Hello all.

It is starting to cool down here in Minnesota and that leads to thinking about what to build over the winter months. We still have a little time before the complete end of the flying season but I just couldn't wait any longer so I ordered my winter project a AMR AT-402B at 22%. I will be powering this with a DLE85. The aircraft is 123" wingspan with a length of 84". I searched a little for other builds on this kit but there is not much out there so I though I would take a crack ar it, I have not done a build thread before but I promise lots of photos. Also I have built many aircraft, most back in the late 80's early 90's and all were with a set of plans to build on, this has no plans but is built entirely with jigs, should be different. Alright I ordered the plane sept 9th and after a couple calls, and thanks to Dany Racine at AMR it shipped out the next day. It arrived here on the 13th, but because the USPS doesn't like delivering anything larger than an oversized envelope I had to go get it on Monday myself. There were two boxes, one for the cowl only, and one really heavy one for everything eles, damn there must be an entire tree inside. Unfortunately I had no time to even open the box to find out until today. When I cut the tape the box practically exploded there was so much inside. Both boxes were well packed and it looks like everything has arrived entact. The manual is 257 pages plus about a dozen pages of diagrams. Everything is lazer cut and looks like it will fall out of the sheets very easily. The landing gear are simple aluminum except for the fact that they weigh 21oz and that seems like a lot of weight. Tonight I am sitting down and reviewing the manual and seeing if there is anything I might need right away to start building. Some of the build diagrams in the manual are amazing.

Hope anyone that follows will enjoy the build.

If you want to check out their website
http://www.amr-rc.com

just finished up a AMR 30 stick and the AMR kits are great you will love the build

I have the AMR 33% Waco waiting for winter as well. Looking forward to your build!

Subd

Oh yea gonna watch this one!

Thought about one of these done as a S.E.A.T. The small firefighting aircraft. I figure It should be able to hold at least some water in a working drop tank.

good luck with your build. AMR puts out a great kit.

Ok, I have read and reread the manual. WOW is that thing large and full of great detail. With luck I will be starting the build this week, work is a little busy right now. The guide recommends using wood glue and structural epoxy (like T88). It does not recommend CA but does not say not to, so I will probably use the CA for the sheeting areas but the wood glue for laminating and the T88 for the structurally intense areas.

Now some people have asked me how I will be finishing the plane. I have a little buddy who is almost 4 years old and he LOVES the movie Planes and the main character Dusty Crophopper who is pretty much an AT-502B. I want to build a Fire Boss version in all red and white. So what I am doing is building it like the movie then after a few years I will strip it down and recover it as a Fire Boss.

Some might not like it but my son who is getting really interested in dad's hobby and what I am doing building planes, I would like to encourage his interest and make it fun until he starts flying on his own.

This will be one of the coolest build I have done in awhile

I think it would be awesome to see it it Dusty's scheme. Go ahead and put big ole eye balls on the canopy as well.

Well were off and running, more like walking. I have read the manual twice, and I strongly recommend doing that. I am fairly confident that I have everything I need to start a good way into this projects without delays, so let's build. The kit goes together like a three dimensional jig-saw puzzle with many sub-assemblies and sub-sub-assemblies needed to make bigger pieces. ensuring strightness/squareness is essential from the get go and the assemblies will not lign up if you are sloppy. Also be VERY careful that many assemblies you are constructing a left and a right. A good example is the wing saddle assembly almost got me but I caught it just in time and I had one cross piece rotated and the tab on the bottom would not have mated with the fuse side when the time comes later. I did run into a slight error (I hope) in the two F57 uprights on the wing supports needs to have a notch cut out (pic 64 & 65) or the piece would not fit down into the slot provided. We will see if I am correct or not later it now looks right from the picture many pages down the road. When punching out the extra wood in the parts be careful you do not accidentally discard another piece needed later. This may seem obvious but there are a couple pieces that surprised me hiding. Overall AMR seems to be efficient with their cutting process not wasting any space they can.

Well this week I got a little more work done and finished all of step one for the front half of the fuse. All the bulkheads are built on one side of the fuse lying flat and then the other side is attached. The top and bottoms are put on and then the two ends. The earlier assemblies are now attached to the fuse. It is time to start the back half of the fuse...

I was right F57 should have had a notch in it and when matted to the fuse sides the slot needed to be cut longer as it did not match up. So far that is the only error on the fuse, Part 57 needing the slot and the tab being in the wrong place, not bad.

You can see the progress and it is starting to get really rigid now. Also see all the holes are starting to pile up on the floor, time to get out the broom again.

This could go faster if you had enough space to do the front half and the back half at the same time, but I don't so there you go.

WOW!! Has it really been a month since I last posted any progress on the build. Where does the time go. Sorry eveyone fall in Minnesota and life got in the way again, plus been busy at work. I took a break to get fall chores done before the winter hit and then got struck down by bronchitis and the whole family sick, but all are better and back to the build.

While the manual is extremely detailed occasionally some errors do pop up. As the first two photos show the former number in the book does not match but can only be that. Also the rear sides had the nimbers reversed but since you use both halves to make the joined whole it does not really matter. I do not really fault AMR there are sooooooo many pieces to the kit and if you are building this kit you should have a greater building history behind you and be able to catch those mistakes by keeping aware as you build. I am however doing this build for my fun and recording it to potentially help other that are or entice others to build it.

Progress is being made on the rear half of the fuselage. I found a use finally for all those VHS tapes I still have laying around as props and weights! As you can see there is a lot going on at the tail end of the plane with formers and jigs, by mindful that you do not glue the jigs in place but keep them handy especially FJ2 which is the largest under everything and I suggest leaving in place until ready to attach to the assembled fuse sides as the weight of everything is resting on the one former bending it, possibly with potential to break it, I did not want to find out. Next time I am working on the plane I get to join the side and thus create the completed rear subcomponent ready for matting to the front half of the fuse. It sure is looking like my bench is getting smaller as I look at the two halves.

Well it has been a busy couple months at work but I managed to sneak in a little work on the plane.

I have gotten the rear of the fuselage done up to the point where they get attached together. Now it looks like a fuselage!! Now I start putting the top formers on.

Progress! Life happens, build when you can!

sub'd