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Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Hacker Model Vagabond: Kit Overview

After a long long wait the Vagabond finally landed, and the wait was worth it. What is the Vagabond ? It is the first widely commercial VTPR glider, made from EPP foam and printed for a nice color design. It exists in 2 versions: uncovered, and covered with a laminate film (wings, tails and fin/rudder). It features a SB96V section, nearly 90° tail rotation and weight around 500 and 600 depending of the version.

 Below is the photo album of the kit as it arrives:
Unlike other EPP plane (foam cutted), the Vagabond assembly is well advanced. Wings are nearly finished, just needing the servos, control horn and rod installation. The fuselage need some work, like insert the carbon rods for the stifness, the sleeve for the rudder and elevator control rods, the servos tray, the root section in the middle of the fuselage.

Overall degsign is well thought, except the tail plane which is not removable. This is a shame because the wings are. Now this is perfectly understandable as the easiest way to make the tail to rotate up to 90° or nearly is to articulate it around the carbon joiner, and there the only way to secure the first half tail with the second is to glue definitively the joiner in place.

I will propose a modification that allow to remove the tail easily.
Quality of he kit is very good like this large canopy in thin black plastic that give a wide access to the radio and allow to give a nice finish to the plane.

Next time we will speak about the assembly. Stay tuned !

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