TWIN COMANCHE RC SCALE MODEL____________

If it looks good, it flys well and no light twin looks better than the Twin Comanche. It just looks so sleek and balanced and I, along with a multitude of others have always loved the Comanche. I remember a Twin Comanche at my local field, Archerfield, Brisbane... The paint had been stripped and she had been abandoned to the weather, the naked lady, so sad. It's funny how an 'inanimate object' can stir the emotions. Nowadays, my medical won't allow me fly one of these beautiful machines but one can dream... unless... 

That's it... I'll build one and fly it. You can get as much out of scratch building and flying a scale radio control aircraft as flying the real thing. I've done both and I stand by that statement. There are a great many challenges, dedication and attention to detail is neededand when you get it right the rewards are many and I'm talking about both activities.

This project started with Google. I gathered as many resources as I could, pictures, drawings and specs. Then it was time to design. I enjoy the process but it's a long one. I would guess that I put in at least 300 hours into the drawings. My design program of choice is Photoshop, (in this case Photoshop 7). I've been using Adobe Photoshop professionally since it was first released and consequently, I'm quite proficient. 'Experts' tell me "you can't draw or design on Photoshop." I beg to differ.

Each part is designed on a layer and building up the layers makes up the plan. The layers can then be separated out to to be printed. If the parts are larger than A4 paper I simply save them as PDFs and use the Acrobat poster print to print it across several sheets. I intend to supply a PDF parts book with all pages full scale on A4. The templates can then be printed full size. PDFs are ideal also because the files are designed for printing and you can add crop marks to accurately match sheets.

Once I have the paper templates I either cut them out or trace them to the balsa/ply using carbon paper. From here we go on to the build...

Links to Photo/Text Essay pages for the build so far...

Plans

Wings

Engine Nacelles

Fun Extra Bits

Tail Fin

Fuselage