I have now been flying one of Ron Daniels' Tempest Mk. Vs during one year, and what's more perfect than having something to chase? I ordered a kit for Ron's latest model, a 1/9-scale kit of a V1 Flying Bomb!

Kit arrives:
The kit arrived after only six days, speed record? This is not a large model, so the box was mostly filled with old newspapers! But the balsa and plywood in the bottom were perfectly laser-cut, and there was no damage at all. The box also included a full-size plan and an illustrated construction manual. The only supplied hardware is the elevator joiner wire. The kit becomes cheaper, and you have probably most of the needed hardware already. An old Monocote roll is also needed for the stove pipe.

Building:
This model is made for a Cobolt S-400 electric motor, but I have decided to try my old OS MAX 10. The only modification to be made is to replace the F4 former in balsa with a 3mm ply former in the same shape.

According to the manual this kit requires intermediate building and flying skills. Lets start the fun!

Laser-cut balsa and the joiner wire.

Laser-cut plywood and the bottom wing sheeting.

The ribs and the spar are glued to the bottom wing sheeting. Pre-cut tabs and slots are used so there is no problem to get it right.

Aileron torque rods are made of 2mm wire and antenna tubing.

The top wing sheeting is glued to the structure. Ron recommends medium CA, but I used Great Planes woodglue and lots of pins...
The wing tips are glued and the leading edge are sanded. Ailerons are then cut and trial-fitted. The wing is complete!

The eppanage, the joiner wire and hinges (CA-type) are test-fitted. Next step is to sand the edges.

As I'm going to use an OS MAX 10 instead of an electric Speed 400, formers F4 and F4L are replaced with new ones made of 1/8" ply. I used left-over ply from the kit.

The wing and 1/8 sq. stringers are pinned as on plans. Formers F3 to F9 are then glued to the stringers. The formers F6 and F7 are also glued to the wing. WSs (wing saddle) are glued between F6 and F7 and on to the wing. The top 1/8 stringer is then added.

OS MAX 10 trial-fitted, looks good! I'll probably have to do some reinforcements to  the structure and other modifications.

Next step is to plank fuselage with 1/16 x ¼ balsa strips. BORING, but a fairly quick job. Be patient!

When the fuselage dries start with the jet engine. The instructions doesn't say anything about how to do build it, but the plans do. Use an empty Super Monokote covering roll (15" long), slide three formers on it and cover the whole thing with 1/64 ply. Some filler and sanding, done!

BIG MISTAKE!! I should't have cut off the Monokote tube in front of the jet engine as its used to align the jet assembly to the fuselage..

These are Ron's photos showing how the jet assembly should be mounted to the fuselage.

The two ply FAJ/RAJ mounted in front and rear of the wing helps to align the jet.

Back to my model: I took a piece of heavy weight paper, rolled and pushed it into the jet assembly.

Some masking tape around and it fits inside FAJ/RAJ. Phew, back on track!

When the jet is vertical and straight its glued to the fuselage with ES and VS. Ron recommends to reinforce the joints with epoxy/micro-balloon fillets. I made some in balsa glued with epoxy.
As you can see I have also notched the fuselage to fit the horizontal tail surfaces and elevator joiner wire.

The model is removed from the board and 1/8" lower side stringers are glued to bottom of top side stringers. Bottom formers are glued directly below their top counterparts and the bottom 1/8" stringer is attached.

In some places the bottom formers don't match the top counterparts that well. It creates a small gap and the 1/8" lower stringer needs some sanding before its ready for planking.

The firewall is reinforced with 1/64" ply. A tank floor (1/8" balsa) was then glued behind the former.

An engine mount was made of two layers of 1/8" ply.

The fuselage planking is almost done! I mounted the elevator servo before planking the rear fuselage, lot easier to do then. Note the yellow Sullivan inner push-rod exiting at the very end=antenna tube.

The top hatch is cut. The aileron servo is mounted and the DuBro tank is slided onto the tank-floor. 1/16 balsa is used to form a flange around the hole.

Bottom hatch is cut, and a flange is made here too. I think I'll use a small rubber-band attached to the servo-rail and hooked to the hatch to keep it in place.

The front end. The hole in the firewall with the two tubes from the tank is just visible behind the engine.

Aileron and throttle servos and the switch. Plenty of room!

Ready to cover and paint!
I will cover the model with Solartex or just seal the wood with sanding sealer and paint it. But first the final sanding.

Here is the model ready for it's first flight. The ailerons/elevators attached and the engine mounted. Note that the ailerons are set to 3/32" up as wash-out. Final weight is 640 grams, not that bad I think.

Bottom view, the two hatches are simply secured with tape.

On the drawings Ron shows a really neat way to make a simple lock for the upper hatch. But I Zaped two hooks (made of the ends of a spring) to the fuselage and to the hatch, and then secured the hatch with a small rubber band.

A: Engine mount made of 2 x 1/8" ply. The engine is secured with four blind-nuts.
B: A new firewall made of 1/8" ply. (New formers F4 and F4L and then reinforce with 1/64" ply.)
C: A tank floor of 1/8" balsa.