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Paul the Overlord

Well Known Member
Hi,

Well I have been at it for about 47 days and I finished my wings today (except the wing closeout, as I'm waiting to see what I'll do about lights). The Emp took about 20 of those days as I'm doing this part time. MANY thanks to the bloggers, especially Jerry for being so upfront about his problems as well as his successes. You have saved me a lot of reordering and I'm very grateful. My fuse kit left Vans on Friday and hope to have it soon. I spoke to someone at Van's today and she said maybe a month before finishing kits are available. It's not just marketing hyperbole, almost anyone, even an Overlord, can build this thing.
 
Paul the Overlord said:
Hi,
It's not just marketing hyperbole, almost anyone, even an Overlord, can build this thing.
Click to expand...

Paul
I see that you are a repeat builder so it will be much easier for you than a virgin (so to speak) builder.
I will be interested in how long it takes and what problems said virgins have with the 12.
I assume as time goes on the kit and instructions will evolve and improve as issues that pop up are sorted. Am I correct in assuming this?
John
 
rjtjrt said:
Paul
I see that you are a repeat builder so it will be much easier for you than a virgin (so to speak) builder.
I will be interested in how long it takes and what problems said virgins have with the 12.
I assume as time goes on the kit and instructions will evolve and improve as issues that pop up are sorted. Am I correct in assuming this?
John
Click to expand...

Hi,

You are correct. The plans are pretty good to start with (the best I have seen so far) and Vans does an OK job at updating them. That's why I like the blogs so much. The other guys are beta testing them for us.
 
I've had the pleasure of watching Paul's kit come together, and I've laughed at it many times because it's such a wonderful kit. In one day last weekend, I managed to spend the entire day cutting and notching 9 tubes, then fiddling around with fuel pump. In that same day, Paul riveted on and covered an entire wing!

Now for the embarrassing part....you'd think as a multiple repeat offender that building a -12 would be a breeze. But, this kit is so remarkable that you sort of have to "unlearn" the old way of building. For example, Paul asked me a simple question about that fwd stub spar and the fact that it got countersunk...but only a callout on the plans for dimpling the overlying skin in places. We scratched our heads and I knew it just had to be wrong. So, imagine my surprise when I found out that Van's had ALREADY DIMPLED THE DARNED SKINS!!! As an old builder that's been around almost all of their kits, who'd have ever thunk that something would be "pre dimpled"!!!

Anyway, just pointing out how wonderful the 12 kits are. To me the difference between the -12 kit and the rest of the Van's kits, is the same difference between the old slow build -3/4/6's and the new quickbuilds...it's THAT good! I know I'm not adding much of any substance here other than to gush about the kit, but it really is fun to work on and just makes you literally laugh out loud when working on it if you're an old builder of previous kits. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to get me one of these....

Cheers,
Stein
 
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