# Model Airways Wright Flyer



## MartyS

Well, Amazon had this kit on sale for $70 so I decided to torture myself for the foreseeable future. :grin2:

This was a kit I've thought about getting for years but when ever I thought about it the price was too high. I've always wanted a detailed model of the 1903 Flyer.

I haven't build a balsa plane since the 70s, and never anything this delicate, not to mention the rigging... So we will see how this goes. Searched for other builds online and got some good info from those, the instructions are not as clear as they could be.

Got the top wing done, about 8 hours of work, bottom wing should go a little faster now that the jig is built.










Top wing almost done in the jig.









Top Wing Done.

I have no idea where I'm going to but this big thing, probably hang it from the ceiling somewhere.


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## Milton Fox Racing

:thumbsup:


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## John P

Yipes! I wouldn't have the patience for that.


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## fluke

Same here way too much work LOL

Hats off to you Sir....Cant wait to see more :thumbsup:


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## MartyS

I'm quite certain this model will break all my previous records for number of swear words used....

Got the bottom wing build except for little details like the black string wrapped around the 4 areas needed, those take about 10 minutes each, this thing really is going to take forever.


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## MartyS

Putting the engine together and as if working with tiny wood and string was bad enough, this britannia metal is a new form of torture...

The photo etch brass parts are nice, but all the stuff made from britannia metal has bad flashing and most of it needs to be bent back into proper shape. The only glue I'd trust to hold all these tiny parts together is epoxy, and you can only do a few parts at a time so that means lots of tiny batches of epoxy need to be mixed.

Is tin cheaper to cast than styrene? It would be so much nicer to be working with styrene, or even resin. It's not like the silver metal color is needed, it's all getting painted black...


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## Zombie_61

MartyS said:


> ...It would be so much nicer to be working with styrene, or even resin...












:grin2:


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## MartyS

LOL I've built a few of those Revell kits over the years, one of them I even did all the rigging that the kit doesn't mention.

Might have the engine finished and painted tomorrow. The level of detail is great, including the ignition camshaft and the spring sheets that go between the camshaft and the combustion chambers.


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## MartyS

Engine is done and painted black. Looks pretty close to the one on display at the Smithsonian.









Engine 1









Engine 2









Engine 3









Engine 4


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## MartyS

Got the engine mounted on the wing and now can position the magneto struts and glue them in place.









Engine mounted and magneto supports installed.

Building this I was thinking if one of those combustion chambers failed the shrapnel would fly right into the pilot's side....


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## MartyS

Bunch of little bits around the engine done, now on to the pilot wing warping cradle. 









Magneto wired to engine.









Fuel valves and timing adjustment arm.


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## scooke123

Wow! I'm worn out just imagining all the work you have done so far.........


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## fluke

Coming along nicely! :thumbsup:


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## MartyS

Got the wing warping cradle and the footrest done.

Been experimenting with ways to simulate the leather pad that goes in the cradle, so far this is my best attempt:









Wing warping cradle

I shaped some wood, painted it brown, coated it with a thick layer of micro kristal klear, then airbrushed a thin coat of mahogany brown on top of that.

It's not glued in yet, if I still like the look of it tomorrow I'll glue it in.


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## MartyS

Got the chain guide tubes cut and the guides built.

After drying overnight my imitation leather pad looked OK so it's glued in.

Just working with these few parts is showing how touchy this thing is going to be as far as keeping the top and bottom lined up while working on stuff.











Chain guides built


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## Y3a

are you going to cover it or leave it 'open' to show all your hard work?


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## MartyS

Y3a said:


> are you going to cover it or leave it 'open' to show all your hard work?


All the model airways kits are 'open', they don't supply covering for the wings.

If it was going to be covered there would be no point to putting in all that detail, the laser cut ribs, the string reinforcements, etc...

The instructions are so hit or miss, plenty of detail for some things but lacking in others, I had to tear apart that longer chain guide and rebuilt it a couple of times to get everything positioned properly. It's helpful that JB kwik stays rubbery for a long time after it sets up.

