Mystere 3000 (oz3764)

About this Plan

Mystere 3000. Radio control canard sports model. Made in Italy.

Update 27/11/2021: Added kit review from RCM&E, November 1983, thanks to RFJ.

Quote: "Kit review: Mystere 3000 from Scorpio, by Peter Miller.

MODELS with an unorthodox layout are all too rare, especially in kit form, possibly this is because modellers do not want to risk spending a lot of time and money on a model that may or may not fly and kit manufacturers do not want to risk large investments on a kit that may not sell very well. In view of this Scorpio are to be congratulated for producing the 'Mystere 3000,' not only is it a canard but can be used for aerobatics, toffee bombing and aerial photography. It was the last item that made the kit of particular interest to me, the canard layout permits the camera to be situated in front of the wing giving a better field of view while not competing for space with the R/C equipment.

What you get for your money: The box is quite large and contains the veneered foam wing cores, the foreplanes, again foam and veneer, a fuselage assembled from plywood and only needing a few doublers and the engine bearers to be fitted.

Several sheets of well diecut plywood have the various wing joiners, doublers, servo mounts and tip ribs plus tip fins. The only balsa provided is for the leading and trailing edges, fin, control surfaces and cowling blocks.

Hardware comprises landing gear, control horns, and bowden cable outers but not the inners, more on this later. The hardware is packaged with the appropriate parts, i.e. elevator horn and joiner and hinges in one bag, aileron horns, hinges and tip fin screws in another and so on. This seems a good idea providing one is systematic. I finished up rooting round for the parts in my normal way in the end but at least you can check that everything is there with greater ease.

Also in the box is a large canopy which forms the complete fuselage top deck, a nice moulding which has to be fitted to a simple ply frame.

The plan is a large, clear double sided sheet backed up by a sheet of assembly sketches and an instruction booklet in three languages. This outlines each stage of assembly with a key indicating the best glue to use and a space to tick off completion. All the parts in the kit are numbered in sequence to match the booklet. It is worth spending some time studying the plans, etc., but Scorpio have an instruction package that puts to shame many better known kits from the point of view of completeness and clarity.

Assembly: The kit is described as Almost Ready To Fly, well, that depends on what you call ARTF and I feel that it falls short of this, but not far short. Assembly was quick and easy. I followed the instructions all the way although I did work on several areas at once. No problem if you have the space, and had the model ready to fly in just over two weeks. As I was working on other projects at the same time both daytime and evenings I cannot put an exact time on assembly.

Fits are good throughout, only minor trimming in one or two cases. The two areas that needed most extra work were the canopy frame and servo mount plate. The canopy frame base was too wide, a quick run over with a sanding disc solved that one. The fuselage servo mount was too wide for any of my servos, I was using Futaba 33Ms which are not the smallest, but it was only a few minutes' work to trace out another mount with a smaller gap.

The only mistake I made was in the canopy, I fitted the frame and then trimmed the canopy flush, the base was bowed and so there was a gap. Correct procedure would be to leave an extension on the canopy to overlap the fuselage sides, my mistake entirely.

Scorpio do not advise heatshrink coverings, in fact for the wings and foreplane they advise against them, I ignored this advice and used 'Solartex' with no problems though I was careful not to apply too much heat to the wings. The undersurface of the wings were covered with black "Solarfilm' again with no problems but 'Solartex' is reluctant to stick to 'Solarfilm.' Uncovered, the airframe weighed 4 lb 6 oz.

Installing the works: This must be one of the easiest models ever when it comes to installation, the whole fuselage is open from engine to fin. I am not fond of snakes for control connections but in this model they are essential. As I have already said, the outers are provided but these seem to be a little short leaving long lengths of unsupported cable at each end, however they are rigid outers so I bought three wire in tube snakes and used one complete for the throttle run. I then used the kit outers for the rest of the snakes as I could now use each outer for the next shortest run thus reducing the length of unsupported inner, this worked well. There is plenty of room under the wing for any radio equipment, I used Reftec Series II UHF.

The engine I chose was the HP 40 with a Merco silencer grafted on, the kit recommends holding the engine down with self tapping screws. Sorry, I don't trust them and used 6BA bolts with the heads soldered to a plate under the bearers.

The tankbay will take a good sized tank with no problem. I used a Kraft 8oz, one can see the top of the tank through the canopy which is always useful. A slot is provided in the front former for the fuel line and filler to pass through, it might be an idea to seal this with silicone gasket material to make sure that no oil seeps back through it..."

Note main pic showing completed Mystere 3000 model by Ola Fremming was found online at http://www.ofremmi.info/MyHangar/my_hangar.htm

Supplementary file notes

Review.

Corrections?

Did we get something wrong with these details about this plan (especially the datafile)? That happens sometimes. You can help us fix it.
Add a correction