The J 3 Cub is a great flying aircraft. I always enjoy watching the guys at the field fly their Cubs. Eventually got A Cub of my own. This model of the J 3 Cub was built from an old Sig Kit I purchased on e-bay a many years back.  J 3 Cub's are traditionally finished with "Cub Yellow"covering. You may see the Military finish as well. Olive Green with varying accent colors and stripes. I used a little creative license on my choice of finish covering. Like most of my planes, I like them to be distinctive. A quick note on my philosophy regarding finishes of airplanes:

You can follow the path others have taken or...you can choose a path others my follow.

Remember someone has to be the first. There's no wrong way to go. Just have some fun along the way.

The Sig kit was well designed and anyone who  has built a few kits should have no problem with this one.

The model is very light when finished and has very low wing loading.  The benefits of  low wing loading  become very obvious in  flight. Improved sensitivity of the flight surfaces while performing  maneuvers and extend flight times. Not to mention softer landings.  The ground handling is typical Cub. The Cub can be very challenging to keep  straight  and requires a lot of rudder impute to keep it on track during power up for take offs. The plane has a tendency to turn left abruptly if too much power is applied rapidly. So just ease the power up slowly for your first flights. After you get the hang of it, you can jam the throttle and go. The plane leaps into the sky in a matter of a few feet if you have enough power.

The Sig  J 3 Cub has a one piece wing design with functional wing struts. The wing is very light and needs the struts in order to operate safely. Catastrophic wing failure will a cure if the struts are not used. I watched a pilot friend take of with a simlar Cub. He neglected to install  the struts. When asked, he told me that they were cosmetic and not really necessary.

He was wrong!

As he pulled out from a loop under light power. The wing folded in half and he was at the controls of a not so guided missile heading to the ground rapidly. I'd say the fuse beat the remains of the wing to the ground by a good 5-6 seconds. As my friend learned. If you take the time to install the struts and you save yourself the time it takes to build another Cub.

The whole plane was first covered with white UltraCoate . I used Monokote for the accent colors. It took almost eight hours just to design and apply the covering on the main wing. Once I had my color scheme figured out the rest of the project moved quite a bit faster. I was able to transform the rest of the plane from basic white to what you see here in about 6 hours or so. Sometimes the hardest part is figuring out what you want to do. This often takes  longer than  the actual doing.  Horrible grammar, but you get the point.

The best thing about this color scheme. Visibility. You can really see this plane in the sky!

Note on the set up.:

As with all my planes. This is an e-conversion. An E-flight 32 bl out runner motor and a Castle Creations 60 amp speed controller used for the flight power.  A separate 5 cell 1500 mah NiMa battery is used for the receiver and flight servo's. A  4,000 mah 30 C  4 cell (14.8 volt) Zippy battery from Hobby King is provides the main power supply. They are affordable and provide good performance for the money. Flight performance is better than scale and i have endless vertical. Loops are tight and aileron rolls are reasonably axial. Takes offs require about 20 feet of roll out under full power and landing this plane is a matter of cutting the power and gliding in. This is a good semi scale model and I would suggest everyone have one as a relaxing  Sunday fly er. 

 

 You may notice the absence of a motor on either side of the cowl. The wasn't a motor in the kit I purchased.

Funny, It dosen't seem to affect the planes performance one bit

I just finished reading an article in the  recent publication of Model Airplane News. The article related to the up coming film by George Lucas: The Red Tails. The article was authored by John Reid and I found it to be very informative and illuminating. There is a lot of misinformation regarding the Tuskegee Airmen and I felt John did a great job of providing factual information.
  Following his article, John Reid provided a step by step article detailing the conversion of a Aero Works Mustang  ARF to a red tail  Tuskegee Mustang.  This is a great article. Sure to help anyone with the desire to customise their aircraft. Great job John!
Although John did beat me to the punch on his red tail conversion I may be out in front on this Mustang.

Ben, a flying buddy of mine had an older version of  Hangar 9's  Mustang  60 that he was done flying. Ben offered the plan to me for free with the provision that it be restored and not used for parts. The plane was in pretty good shape and had been well treated. Usual  bumps and bruises. I told Ben it would be a pleasure. I grabbed the plane and ran. A free Mustang are you kidding me, Heck yah!

I stripped all the covering off , sanded and cleaned the surfaces shortly after getting the plane home.  Now what. I l had no Idea what look I was going for. I have several other Mustangs with a sismilar finish. I wasn't sure I needed another one with this covering scheme.
The project stalled for almost a year.
It came to me after watching some videos of the Reno Air Races on U-Tube. The paint schemes on these planes are awesome and I knew this was what I had been searching for. A truly unique look on a Mustang.
Of course I didn't mention to Ben my intent to convert this plane to a Reno Racer. Why spoil the fun. I couldn't wait to bring this plane to the flying field and show Ben his Fully restored Mustang.

Many of you will notice the absence of a spinner and the exhaust pipes. These parts are on order and should arrive soon. Till then I'll just keep flying this model without.


Along the way I made a few modifications the model. I did an e-conversion to start. Redesigned the landing gear doors, and included inner gear doors for scale effect. The inner doors mar operated using a separate servo. I added material around the gear door wells so the gear doors when closed would be flush with the wing surface.
I'll be honest. It about drove me nuts trying to get a tight finish and get the doors to open smoothly. There's always some play in the landing gear mechanisms that cause's  heart ache if the tolerances are too tight.

This is my favorite Mustang to fly. I would recommend the ARF  to anyone with underwing experience.
Great handling in the air. Smooth and gentle to land.

I've included this stock  photo from Hangar 9's web-site.