Model Tech Me 109

Reprinted from Model
Airplane
News

"Almost" is rather nebulous in the term, "almost ready to fly." As far as model airplane kits are concerned, it can mean anything from instructions to "fill fuel tank" to "begin by locating part A on the printed sheet"! Most ARF kits fall somewhere between those parameters, but all require a certain amount of skill to be finished properly. I am convinced that ARFs are a very important addition to the hobby. Those who complete and fly them should be proud of their work! The Model Tech* Me 109 kit falls in the upper third of the above-described limits. It's a very nice, semi-scale airplane with most of the time-consuming work already finished, and it flies like a small pattern ship and looks good in the air. You can easily assemble it during a windy weekend.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

This is a well-packaged kit. Anything that could possibly be damaged during shipping is wrapped separately in a clear plastic bag. In addition, the parts are separated by cardboard. The construction manual is well done, although the photography—while adequate—is not quite as crisp and clear as it could be.

SPECIFICATIONS

Along with completely covered flying surfaces and fuselage, the hardware package includes a fuel tank, engine mount, landing gear and wheels as well as all linkages. There are a few things needed to build the airplane, but the accent is on "few." Other than glue and a modeling knife, a few drills and screwdrivers, some sandpaper and a ruler, you'll need a 4-channel radio and the recommended .25-size engine.

CONSTRUCTION

I like the term "construct" because it seems to fit the bill better than "assemble"! Regardless of how an airplane is built, its parts must be assembled; in this case, the parts are just a little bigger and fewer in number.

Because of differences in temperature and humidity between the factory and your workshop, wrinkles may form in the covering material. This is especially true where air can be trapped over the solid wooden parts of the airplane. These wrinkles are easily removed with a trim iron or a small travel iron set on medium heat. It is much easier to remove wrinkles before starting construction. I followed the manual, step by step, and found the assembly sequence to be well thought out and logical.

The first step is joining the wing halves. You must trim away all covering in the areas to be glued. This is not outlined in the manual but is more or less a common practice. The plywood wing joiner was a perfect fit, and the wing halves went together smoothly and easily. I used rubber bands around the two dowels at the leading edge and the aileron horns at the trailing edge to maintain pressure while the epoxy set.

After a little trimming and shimming to mount the wing bolt doubler, installing the ailerons and servo mount took very little time.

Mounting the tail surfaces was a piece of cake. The only difficulty was bending the stabilizer braces a bit to correspond with the fuselage sides for a good fit. Installing the elevators was very easy and smooth, but the rudder and its attendant tailwheel were not quite as straightforward! First, the tailwheel mount was different from the one shown in the instruction manual (actually, it was better!). However, because it was already bent to shape (slightly off-center), I had to drill a hole in the rudder to match the mount—no problem. The manual states that you should screw the bracket to the bottom of the fuselage and then epoxy the rudder to the hinges and tailwheel tiller at the same time! It was far easier to epoxy the tailwheel tiller to the rudder, then mount the rudder and finally mount the bracket to the bottom of the fuselage.

Done that way, the rudder fit properly, as did the bracket to the fuselage. When the tailwheel mount was in place, the hole in the wheel was too large for the axle, and only one wheel collar was available where two were necessary to center the wheel. I shimmed the tailwheel with a brass tube to match the axle and soldered washers on either side to center the wheel and hold it on the axle. The completed tailwheel assembly then ran smoothly and was true to the rudder.

The landing-gear legs are of the torque type and slipped easily into place, but the wheels, which are very nice, are centered on their axles with a wheel collar on each side. However, the wheels have recessed hubs, so the outboard wheel collar must be up inside the wheel with no satisfactory way to tighten the Phillips-head setscrew! The way the wheels are splayed out on the Me 109 puts a lot of stress on the outboard wheel collar, so to be sure it was secure, I soldered the outboard wheel collars to the axles.

ENGINE AND RADIO INSTALLATION

Because the engine mount bolts provided were not quite long enough to secure my good old O.S.* .25, I reverted to time-honored sheet-metal screws. The fiberglass cowl is a very good one, and the manual suggests using a Dremel tool for trimming. Fuselage, mount, engine and cowl fit together as slick as a whistle! Not only that, but the canopy also settled into place just as it should, which is always a surprise to me!

At first, installing the fuel tank was a head-scratcher. The tank is rectangular and, according to the manual, should be installed with the widest part across the fuselage. Sounds simple, but the tank will only fit through the forward bulkhead sideways, and when it's through the bulkhead, there isn't enough room to turn it right-side up! Not only that, but the tank will not meet the hole in the firewall unless installed according to the instructions. My first thought was to trim the opening in the bulkhead to allow the tank to pass; however, that would all but eliminate the vertical sides of the bulkhead. Finally, the solution became clear—a round fuel tank! A round, 4-ounce tank slipped into place as easy as you please and, as a bonus, the throttle line was a cinch to install.

The supplied aileron pushrods had very poor Z-bends. I used a Z-bend tool to correct them, and then they worked very well. Without the tool, it would be best to substitute threaded rods and links to connect the aileron servo to the ailerons. The pushrods to the rudder and elevator, made up as per the instructions, are lightweight and work very well. Radio installation was straightforward in all respects.

Because the engine I used weighed less than the one recommended in the manual, some nose weight was necessary to bring the airplane to the balance point shown. Even with the additional weight, the airplane weighed exactly what the specifications stipulated. The stick-on decals were easy to apply. The manual says to use canopy cement to glue the exhaust stacks where they belong, which I did. I was very surprised that they survived several flying sessions, but they did! Final balancing and radio and control checks indicated the airplane was ready to fly.

By and large, the manual provided a logical and well-explained assembly sequence. The woodwork was very well done, as was the covering, and all the major parts fit together very well and required no additional work to align properly. Radio installation was straightforward, and the hardware package included everything necessary to complete the installation. This is a good flying airplane!

Features:

Hits:

• Good instruction manual.
• Well-built and covered model.
• Complete hardware package.
• Nice flyer!

Comments:

Misses:

• Supplied tailwheel mount not the one shown in the manual.
• Difficult—if not impossible—to install provided fuel tank as per instructions.
• Main-gear wheel collars very difficult to secure in recessed wheel.