Reviews : Guillows Spirit of St. Louis 34-5/8''

This was a fun build. Again high quality kit. Plastic engine cylinders could be better with today technology. I added balsa and used aluminum tubing for pushrod housing. Tubing for exhaust stacks. Copper wire for intake tubes. All in all not bad. Aircraft is covered in sig koverall which is the model equivalent of ceconite used on actual aircraft. I used a light weave which is 1.3 oz per sq yard of fabric. I use a hair dryer to shrink it and dope it then aluminum paint to give finished color. Decals are top notch. The fabric is tougher that tissue or silkspan. I am not flying these as they are static display only. Cockpit was tricked out using photos obtained on line from Smithsonian museum in DC.

I built this as a display model. Overall shape and dimensions are good. Vacuform parts are terrible. Cowl halves have huge gaps that will need additional styrene added then filled. Engine parts very bad. Wing tips unusable. Balsa is acceptable (barely). Not sure this could be made light enough for rubber power. I scratch built some parts including wing tips from balsa blocks. Modified aftermarket wooden prop used. Silkspan substituted for kit tissue. Large decals for wings will need to be cut into sections and installed to avoid damage (they're just to big to handle). Scratch built cylinders. Although challenging to make an acceptable model it looks great finished and hanging from the ceiling!