts on the building board


Dry fit together.

Pilot/Ok models precision is so good, you can even dry fit them together and they would stick, without glue. But of course, I glued the parts together with white glue. Only used clothes pegs to peg the rear together.


A few more parts here


A few more parts there

Very simple so far. I took 1 night on the motor mount (actually an hour plus) and then another night 1 hr on the fuse. Have to build when wife is not looking or getting me to do housework.



Planking of balsa start

This is starting to get tricky - to get the balsa to fit perfectly around the curved surface. I wasted a lot of balsa here



Planking end



Glue cowl together, test fit



Remember the earlier photo?

Now its' time we firewall mounted the motor and test the fit



Look and see.....mmmm seems ok.



Next, spraypaint the cowl, put a electric insulation tape as decoration.

I'm up to here at this point.

Next -

making horizontal stabs and vert stabs

Covering the fuse

Making the wings

To be continued

[Tony]

Good progress so far. Keep it light and you will get a nice flying plane. Cheers

[Sunstorm]

Yup, thanks

Not much weight savings .... I've tried to lighten the stabs and so, but only save about 10 gms..... Don't think it's really worth it to lighten it so much. Anyway I'm using Oracover opaque covering, it's easy to work with, I think it's better than Monokote. Even though it seems rather heavy.

[Sunstorm]

The last we left off, the fuselage was bare.

So before covering, we assemble the vertical stabilizer.



Of course, you can lighten the tail a bit by cutting out holes. But next time I don't think I would do this.



Start to cover - I choose white. The canopy - I've put 'eyeliner' using monokote trim sheets



Now do the other tail parts as well.



Once done, glue the tail parts to the main fuse.



Test alignment with this little tool. Sure it's not a bevel box but it's just 2 dollars. From Daiso.


Fitted up the wheels as well. The fuse is now ARF stage! Yeah! :

[Sunstorm]

Now its time for the wings.

Wings are symetrical. Lay them out on the building board.



How to glue? Smear some Sig Pro Bond on a satay stick, and then apply it to all the small fitting holes. (Ya la I bought this from Jet Hobby )


Plank wings start


Plank wings end.... boy it was a lot of work. In my excitement I didn't check the kit box, I just used up my old 1/16 balsa pieces


There was a small warp in the wing, so this wing spent 1-2 nights being pressed to the building board under some magazines and dumbbell weights


Planking end for 1 wing, now it's time to start the other.

To be continued.

The experience I get is like when I'm building a plastic model airplane...

[Sunstorm]

Now there's a problem.

in my excitement to build the wings (again)

I built 2 right wings and flipped the left one over. Being symetrical, I thought, hey, it's all right.

Apparently NOT!

Pilot / Ok models had already anticipated this and there's some small issue with the dihedral in the wings when test fitted together.... Kudos to their quality of their kits! I support you won't really get this in a scratch build....


I suppose some sanding would do the trick, followed by some eyeballing.....wow this is embarrassing....

Next time I'll keep this slow, don't be too anxious to finish....

[Tsunami33]

Yup, OK Models is the best laser cut kitter I've seen to date. Building the Extra and DJ-1, I could literaterally put the pieces together like a jig-saw puzzle and lift it up. Bad part about that is you tend to get complacent with the jigs, clamps, and ultimately the necessary checks!

Anyhow, keep going with this. Don't slow down. Always takes me more time to figure out where the heck I left off the last time if there's more than a week in between!

I've still got a 30 Mustang and the DJ-3 to get to. But... just booked another MK kit and the retracts. Hope to pick it up tomorrow.

[darts]

Where to buy this kit?

Hi,

First post here!

This kit looks great! Could someone post a link to the shop "SHS" or another shop with this kit?

Keep up the good work, looks great so far


darts.

[Sunstorm]

Thanks Darts for the compliments -

SHS stands for Singapore Hobby Supplies - which you can find the web page here.

http://shop.singahobby.com/

The CAP 232 is not listed on the website as far as I know. But it's sibling, the EXTRA is listed.

http://shop.singahobby.com/?q=node/18973

Cheers and have fun

[Tsunami33]

Just had a peek today. All 3 Cap, Extra and Sukhoi are still in stock... go for it. Would love to see more people get into the build.

[Tony]

Besides Pilot kits, there is another kit manufacturer I know who has great scale kits of this size that are marvels of kit engineering. I am speaking Stevens Aeromodels. I have a couple of his kits and have built the RV4 and they are truly marvelous works of art. Look SA up on the web. The RV4 flies really really well.

Hi,

First post here!

This kit looks great! Could someone post a link to the shop "SHS" or another shop with this kit?

Keep up the good work, looks great so far


darts.

[Sunstorm]

Wings are now planked, so what we do is we must add in the aileron hinges. You have to buy these hinges. They are commonly known as EZ hinges or CA hinges.

First cut hinge to proper size, cut a slit in the wing and slot it in.



Then cut slits in the aileron hinge and then also slot them in. Some care must be taken.



When ailerons are done, drip thin CA onto the hinge. The CA would spread to the hinge and surrounding wood areas. Balsa absorbs a lot of thin-CA which makes it stronger but heavier. When it hardens it makes for a tough hinge.

So now, we dry fit the wings and then sand to minimize gaps and then epoxy the wings together.



Great, wing is done.

Test fit to fuselage and relax / admire your work.



The fuse now comes with a Du bro spinner and Aeronaut prop. The new lady at Jethobby commented that I like 'expensive prop'.

Next thing to do to get the thing to really ARF stage;

1) cover wings

2) mount servos / figure out where to mount servos

3) mount control hardware

4) Fine tune battery location and wing mounting system

Wow, seems like still a lot of work. But it's ok, I like it!

[NUDGE]

nice

nice one bro....looking at yur sig,,u choose much effort over less effort..lol

anyways trying to finish my HOB kit now andmost likely the last kit i am allowed to build by MOHA....sian

[Sunstorm]

nice one bro....looking at yur sig,,u choose much effort over less effort..lol

anyways trying to finish my HOB kit now andmost likely the last kit i am allowed to build by MOHA....sian

Thank you. Don't forget that while she is the MOHA, you are the PRIME MINISTER! Can understand how you and the wife feels -

If we are to do kits with very little disturbance, there are things we must do, like sweeping up and keeping the place clean.

Please post up pics of the House of Balsa kit too! I would like to know who and how many ppl scratch build and kit build here.

[Sunstorm]

From this:



to this:



It is now ARF stage!