Dynam C-47 Skytrain/Dakota

As an aviation buff, one of my all time favorite aircraft was the Douglas DC-3, and its modified military variant, the C-47 Skytrain. I have been chewing on getting the Dynam version from Nitroplanes since I got into this hobby almost a year ago. Venom makes one, quite similar though larger with more scale features, but way, way overpriced, and it doesn't have the engine cowls that look more scale. Last week I finally did buy the Dynam plane, and yesterday I started on the build, finishing it today. This was one of the easiest planes to build, and it really surprised me how nice looking it came out!

The build was so easy I skipped doing the build shots. There is a very good set of build videos on the Nitroplanes page for this airplane which I found very useful. A couple of issues. I chose not to do the steerable tail wheel mod as it was going to be a pain in the butt to drill a hole in the top of the lock button for the castering assembly inside. It would have been nice but I didn't want to risk damaging anything (because for some reason there are NO replacement parts available for this plane...). The elevator is a bit shabby. I epoxied the uni-hinge control horn attachment where it joins the elevator, and that should do the trick. Also, the wire connector to the control horn is just barely long enough, and was challenging to get tight enough not to slip. Tossed some Locktite into the wire assembly to help keep it from slipping. The bottoms of my two wing halves were different shades of gray, so I painted the entire bottom surface with gray auto primer, looks awesome. I didn't glue in the panel that covers the wing joiner and aileron/ESC wires since I am expecting at some point to have to replace the aileron servos. I just pushed it into place and used the Normandy stripe stickers to hold the edges in place. Its snug and shouldn't go anywhere. They tail numbers are screwey... on one side it ends in 6351 and on the other it ends in 6531. QI a little? I added 3/4 oz of weight to the nose to get an ever so slightly nose heavy CG. Lastly, the darn thing was glossy shiny... I covered it with a dusting of clear enamel and that took the edge off nicely. I wanted a used, dirty look. I am quite happy! She will be flying 3S 2200 mAh batteries, an AR6000 (I know, its a parkflyer receiver, but I accidently gave Kenny my last Orange/Satellite that I had set aside for this plane).

A ginormous box...  I got the ARF, so the radio etc was not included.

Three metal plates, 1/4 oz each, for CG corretction. The upper two plates are the canopy magnets. The black velcco came installed in the battery compartment.

I did the blade tips. Sweet details! I want to enjoy her for a bit before I challenge her with a maiden flight!