Guillow'sBeaver DHC-2 Laser Cut Model Kit

These things are a great way to mess up a good drawing board with pinholes. Ok. If you are using the tissue paper use larger portions than instructed and elmers glue or diluted elmers and fin sand the edges for a perfect fit. Or even do it any way that you can that is really neat.

If you like the DH Beaver & want to build and fly a model of it, this is the ticket. Guillow's has been around for almost 100 years, so they know a thing or two about making flying model kits. This is not a slap-bang-go fly it model - it takes time to build one of these so that it can give a satisfying flight. If you have a craftsman's (or -woman's) approach to doing it, you'll be rewarded. See YouTube for demonstrations of the skills needed for building this type of model, if you need to. The enclosed instruction manuals are very helpful.

Got it for my 40 year old son in law. He jumped right on it and after 3 months now, said. "That thing is hard to do (I have buillt plenty of wooden plane and boat kits so know) , so many parts and options".

Well made plane great skill builder

I have always been a plastic model builder, but a friend said I would never understand how an airplane worked until I got to balsa and paper and actually put one together to fly. This model is fairly simple to build, but it requires attention to detail. The instructions are straight forward and easy to follow. For me, to took more than twice the time a similar plastic plane would take and generated ten times the fun and pride in accomplishment. I would highly recommend this Guillows kit to anyone patient enough and serious enough to work all the way through it.

My grandson and I built this model. Still to challenging for a 10 year old but together we got it done. Old school fun, no computer screen necessary.

I'm about a third of the way done building this kit. I built another Guillow kit a few years back and it went mostly okay. I really had trouble getting the back window to fit. So far this DHC-2 Beaver kit has gone very well. All the parts and materials needed are in the kit except glue, an "X-Acto type" knife, a piece of foam core (about 20"x30"), a roll of waxed paper, a roll of masking tape and some common pins, preferably pins with a big head. While the kits are not sold in mega stores they are available on Amazon.com. The few supplies needed can be purchased at a big box store. I use Elmer's Glue-All. It doesn't dry fast, but patience is what separates building one of these kits from playing video games. You'll have to cut some of the wood pieces to fit and you have to figure out how the pieces go together before cutting and gluing. This kit isn't for younger kids. I'd guess to benefit from this project a kid should be 10 to 12 years old and have the help of an adult who knows something about building this kind of kit. Building it alone is probably for adults or someone who is at least 14 with someone older available who can answer questions. Building one of these kits is very satisfying, and if done well can take a week or two.These kits are generally not easy, but with patience and by reading all the instructions thoroughly it can be done with reasonably good results. A great project for a parent and child. Take your time.Update: Things were going well until I followed the instructions to apply the tissue to the fuselage in small panels. This is not the way I've done it in the past, but I decided to try it. In short, I suggest not doing it that way. You will have puckered seams there ever the tissue is overlapped. This method made mine look terrible. Painting it only made it look worse. I may try sanding these seams, but I anticipate the tissue will become loose in places. There are a few other details that may come as a surprise. For example, when gluing the cowl to the former F0, you will need to check the proper alignment. There is a center line on the cowl which needs to be aligned with the center line at the bottom of the fuselage in order for the location of the air scoop imprinted on the cowl to be in the proper location. I think I'd have to build two or three of these before I'd know what to look for the next time.

I enjoy building this style model working with balsa wood is always challenging. Great gift for a experienced model builder.