Friday, February 4, 2011

Karl Gies' 1949 Keil Kraft "Gipsy Wakefield"


This is the model that I built in 1967 and hit a car with it at the 1991 SAM Champs destroying the fuselage. I kept the remaining parts and twenty years later resurrected it. I almost never throw any model stuff away. This model is now almost finished except for bending the free wheeling prop mechanism with tensioner, glueing on the sub rudder and attaching the d.t. fittings. The covering is Japanese tissue over 1/4 mil mylar, The prop is a 17" diameter freewheeler finished with lighweight fiberglass cloth using Z-Poxy and colored with Design Master Floral Spray. I also have a 17" folding prop for it and have yet to make a nose block for this prop. I did this in the spirit of empiricism. I have been told by a couple of expert modelers that it will climb higher with the freewheeler but of course glide better with the folder. Horses for courses. cheers, cccnh

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have had, under the bed, since 1990, a Keil Kraft Gypsy kit. As I've returned to my roots of aeromodelling, I've decided that it's going to be my next build. Any tips would be gratefully received :-)

Ian at SlashHair.net

P.S. I can only comment as anonymous!