Who has built FT SBK kits?

[Burkeomatic]

Has anyone built them? 

I had always imagined they would go together easier, but I am not sure. 

They don't quite mesh with my building style. They have giant channels in the foam which require copious amounts of hot glue to fill the voids, I don't use hot glue a whole lot.

For some reason, they don't seem to line up with each other that well. My Zero is crooked. But I had never built it before. 

I don't really like the brown foamboard as it is greasy, and stuff doesn't stick well to it. 

The tiny flerkin went together ok, but it was all raisiny and didn't fly well. Luckily, I have a new one to try again. 

I also have the Trojan sky FX, which I haven't put together, and I am considering reselling. I am about 80 bucks into the kit, and it is little more than printed foam board. 

I may trace templates of it, and scale it up if I keep it. If I loosely use the templates, make some changes, and make it at a different scale and publish "my version" of the design, that isn't stealing.... right? 

Oh well, just wondering what everyone elses experiences are. I think the only real good designs of theirs I have built are the P-40 and the Scout. Although I hear that there are a couple other good ones I haven't tried. 

Although, I am not making this to trash their designs, I am genuinely interested on any pointers to help building my remaining two planes successfully. 

Also, if someone really wants a jolly rogers T28 with landing gear, I will sell it to them at a very discounted rate. 

[bwarz]

I've only built a few SBKs, built a few from plans on the brown FTFB.  I don't like the concave edge as a result of the laser cutting.  That does seem to make the joints require quite a bit of hot glue (and if you don't use hot glue I can't see how well that would end up holding?)  I built a Simple Cub and an Explorer (the airplane, not the guitar lol) and they went together OK as I remember.  The Explorer seemed kinda tight getting the fusebox (lol) to slide in, but that may have been too much hot glue.

It is nice to not have to cut things out, but I'm not that much in a rush to build usually (and I do sometime enjoy the concentration of having to cut stuff out)

I thought I would like the FTFB, but I dislike it for painting.  I will end up building quick stuff out of it for its waterproof nature, just not expecting to paint any of it anymore.  And I sure would not build an MS out of it.  If I'm gonna spend the time, I'd rather seal it up and get a nice finish on it than to have to sand the daylights out of it to get the paint to stick reliably...

[Mr NCT]

Jun 8, 2022 19:42:42 GMT bwarz said:

I've only built a few SBKs, built a few from plans on the brown FTFB.  I don't like the concave edge as a result of the laser cutting.  That does seem to make the joints require quite a bit of hot glue (and if you don't use hot glue I can't see how well that would end up holding?)  I built a Simple Cub and an Explorer (the airplane, not the guitar lol) and they went together OK as I remember.  The Explorer seemed kinda tight getting the fusebox (lol) to slide in, but that may have been too much hot glue.

It is nice to not have to cut things out, but I'm not that much in a rush to build usually (and I do sometime enjoy the concentration of having to cut stuff out)

I thought I would like the FTFB, but I dislike it for painting.  I will end up building quick stuff out of it for its waterproof nature, just not expecting to paint any of it anymore.  And I sure would not build an MS out of it.  If I'm gonna spend the time, I'd rather seal it up and get a nice finish on it than to have to sand the daylights out of it to get the paint to stick reliably...

I'm nowhere near your level of build expertice but I've come to the same conclusion on the FTFB.  It's for quickies with minimal decoration and white DTFB with minwax for the good stuff.

[Burkeomatic]

Jun 8, 2022 21:45:16 GMT Mr NCT said:

Jun 8, 2022 19:42:42 GMT bwarz said:

I've only built a few SBKs, built a few from plans on the brown FTFB.  I don't like the concave edge as a result of the laser cutting.  That does seem to make the joints require quite a bit of hot glue (and if you don't use hot glue I can't see how well that would end up holding?)  I built a Simple Cub and an Explorer (the airplane, not the guitar lol) and they went together OK as I remember.  The Explorer seemed kinda tight getting the fusebox (lol) to slide in, but that may have been too much hot glue.

It is nice to not have to cut things out, but I'm not that much in a rush to build usually (and I do sometime enjoy the concentration of having to cut stuff out)

I thought I would like the FTFB, but I dislike it for painting.  I will end up building quick stuff out of it for its waterproof nature, just not expecting to paint any of it anymore.  And I sure would not build an MS out of it.  If I'm gonna spend the time, I'd rather seal it up and get a nice finish on it than to have to sand the daylights out of it to get the paint to stick reliably...

I'm nowhere near your level of build expertice but I've come to the same conclusion on the FTFB.  It's for quickies with minimal decoration and white DTFB with minwax for the good stuff.

I would agree, but then my cheapness gets me. FTFB is triple the price, and enough minwax to do 30 planes is $20. Enough wood glue to build 5 planes is $4, and it is tougher and stronger. Call me weird, but I also think the brown stuff wrinkles easier. 

What I do on the ones I'm not sure about, is I don't bother. If I think it will get wet, I'll slap some minwax on it and call it a day.