Smoothie (oz7250)

 

Smoothie (oz7250) by Bob Palmer - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

Veco Smoothie. Control line full-stunt contest model. For .29 to .35 engines.

As requested in the Wanted page.

The Smoothie (oz480) was first published in Air Trails, Aug 1952. This here is the later Veco kit version.

The Veco kit of the Smoothie differed in some key respects from the Air Trails plan. The most obvious difference was an inverted engine, rather than upright, with a much more streamlined and handsome appearance as a result. This sheet of instructions and assembly drawings shows lots of good detail.

Note: this is only an instruction sheet - was there really no plan other than this in the kit? Seems unlikely. Would be good to get confirmation on this [Update: seems true, there was no further plan. See review text below].

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 14/3/2023: Added kit review from Aermodeller, June 1975, thanks to MauriceDC.

Quote: "Kit Review: Dumas 'Smoothie' the classic control-line stunter, built and flown by Peter Miller.

The Dumas (Ex Veco) Smoothie kit is by no means new, as it originally appeared in the '50s when it was a contemporary of the old upright engined Thunderbird (oz6238), both these models being designed by maestro Bob Palmer. The Smoothie kit was always rare in this country and along with other kits in the range has not been available for some years, so as soon as I heard that Irvine Engines were importing Dumas kits I just had to have one! I chose the Smoothie as it was Bob Palmer's windy weather model, and after the last year it seemed the logical choice.

Featuring parallel chord wings with long eliptical tips, the wing section is thin with a sharp leading edge and the point of maximum thickness over 30% back. The flaps are comparatively small and the tail plane is of straight taper planform with a very low aspect ratio.

A choice of three engine installations is given: upright uncowled, inverted uncowled and inverted cowled, the first two involving turning one former upside down and moving a spacer on the second former. The last version involves cutting out new parts and was a fairly unconventional method of mounting engines in a stunter. The instructions state that for the cowled version extra wood will have to be bought, but in fact the kit contains the materials for all three versions - but I am getting ahead of myself!

Opening the box: The box is packed with top quality wood, obviously carefully selected for each job while the die cutting was the best that I have ever seen; so good that in most cases I could not see the cut. As construction pro-ceeded this proved to be very accurate on all counts. The only exception concerning balsa selection was one fuselage side which was much harder than the other and which had been `crushed' slightly. Care must be taken when removing parts as the tailplane and elevator ribs are mixed up with the rest of the components and can easily be missed. The only parts that are identified are the wing and tailplane tip ribs, but this did not cause any problems.

There is no plan as such, just a sheet of drawings and an instruction sheet: the latter is set out for maximum quickness of building and goes from wing to fuselage and back again so one must tick off each step as completed to avoid confusion.

The nose blocks are beautifully soft and straight grained. The plywood was not up to the standard of the rest of the kit, being soft and tending to separate, but the extra plywood for the cowled version is in. 5-ply and I feel that it is a pity that the formers were not of the same material, though I expect that this would have made die cutting more difficult, One other fault was that the wing TE was bowed and even steaming did not completely remove this, though I did manage to cure it almost completely at the doping stage.

No bellcrank or lead outs are supplied and only enough tissue for the wings and tail (four strips about 10 in wide). On checking I found that the grain ran the wrong way and so used Modelspan. Two very nice control horns are provided, plus assorted clamps and cowl hold-down hardware,

Sticking it together: I chose to build the uncowled upright engine version, as I was not too enthusiastic about the cowled version's system of mounting the engine, and uncowled engines can dig-in on soft ground causing havoc among the engine bearers in a bad landing, especially when there are no plywood doublers as in this case. I built the kit without any modifica-tions, but did change the sequence of assembly in one or two cases.

The wing is built 'in the air' so to speak, though I think that pinning down would be possible, so great care must be taken at all times to avoid warps. Construction is per-fectly conventional and no problems arose, the leading edge sheeting conformed to the eliptical tip with a little damping on the outside and slight trimming. The instructions call for the wing to be built, covered, doped and installed in the fuselage, the complete flap assembly being passed through the wing cutout before the wing and then hinged before fitting the bellcrank and pushrods. I deviated from the sequence here and did not cover the wing: mainly because I ran out of dope but also because I do not trust tissue in a high stress joint. I also left the flaps off the horn as I never hinge controls until the model is fuel-proofed, so avoiding sticky hinges.

The instructions call for the fuselage to be assembled from the rear forward, fitting rear formers and glueing the tail together, then when this is dry fitting the front formers and engine bearers..."

Supplementary file notes

Review.

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Smoothie (oz7250) by Bob Palmer - model pic

Datafile:
  • (oz7250)
    Smoothie
    by Bob Palmer
    from Veco
    52in span
    IC C/L Kit
    clean :)
    formers unchecked
  • Submitted: 25/11/2015
    Filesize: 522KB
    Format: • PDFbitmap
    Credit*: DerickScott
    Downloads: 2017

Smoothie (oz7250) by Bob Palmer - pic 003.jpg
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Smoothie (oz7250) by Bob Palmer - pic 004.jpg
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Smoothie (oz7250) by Bob Palmer - pic 005.jpg
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Smoothie (oz7250) by Bob Palmer - pic 006.jpg
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User comments

I built this kit in the '50s for a neighbor kid. It did fly very smooth with a Fox 35 s stunt. It was slow and gave plenty of time to think your way through the maneuvers.
BobWatkins - 10/12/2015
I built a number of Veco kits like the Scout,the Papoose,the Tomtom,the Chief and of course,the Smoothie. None had plans but the instructions were great!
anon - 12/12/2015
My brother found, what looks to be, a complete Veco Smoothie kit still in the original package. The box suffered some water damage, but the contents seem to be almost completely unharmed [pic 004]. Great find.
Patrick - 01/10/2023
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