There are a lot of high resolution images of the flyer at the Smithsonian website, those are very helpful for the parts that are lacking good position info in the instruction book.


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## MartyS

Well that was the most frustrating time I've ever had building a model. Took 4+ hours to install the 4 sections of chain, and one side is still sagging but I just can't deal with it anymore.










Chains installed.


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## Milton Fox Racing

Take your time! We can wait for updates. :cheers2:


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## MartyS

Milton Fox Racing said:


> Take your time! We can wait for updates. :cheers2:


MORE TIME!?!? Those chains are done, over, finished, donezo. No more TIME on them! You try hours of leaning over this thing trying to hold chain in the air with tweezers keeping your hands steady without being able to rest them on anything because it's all easily breakable *&^#ing tiny paper thin pieces of soft wood only to have the tweezers glued to the chain and everything falls apart and you have to try again and again and again... AARRgggggghhhhhh!!

OhoooKay, deep breaths, deep calming breaths, everything is fine.......


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## MartyS

Finally something easy, soldering the 36 hooks that the struts between the wings attach to, also used for the rigging.

Instructions call for epoxy but it's brass, way easier to solder them, only took about a minute each and no worries about keeping them straight as the epoxy hardens.









Strut hooks soldered.


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## MartyS

Need to make 18 identical struts with slight taper at each end, and eyelets placed on each end with all the same distance between the holes.

Tried making a wood jig to cut the taper but couldn't get one that worked quite right, so 3D printed one that works perfectly. Cutting blade slides along the plastic very nicely.

Have to do some research on the 2 struts that have the gas tank and radiator attached, to see if they have the same taper as all the others.









Strut Jigs.









Strut test fit.


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## MartyS

Taking a break from making struts to make the instrument stack:









Instrument stack

Even looking at the closeup images on the Smithsonian website I don't know how the anemometer was read, maybe there was simply a counter and they figured out the speed after landing. I have seen anemometers with nothing but a revolution counter on them. The middle instrument is a stopwatch and the bottom one is a barometer.

If I feel brave I'll try to draw the hands on the stopwatch and barometer, might be able to do it with a magnifier visor and a thin strand of wire. Thought about printing some decals but my printer doesn't have resolution fine enough.

All the struts are cut, sanded, and have their loops glued on, in the process of wrapping the string around the ends.


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## MartyS

String is wrapped on all the struts. Once the glue dries and I cut off the excess string they will be all done.

I did put some markings on the stopwatch and barometer, then put a drop of micro kristal klear on each one to simulate the glass.










Struts finished.


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## MartyS

Struts are glued in.

Radiator and fuel tank installed.









Struts installed.









Radiator and fuel tank.









Radiator and fuel tank.

Feels like I should be getting close to done but I'm probably only about half way there, maybe less if the rigging takes a long time.


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## MartyS

Tying tiny knots around tiny hooks using tweezers is a horrible job.

Really, really, horrible.

Nylon string makes it especially horrible. :frown2:


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## MartyS

I am dreading taking this off the jig tomorrow after the glue dries on all the many, many knots. It will try to flatten out with only the strings to keep it curved.









Wing rigging on jig front.









Wing rigging on jig back.


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## MartyS

Yay!

It's been about an hour and it's holding its shape.
This thing it going to be a pain to photograph when done, I'll need a very dark background.

Decided not to paint the chains on the wing warping cables, I figured they would blend in with the black pulleys and you wouldn't even notice there was chain there, and I want them to stand out. I've looked at plenty of pictures of the flyer over the years and those chains were something I never noticed before. Makes sense since they used fairly stiff wire and it would have just formed to the pulleys and not moved through them very easily.









Wings done front.









Wings done back.









Wing warping chains.


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## MartyS

I was cleaning up my work area and saw the instrument cluster sitting there, so the wings were not 100% done like I thought, now I think they are:









Instrument cluster installed.


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## MartyS

Building the elevators and landing skid. Slow going, lots of small parts, and lots of waiting for glue to dry before making the next part.

