The cardboard box that the kit comes in does not have the splashy graphics, etc. that most kits have, but the TuffFLite, makers of the Predator put the money into the kit. The components build into an incredibly tough Combat ship that will withstand lots of punishment. We plan to put a Magnum 0.28 CI two stroke in this plane, making it meet the requirements of the Class B Open (less than 3 lbs, 0.30 or less engine). This will be a 48-inch wingspan single wing snarly critter when we're done.
	As always, we started the building process by reading through the instructions. Since the building techniques are a little different due to the EPP foam and the special rugged-by-design features, we learned a lot from the hints and actual construction. We used 40 grit sandpaper to clean up the residue from the foam cutting operation. It was actually easier to pick the strings out of the foam with our fingernails and then sand the surfaces as prescribed in the instructions. They mentioned using mineral spirits to clean up the 3M 77® adhesive and GOOP ® used for this model. We purchased these materials for this kit. Shown here, Goop® is used to attach the trailing edges on the wing rear foam cores. Masking tape is used to hold the parts together while the adhesive sets.

	We chose to use a hot wire to cut the foam. Since the slot in the wing surfaces was not cut wide enough for the front brace, we used our hot wire foam cutter to make a slot parallel to the cut in the wing halves. This provided a tight fit for the thick clear plastic brace so construction steps could be followed in step 5.We also used a soldering gun with bent copper wire to cut the cavities for the servo and fuel tank in step 5.
	With setting time for the 3M 77 adhesive being so short, it is difficult to get photos for the construction steps. However we followed the instructions and glued the rear brace pieces together using 3M 77 (these would be called diherdral braces on most aircraft wings). Then, once the adhesive has set, we glued the rear brace to both front wing cores. We used scissors to cut the fin from the supplied material. We actually made a template first from See-Temp by tracing the outline from the two page illustration onto the See-Temp, cut out the template, sprayed 3M 77 on the corragated plastic fin material, put the template on the plastic surface and then cut out the fin. We peeled the template off the fin and saved it. Now we have a template to use later and we didn't wreck our instructions.
	Most likely the most confusing construction steps concerned the "Home Plate". This turns out to be nothing more than a part for the engine mount, joining the engine mounting rails to the plastic dowels that will pass through the front brace and into the foam wing. These dowels (plastic rods) pass through the holes you will drill through the front brace. The "Home Plate" will be glued the front brace, and foam pirces and screwed and glued to the plastic dowels. Goop is used to hold all these parts together.
	You can begin to see the relation between the parts. The foam is cut from the nose of the model, then the plastic parts are aligned, drilled, and finally glued into the wing.
	In this photo, the plastic rods (dowels) are in position, pressed through the holes we drilled in the front brace and into the holes in the foam wing. The home plate is placed on top of the rods, then the 5/64-inch holes are drilled for the two #2 screws. We installed the #2 screws to make threads into the plastic. This will make the final installation easier, especially when there will be Goop covering the plastic parts during final assembly.
	We removed all of the parts from the wing, and applied Goop into the holes in the wings using a trimmed down popsicle stick. Be sure to wear old clothes during this step. The adhesive has a tendency to get all over everything! After making sure we had Goop in the holes, we spread more on the front brace slot we cut out earlier. We had sanded the front brace with 80 grit sandpaper to roughen up the surface. Then we smeared more Goop on the front brace and slipped it into place. Next we coated the plastic rods with Goop and slid them into position. We added more Goop to the flat surface of the rods and to the foam and installed the Home Plate. The two #2 screws were installed. A liberal coating of Goop was applied where the Home Plate met the foam. We added the previously removed foam on the opposite side of the home plate. Next, the prepared leading edge plastic pieces were coated with Goop (on the inner surface only) and then placed on the front of the foam wing halves. Several pieces of masking tape were then used to keep everything in place. The Goop adhesive can take a day (or more in our case) to set. You know when the Goop is set, because you can no longer smell the solvents escaping. With eight parts being installed onto/into the wing halves within 20 minutes, the work has to proceed smoothly and every part must be tested for fit before the Goop is even used. This is what the engine mounting area looks like at this phase of the construction. We will mount the engine mounting rails and engine later.
	This photo shows the "Home Plate" and the engine mount aligment and attachment. Pretty light and rugged.

Last updated: July 10, 2002

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