I did it! I really did it!

Just my opinion, but regarding the excessive shrinkage distortion on Mark's plane wing, I'd probably just straighten the parts as best as I could, then overlay the parts distorted (ribs and tips) with stiff 1/32nd sheet balsa or 1/64th basswood, to straighten and strengthen them. Only replace the worst parts.

It would add minimal weight, then with a modern synthetic covering like Litespan, recover it. This would spare a lot of serious dismantling and get it back into flying condition.

Again, just my opinion.

The leading edge is not warped, just the trailing edge, so it's not going to be a problem.  I'll just straighten the t.e. and install new 1/16" ribs and 3/32" wingtips. I believe the ribs are glued with Ambroid, and not a great job at that, so it's going to be easy to remove the glue and just pull out the ribs which are none too secure.  I was going to omit the flaps, but who knows.  Should be pretty straightforward.  Since it's already really ugly I'll not spend too much time getting it ready.  I'll cut the terrible cloth hinges and replace them with thread hinges using Spectra line, and then cover with some yellow leftover Monokote.

The Sloppy Mark

batjac wrote:Okay, I had a little time to get back to this so I stripped off the wing covering.  Hoo Boy!  Worse than I thought.





I downloaded the Super Combat Streak plans from Outerzone.  I measured the dimensions on the ribs in the wing  so I could adjust the plans for the ribs so they fit in the existing wing.  Whaddayaknow!  The ribs as shown on the .pdf fit perfectly!  So, I drew up the rib in Inkscape and cut a test rib out on my Cricut cutter.




I’ll try it out tomorrow, and if it fits I’ll cut out the other 13 ribs I need.

The Cautious Mark

It kinda looks like the ribs followed the same contours of the 'flame' job on the fuselage.....

Sorry, it is not funny it is damaged, but just thought the look was very similar.

getback on Jan 12, 2023 wrote:I seen a kit for this plane is $150 Either way I agree with Ken you can't learn on a half butt plane , I can say i think most the planes i fly/flown have been this issue .And getting over it is a Building experience till you succeed at what your tring to get out of the hobby . Just do it and have fun !!  

My problem is not half butt builds, I do them well. It is when I'm a half-b*** pilot.      

batjac wrote:Okay, I had a little time to get back to this so I stripped off the wing covering.  Hoo Boy!  Worse than I thought.

Actually, it is not worse. I've seen worse. Looks like to me that extra soft balsa was used for the sheet surfaces (ribs, tip, tip ribs, etc.)

The warped ribs could even be fixed with say, 1/16 x 3/16 stiff balsa to straighten along the centerline of the rib on one side. Use a covering sealing iron and a clean sponge with plain water, apply to warped rib with sealing iron to heat and swell / dry the wood fibers back to normal. Then glue the flat balsa stick to keep rib straight. Clear dope or glue (carpenters, Duco, Sigment, etc.), to stiffen up surface of the rib. With a little time and effort working back and forth, existing can be restored without disassembly, maybe except for the very worst parts. But I don't see that type of worseness. (Awaiting the Grammarians András @balogh knows what I'm talking about. )

The Combat Flite Streak reminds me a little of my half-A Dumas Tom Tom II that I built in high school for a Golden Bee. Fuselage and wing resembles yours.

Well, I finally got tired of walking by this in the corner of the garage every time I walked out, so I cleared a little room on my garage work table and got back to this.  I went ahead and cut out a set of wing ribs.  The ribs are 1/16”, but all the 1/16” sheet balsa at the nearest HobbyLobby is horrible warped.  So I’m going with 3/16”.  It’ll be stronger, with not a lot of weight gain.  After all, this thing is a pig already.  What’s a few more grams?

Funny, I made that test rib on the Cricut machine, but it didn't fit.  So I printed out the wing rib full size per the plan .pdf, figuring I made some mistake when I did the Cricut .svg file.  But when I cut the plan and pasted it to a piece of cardstock to check it against the ribs on the wing, the plan ribs are too large.  Another example of how plans and kits do not match.  So I cut the length down and then sanded the ribs to shape after gluing in place.




As intimated in previous posts, I’m putting limited resources into this wreck I salvaged from the trash.  So don’t expect this to look pretty when I’m done.


The 4/10 Mark

The Combat Streak is a excellent flying plane. In fact it's probably one of the best designs from that era. In addition to good flying ability, the upright engine and tank directly behind the engine offers superb runs. I would be very cautious of using that tank Mark without taking it out of the plane and cleaning the inside. That might prove a bit difficult to remove but it would be well worth the trouble in doing so. Unfortunately, the largest tank you can fit into the Streak is 3 oz. I'm currently building two right now and I had to modify the wing to accommodate 4 oz. tanks without sacrificing the strength of the wing.

Good decision to use the 3/16 for ribs , man i hate sanding them after in place always worry about breaking one . Yeah I would remove that tank cut the hatch top side inspect clean and new fuel hoses , bee worth it not to have engine problems..

As intimated in previous posts, I’m putting limited resources into this wreck I salvaged from the trash. So don’t expect this to look pretty when I’m done.


The 4/10 Mark

Ah Mark your just messing with yourself trying to believe that you will not have an investment. How do I know. Been there.

From one model airplane roundy-round nut to another.

getback wrote:Yeah I would remove that tank cut the hatch top side inspect clean and new fuel hoses , bee worth it not to have engine problems..  

I was planning to flush out the tank, but I guess I could cut it out and inspect/replace it. I'm gonna Monokote the wings, but I'm not sure what I'm gonna spray the fuselage with to fuel-proof it. Man! I miss LustreKote.

The Nostalgic Mark