Wasn't until taking the photos that I thought I should have photocopied the 2 plans and then would have been able to make the stuff that is done in sets of 2 at the same time, would have saved a few days.









Elevator wings and landing skid parts.









Elevator control arms.


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## MartyS

Getting the 2 elevator wings together with all the stuff between them was a challenge, managed to get it mostly straight:









Elevator built.


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## MartyS

Took some serious planning to get the elevators on, as far as I can tell on the real thing they are only held in place by the rigging. And the spars that go from the bottom wing to the front pass inside the 2 elevators, so the thing has to hang from string before attaching those 2 spars. I did end up tilting them slightly and using 2 spots of glue on the top wing to stabilize things a bit. Got the chain and string around the pulleys before attaching the wings so that was fairly easy. Then the long spars that go from the top wing to the front bottom curved wood areas were cut and shaped to fit.

Still have to add the rigging from the base of the landing skid to the underside of the bottom wing. Then on to the rudder.

The propellers will be last, not looking forward to that, they have to be carved from 3 pieces of basswood glued together.









Elevators attached 1.









Elevators attached 2.


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## MartyS

Darn, all that planning and I still managed to put the vertical supports on the wrong side of the center lines of the elevators, the center spars and metal pipe should be on the back side.

Too late to do anything about it now, far too much to tear apart and not enough spare wood to replace anything that might break.


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## MartyS

Rudder is attached, fairly easy build for these parts.

The entire rudder assembly is hinged on eyelets, with the single wire holding it up.









Rudder attached.


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## Milton Fox Racing

I can better understand now why no one else thought this thing would ever fly. :cheers2:


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## MartyS

On to the propellers. Somehow I have to shape these things into props...

Going to try using a sanding drum on the dremel, I think if I try to use a knife I'll end up taking off too much at a time and messing up. Just have to remember not to freak out if I mess up, since these are getting painted grey I can mess up and fill in mistakes with plastic wood.









Propeller Blanks.


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## MartyS

The dremel worked well shaping the props, lots and lots of light passes taking off a tiny amount at a time. They are not exactly the same but not bad for working by eye.

The "cloth" they give to put on the ends to simulate the stuff on the real props is so thin it kind of disappears, but anything more would not be to scale.

So, almost done with this thing, a little more rigging to do, then put the props on, and then I have to figure out where in my house I can put it...









Propellers shaped.









Propellers painted.


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## Milton Fox Racing




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## MartyS

Props are attached, finished up the rigging and a little painting of the brass eyelets.

So it's done, after somewhere between 150 and 200 hours of work....

Haven't used my DSLR in so long I have to wait for batteries to charge up, then I'll get some quality pictures of it with my dual flash setup.









Propellers attached.









Done!


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## MartyS

Bunch of pictures of the final product:









Wright Flyer 1









Wright Flyer 3









Wright Flyer 4









Wright Flyer 5









Wright Flyer 6









Wright Flyer 7









Wright Flyer 7









Wright Flyer 8


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## Milton Fox Racing

Awesome! :thumbsup:


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## Zombie_61

That's beautiful, and it shows off the precision in your work nicely. Well done! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## MartyS

Thanks guys. I'm debating if I want to spray a layer of clear coat on everything to seal the wood and any exposed tin parts.

Forgot to mention the shafts for the props were way bigger than the laser cut holes. Had to go up 2 drill sizes on the props until the holes were scary close to the walls, and I still had to sand down the metal shafts to get the props on. Also the shafts were short and didn't extend past the wood of the props for attaching the nuts, so I had to use a wooden dowel in each nut to simulate the end of the shaft. 

Only broke 3 of the ribs along the way, a tiny dab of white glue and you can't even tell where they were broken.

I did have to use some regular silver thread for some of the rigging, I knew I was getting close to running out of the supplied string so switched to silver thread for the rudder and then needed it again for 2 sections that go from the landing skids to under the wing. Good thing I used my own black thread for all the reinforcements, would have been well short of the supplied thread if I had used that for the reinforcements.


