Well, I thought I would start a build thread to give others some information about this new plane from comp-arf, and in the process maybe share some new ideas with fellow modelers. I'll try to stay on track and not stray too far. Hopefully everyone else will try their best as well.

My white version of the 260 arrived and upon inspection everything was carefully packed and the plane was delivered undamaged. There was one exception, and that was the aluminum rudder tube was a bit bent, but no problem, i bent it back and it went right in. Some might find greasing it up a bit(maybe with vaseline) might help get it in easier. Upon inspection, I have concluded that this plane seems to be a better finish and better overall fit than my Extreme Composites Edge 540. Both seem very good quality though.

I will include pictures of the plane as I build and please join in to let me know what and how you are building yours.

I was very impressed at how inclusive the kit seems to be. I was supplied with individual bags of parts, labeled clearly. Including one labeled SPARE. Sweet. Free spare parts.

This kit now has the canopy tabs/fasteners already installed, which is a big time saver.

One more shot of the inside looking forward. Built light.

One of the first things to be completed is to attach the landing gear. The instructions seemed very precise, but a little enlarging of the holes was necessary to get the bolts in. Also, If i had to do it over I would have made the holes in the gear slightly closer to the leading edge of the gear so that they would have fit more centered in the hole in the fuselage.

One thing I did do though before I installed the gear was to paint it white with Krylon. I lightly scuffed the surface of the gear with a brillo pad material and put on just a couple coats of white. Seems to match the plane pretty good.

I am looking forward to this build!

I'm not sure what order to keep this in, but......

I ordered some Hangar 9 wheel pants(still in the plastic bag) to see if they were a better fit for this plane. I've heard that the 2.6m plane pants are the same size as the 3m planes pants. I couldn't tell you if that is true or not, but as you can see they are definately different sizes. The hangar 9 pants dont have a recess for the gear either. So, I think I'll stick to what came with the kit.

I weighed both sets and the comp-arf pants came in at 5.75oz and the hanger 9 came in at an oz less with the bag. So, not that much of a weight savings. I plan on painting this plane, so weight will be a factor.

I forgot to mention. I measured the wheel openings in both sets of pants. Hangar 9 opening was 3.75inches. and the Comp-Arf opening was....I forgot..LOL but I do remember it would take at least a 5" wheel. I'll be using either 4.5 or 5" Kavan wheels. 5oz a pair! Get them at Troy Built Models

Next I installed the Cowl as per the instructions. Level the wing tube, level the cowl, then drill the first screw hole in the middle of the top of the cowl about 8mm from the edge. Then I drilled the holes on each side of the opening at the bottom. I measured in 30 mm intead of the 25mm.. it just seemed like a better spot. Then I just split the difference between those two for the last two.

One note: I did swap out the cowl bolt supplied for a botton head stainless steel type. but still the same 3mm size. sorry no pictures

Does the rudder and elevators attach to the hinges with a piano wire or aluminum tube?

The elevator and rudder attach with an aluminum tube. I'm not sure what advantage this is over the wire, but it seems just as good.

Since my plane is to be painted, I have been thinking about the overall look of it. Which brings me to the canopy. I've dyed the last two canopies and I guess I'd just like to try something different. Especially since my last dye job seems to be fading and turning a bit orange. I used about 6 bottle of RIT dye and submerged it in about 150 degree water...and hotter if it doesn't seem to be working.

After some research, I decided to try the TAMIYA line of tints. I ordered smoke and black. I bought an old canopy from my lhs to spray the smoke and used a water bottle for the black. The smoke is great, but is a hazzy, smokey tint. Whereas the black sprayed a bit splotchy and is much more clear. If that makes sense. I warmed up both cans next to the heat vent in the house and sprayed at about 10-12 inches and very lightly. I'm not sold on either look. I'll talk to the local body shop paint guy later today and see if he has any suggestions.

I can't figure out Comp-Arfs thinking on flight control hinging, My 2.6 Patty Wagstaff Extra uses piano wire for the tailfeather Hinge pins. Hav'nt started building yet, but found the holes in the Micarta tabs were to big and the plane already had built in hinge slop. I'm going to fill in the holes with epoxy and glass, then redrill.

Originally Posted by Propstriker

I can't figure out Comp-Arfs thinking on flight control hinging, My 2.6 Patty Wagstaff Extra uses piano wire for the tailfeather Hinge pins. Hav'nt started building yet, but found the holes in the Micarta tabs were to big and the plane already had built in hinge slop. I'm going to fill in the holes with epoxy and glass, then redrill.

A good option for this is to take some yellow inner from Sullivan rod, drill the phenolic to suit, then ca the yellow in. Take a sharp knife and trim flush and run a drill same as the pin through. I did this with my 2.6 330, it now has well in excess of 300 flights and is still perfect.

I'm not sure what directions tell you about what order to do things in but next i started in on the elevators. My elevator slots were a bit narrow so I had to widen them and I deepened them to 20mm as well. In doing so I still had to shorten my phenolic arm quite a bit and i drilled new holes in them to allow for epoxy. I then installed my servo(jr8611a) and used a swb 1.5" aluminum servo arm.

I put tape down and found the hinge line of the tube and marked it on the tape. Making sure it was perpendicular to the surface I glued it with epoxy with milled fibers. I tried putting scotch tape over the hole then cutting away just enought to get the arm in to glue which is supposed to be easier for cleanup but found it just as easy to use a q-tip and some goo-be-gone or lighter fluid.

While the glue was drying, I located the hole in the fuse for the servo wire and drilled and installed a rubber gromet.

Glue still drying. sooo.....

started on the fuel tank tray. very simple, tacked in with ca then reinforced it with epoxy. Made 4 little blocks to sit in on. Trial fit it in place before I glued the blocks in with epoxy.