Spitfire Kit $55.00

Here is how to build your Spitfire in one hour

You should have a fuselage, a wing, rudder, elevator, two wheels, two bent landing gear mounts, two gear shrouds, three control horns, elevator joiner and pushrods

A U shaped wire is included to allow you to control each half of the elevator with one control horn. Mark the location on the bottom side of the two elevator surfaces, getting it as centered as possible. Attach with CA.

The U shaped wire will allow the two halves of the elevator to work simultaneously

While working on the tail, this is a good time to install the elevator control horn, mark a location just outside of the fuselage and make a slit into the EPP. Test fit the push rod as well at this time so that you can enlarge the control horn hole as needed.

The final vertical stabilizer/elevator assembly

Attach the above assembly to the fuselage using CA and hold it square to the fuselage until it dries

Attach the rudder with CA and hold square until it dries

The wing is fully assembled, but this is a good time to mark the location of your aileron servo as well and to install the control horns. Use your servo as a guide and mark the cutout needed to seat it into the wing. Note, be certain to allow room for the fuselage air scoop

With the servo location established, mark two dots where the servo horn attachments will be and draw a line where each aileron control horn will be installed. Use a straight edge to establish a good angle so that the thrust of your servo will be parallel to the installed control horn. This is also a good time to drill out hole for the push rod if necessary

Cute a slot where you made your marks above

Use CA to install the control horns, you may want to trim them to length if they are too long

You can use CA for this step, but hot melt glue allows more working time and adjustment room. Put a single bead of hot melt glue down the center of the fuselage wing saddle, fit the wing into place and adjust so that it is square to the fuselage. Once dry, you can add additional CA or hot melt glue along the edge to strengthen the joint

The completed EPP assembly (showing wheels that will be installed next if desired)

If you intend to install the wheels, follow these steps. The wheels are held into the wing via rigid slots that hold pre-bent gear. The first step is to assemble the two rigid gear holders by gluing together a U shaped spacer between two rectangular sides.

The completed rigid mounts, ready to be installed into the wing

The pre-bent landing gear fit into the rigid holders with no glue needed. Adjust the bend of the wire for a snug fit

insert a wheel and a retaining clip to keep the wheel on

Where you put the gear is up to you, but we used a spacing of about three inches from the centerline of the wing. The gear slot is used as a template and then cutout. Once it fits nicely, CA it into the wing. Note, be certain not to damage the wing reinforcing bar while installing the rigid gear holder

Attach the landing gear shroud if desired

Cut out the previously marked aileron servo location

Install the servo with hot melt glue (CA would be hard to remove when you want to use the servo again)

Use hot melt glue to attach the elevator servo just behind the wing

Install the elevator push rod using a straight edge to trim out the elevator

Install the aileron control rods, using a straight edge to trim out the ailerons

Attach the receiver and ESC with Velcro

Depending on your motor, your attachment methods and options may be different. We use the Tower Pro 2408-21 brushless outrunner which should be surface mounted. To accommodate this, we installed a plywood firewall with CA. The motor we recommend also comes with a GWS style stick mount that could be used in place of a firewall mount

The Spitfire, as assembled above, balances without the battery at a point 50mm from the leading edge. For such small models, the best way to balance them is to the place a rod though the top of the fuselage at the desired CG point and suspend the model from the rod so that you can check the balance with your battery pack and location

The completed Spitfire, ready to test fly