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## Phillip1

MartyS,

This is an outstanding Progress Build Thread. Thank you for posting it. You have done an fantastic modeling job and I am very impressed. You certainly need to display this where people can see it. It looks so fragile. How difficult is it to pick up and move? Once again great job!

Phillip1


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## MartyS

Phillip1 said:


> It looks so fragile. How difficult is it to pick up and move? Once again great job!


Thanks. The model is far more rigid than you would expect, so not hard to move around. Of course I did find out several times while building it that the ribs individually are quite fragile, so you have to be very careful where you grab it. And I'm sure a bump going through a doorway would be very bad for it, so it is a bit nerve racking moving it from room to room...

Going over it I noticed a few pieces of reinforcement I should add, the kit comes with a roll of brass tape for those areas, it's the black stuff on places like the engine support beams. The real thing has reinforcements on each rib that wrap around the front spar, but at this scale they would be too small. I did see one insanely detailed build of this model that included them but they are the one thing in that build that looked too big even though they were strips barely larger than sewing thread.

Until I figure out a better place it's going to sit on the top of the shelves with my plastic models:









One of these things is not like the others.


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## MartyS

3D printed a stringer to hang the model from 4 hooks, and decided to put it over the spot I have my big Enterprise model:









Wright Flyer hanging.


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## This lonely planet

WOW...WOW. I found this thread while looking for build reviews for this, as it appeared in an Ebay search suggestion.
I wanted to know what Id be getting myself into.
Thanks for the detailing amount of struggles and where, so Im not surprised when I get thrre and have good ideas on resolving them...(fingers crossed)..a bit easier at that time.
Putting it by the 1/350 Enterprise also helps give the idea of its finished size.


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## Brian Amato

MartyS said:


> Finally something easy, soldering the 36 hooks that the struts between the wings attach to, also used for the rigging.
> 
> Instructions call for epoxy but it's brass, way easier to solder them, only took about a minute each and no worries about keeping them straight as the epoxy hardens.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Strut hooks soldered.


How did you hold them in place while you hit them with the soldering iron?


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## Brian Amato

MartyS said:


> Finally something easy, soldering the 36 hooks that the struts between the wings attach to, also used for the rigging.
> 
> Instructions call for epoxy but it's brass, way easier to solder them, only took about a minute each and no worries about keeping them straight as the epoxy hardens.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Strut hooks soldered.


Liked the idea of soldering them....but I made a tiny little jig to hold the two pieces in alignment, give them a little swipe of liquid flux, clipped off little bitty pieces of solder and laid it next to the two pieces, heated them together and ..........swoosh...capillary action sucked the solder right in between the two pieces for the sweetest little joint you ever saw.


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## MartyS

Sorry, haven't checked this board in a few weeks... That soldering jig idea sounds great, I just put a blob of solder on the flat plate and then held it down with the top of the iron while I held the hook on it with tweezers, then took the iron away and let it cool.


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## Brian Amato

MartyS said:


> Well that was the most frustrating time I've ever had building a model. Took 4+ hours to install the 4 sections of chain, and one side is still sagging but I just can't deal with it anymore.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chains installed.


I know I'm going to get smacked for this but.....are the drive chains supposed to actually go down through the chain guides somehow? If yes, am I supposed to hollow them out so the chain can go through them or just APPEAR to go thru them? Maybe use a drill to indent each end and glue the end of the chains in that indent? The instructions don't say anything.....at least that I can see. What did you guys do?


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## MartyS

Brian Amato said:


> I know I'm going to get smacked for this but.....are the drive chains supposed to actually go down through the chain guides somehow? If yes, am I supposed to hollow them out so the chain can go through them or just APPEAR to go thru them? Maybe use a drill to indent each end and glue the end of the chains in that indent? The instructions don't say anything.....at least that I can see. What did you guys do?


The chains just glue onto the ends of the guides so they appear to be going through them. That's what made it so hard to do.

A tip I wish I had read before doing mine is to hang a length of chain from somewhere and "paint" it with thin CA glue. That is supposed to glue the links into a straight line but not very strongly so you can still bend them around the sprockets. Supposed to make it easy to get a chain to look like it has tension on it.


