Customer Reviews

Aircraft Workshop: Learn To Make Models That Fly (Learn to Make Models)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is indeed the best book I have found todate on building R/C aircraft models. This targets intelligent beginers and takes them through a progression of increasingly complex models , culminating in a scale spitfire. Unlike most other books this book is information rich and not an advertisment for specific R/C products or the great skills and models of the authors buddies. It does a good job pedagogicall in making the reader think and develop his own skills and ingenuity in the process.

If you are a beginner or have little experience:
Step 1: Choose if you want to fly model R/C planes, or build them or do both.
Step 2: If you want to fly only, then buy a foam trainer, learn and then move up the foam route. With the low cost of these models nowadays, you can have a lot of fun and reduce the pain of the fly/crash/repair sequence.
Step 3: If you want to learn a little more, add another dimension to your skills and enjoy building, then buy this book and work your way through it. It is one of the best I have seen after much reading and modelling over the last 45 years. It is the equivalent of plans plus detailed building instructions for a logical sequence of models. Almost a complete training course in building. A bit like the "Joy of Cooking" for modellers!

This book really shows you page by page how to get the job done. Kelvin Shacklock starts with the basics and takes you page by page through the construction of yet more advanced RC models, finally showing how to build a 1/5 scale Spitfire explaining the different processes as you go. The book is full of illustrations and photographs, so it is very easy to understand the explanations within the text. Personally I read the book while constructing the models using it more as a manual than a theory book. The drawings for the RC models are printed within the book, but I will recommend buying full scale drawings since it can be quite a difficult job enlarging the drawings correctly, although several methods to do so are explained within the book. I recommend this book to all beginners and people who have build a couple of aircrafts and wants to learn some more good building tricks and guidelines. This is the best book on the subject I have read.

If you're a scratch built model enthusiast this should be on your bookshelf and really could be described as the Bible of the hobby. Really good RC aircraft books are few and far between. It's a limited market and the rapid advances made in equipment over the last decade drives the hobbyist to the internet and specialist magazines for up to date info. What's left out there in bookstores and hobby shops tends to be out of date and of little use to the RC fan. This book is the exception.

"Aircraft Workshop" is first and foremost a how-to on building models from scratch and runs the gamut from a little balsa 2 dimensional "chucker" to a a 1/5 scale Spitfire about as perfect as one could find. Everyone can build something out of this book and just having it around for reference and tips makes the purchase worthwhile. Some dated but still relevant radio advice is included and the book is clearly written to impart knowledge, not sell certain products. Even if your interest in the hobby runs solely to RTF's and PNP's you'll learn more about model aviation than from just about any other static source. I highly recommend it, but would suggest you avail yourself of amazon's marketplace sellers who routinely sell this volume at about 1/2 what amazon does.

As a side note, the author, Kelvin Shacklock, is a New Zealander who among his other pursuits, was the stylist for James Bond's Hamilton-Marine jet boat seen in the movie "Thunderball".

This was hubby's birthday present and he loved it. Said it had lots of good information and is very useful in learning to build his plane.