MPX Dogfighter

You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth—a colorful Styrofoam box or something like that, two large rolls of stick-on decals, and an instruction manual in every language. But upon closer inspection, I notice that a motor, two aileron servos, and an elevator servo are already installed. Wow, there’s nothing left to do! If there’s no work to be done, then we’ll just have to find some.

Styrofoam and decals—that sounds to me like french fries with whipped cream; I’m definitely not just going to stick those on the plane like that. The model’s silhouette reminds me of the Spitfire MK18, a further development of the legendary Spitfire that was manufactured from 1946 to 1948 after World War II. Back then, the elliptical wing was modified and the cockpit was mounted on top of the fuselage. So it’s a fighter plane, and it should look the part. With two spray cans from Migros—black and white aluminum—and a felt-tip pen, the whole thing already looks much better. There’s no need for white, since that’s the color of the Styrofoam. The D-Day stripes also make the plane much more visible in the sky, and once the whole thing was finished, I used my little airbrush to add some extra exhaust smoke to the 1,600 PS V12 engine. I finished the plane by applying the cut-out national emblems and a light coat of clear coat from a spray can, and I think the result is quite impressive.

From a design standpoint, there’s hardly anything to improve. I highly recommend the option to install an additional rudder linkage. However, after cutting out the Styrofoam wedge in the lower part of the rudder, a rudder hinge should be glued in place. This improves the stability of the rudder blade’s attachment. Around the canopy, I glued a thin piece of plywood into each of the finger cutouts, and I cut out a small section of the Styrofoam to accommodate them. The purpose of this five-minute job was simply to prevent the canopy from being dented in this area.

The initial jitters were quickly over. Using the control deflections recommended in the assembly instructions, I ventured out on my first flight. With expert dogfighting advice from Männi Kistler, I tried out all kinds of maneuvers right away and adjusted the control surfaces accordingly after landing. In short: The plane flies great!! Using the rudder, the plane can be controlled quite well in a side-slip, and it can also be kept neatly on course with the appropriate rudder corrections. Whether flying slowly or at high speed, the model is easy to control and handles very well during the landing approach as well. The motor, propeller—everything right out of the box fits perfectly. A well-balanced design with plenty of fun potential. I think this plane will also prove itself in dogfights. I hope you have a lot of fun fighting.