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## Brian Amato

Thanks so much for taking the time to write an answer for me. Kind of what I thought. MAN....I've built some fussy models before but this thing is a butt kicker. It's going to be neat when it's all done though. Thanks again. Brian in Michigan


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## Brian Amato

Brian Amato said:


> Thanks so much for taking the time to write an answer for me. Kind of what I thought. MAN....I've built some fussy models before but this thing is a butt kicker. It's going to be neat when it's all done though. Thanks again. Brian in Michigan


Since you were so kind to answer one question, maybe you'd help me with just one more. Same area...the chain guides and stuff. There is a kind of dogleg looking, bent piece that fits up against either the brass support or the cast chain guide..I can't tell. They call it WF-B29. I just can't see what it does or where it goes. Did you include it? Any chance you have a close up photo of where it goes or how you did it? Thanks so much! Lovely, detailed model kit. CRUMMY instructions !!


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## MartyS

Brian Amato said:


> Since you were so kind to answer one question, maybe you'd help me with just one more. Same area...the chain guides and stuff. There is a kind of dogleg looking, bent piece that fits up against either the brass support or the cast chain guide..I can't tell. They call it WF-B29. I just can't see what it does or where it goes. Did you include it? Any chance you have a close up photo of where it goes or how you did it? Thanks so much! Lovely, detailed model kit. CRUMMY instructions !!


Not sure the part you are talking about, I'll re-post the chain-guide image from the middle of the thread again.
Is it the part that goes onto the bottom of the left brass rod?
Don't know what that is for, probably just support. Placement for a lot of stuff I figured out by looking at the hi-res photos on the Smithsonian webpage for the flyer, also lots of great info on the wright-brothers.org website.


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## Brian Amato

Yes....in your photo above, you have it painted silver and it's a bent "V" looking thingy hanging down from.....what ever it's attached to. Thanks so much.


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## Sing

MartyS said:


> Thanks. The model is far more rigid than you would expect, so not hard to move around. Of course I did find out several times while building it that the ribs individually are quite fragile, so you have to be very careful where you grab it. And I'm sure a bump going through a doorway would be very bad for it, so it is a bit nerve racking moving it from room to room...
> 
> Going over it I noticed a few pieces of reinforcement I should add, the kit comes with a roll of brass tape for those areas, it's the black stuff on places like the engine support beams. The real thing has reinforcements on each rib that wrap around the front spar, but at this scale they would be too small. I did see one insanely detailed build of this model that included them but they are the one thing in that build that looked too big even though they were strips barely larger than sewing thread.
> 
> Until I figure out a better place it's going to sit on the top of the shelves with my plastic models:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> One of these things is not like the others.


Hi, I am an airplane model lover from China.
Recently intending to handcraft a 1903 Wright Flyer using wood.
I found some information on the Internet, but the data is not very reliable, I don't know if you can share the drawings you use with me. 
Thank you.


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## MartyS

Sing said:


> Hi, I am an airplane model lover from China.
> Recently intending to handcraft a 1903 Wright Flyer using wood.
> I found some information on the Internet, but the data is not very reliable, I don't know if you can share the drawings you use with me.
> Thank you.


It was a kit from the company Model Airways (1:16 scale Wright Flyer), the drawings used to line up the parts are theirs, also I built this years ago and did not save them.


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## Sing

MartyS said:


> It was a kit from the company Model Airways (1:16 scale Wright Flyer), the drawings used to line up the parts are theirs, also I built this years ago and did not save them.


Thank you, I made the production drawings myself based on the information collected on the Internet.


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## Bob Jeaggenhauzer

😂feel your pain, tried to do one about a year ago, there were splintered peices of balsa in the trash can about 364 days ago


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## Mr.Duesenberg

Looking good,though I do have a question’ shouldnt the drive chain be a bicycle style chain?


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## MartyS

Smallest chain like that I've seen is 1:6 scale, this model is 1:16th.


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## Milton Fox Racing

There are a few motorcycle chain kits in 1:12 available now but that is probably still a bit big for the Flyer scale.


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