A View from Broadway
John Thompson's Smokin' Joe being tested
for aligmnment on a lathe before renovation by Ken
Burdick. All photos by Ken Burdick.
Rescuing a nasty B
By Ken Burdick
Yes folks, it’s true. Things you do for a friend.
Friends are a wonderful part of our hobby, frequently
occurring in events we share in common. Thus, it was with
John Thompson and his Northwest B Proto Speed plane. I
have known John for years and wanted to be encouraging
when he put his toe into the Speed circle.
Makes you want to throw it away
There are just a few things that make you REALLY want to
throw out a model airplane.
- A sticky finish.
- An unexplained tendency to suddenly fly itself into the ground.
John was unfortunate to have both.
I have experimented with rattle can hardware store paint
for several years, taking many cues from those trying
“Painters Touch” paint. It seems to have an infinite
variety of colors. And once you learn to work with it,
will cure quite hard, not needing a clear coat unless you
want one. Well, back in the day, I always wanted one. I
have tried all sorts of clears, from Painters Touch to
Crab Coat industrial “chemical resistant” finish — none
would hold up to fuel. It wasn’t that it would go away
either, it would just absorb the fuel making a nicely
finished model into something you just didn’t want to
touch. The goo would stick to your hands and just piss you
off.
That was John's model a few flights after finishing with
apparently the wrong kind of paint for the job.
John’s model has on several occasions tried to off itself
by making a sudden dive into the ground. More control was
added to no avail. At the Northwest Regionals I heard John
say to Mike Hazel, “If it does it, crash it beyond
repair.” I felt really bad for him, and at the end of the
competition, I offered to fix the awful mess this
otherwise good model had become.
First things first
Find out why this model was trying to end it all. I talked to the pilot Mike Hazel, who said the plane would suddenly make a dive for it. It did this at the NWR. Mike saved it with just a broken prop.
I suspected a misalignment between the centerline of the model and the stabilizer. Although this was a kit, things like this need to be checked. I took the gooey mess and chucked the crankshaft into my lathe all while completely assembled.
The centerline of the model should be parallel with the
bed of the lathe. A quick measurement from the lathe bed
to the leading edge of the stabilizer and the trailing
edge of the stabilizer showed a substantial amount of
“down elevator.” Now we know why the suicidal tendencies.
Un-gooing the thing was next. Having experienced this
myself, I knew what to do. I scrubbed it with lacquer
thinner and let it sit for a day or so. The finish was
still not great and I wanted John to have a durable decent
finish, so I called Endura paint here in Canada. They
supply their excellent epoxy finish in a two part rattle
can that is so much nicer to use than mixing, cleaning and
doing it again. It took three weeks for it to arrive and I
used that time to sand off the very hard Painters Touch
red and blue, prime it with Painters Touch white primer
and let it toughly cure.
The epoxy went on very well, and while my finish work is
not on a par with John’s, it looks pretty nice. Best of
all, it ain’t sticky!
Engine
I’m a motorhead, so I opened up the LA .25 to see what’s
what. It was pure stock with a bind in the bottom end, The
LA .5 is a sport engine so they do respond to a few basic
Speed tricks. Raise the compression, make it breathe and
improve the fuel flow really help.
This engine however, was not even broken in yet. I wanted
to find the bind and simply radiused the back of the crank
which seemed to eliminate the bind. I increased both sides
of the crank port slightly and contoured some JB weld into
the front of the crank port. Nothing radical but will help
with the top end speed. Finally I lapped the crank to the
case using 1200 polishing compound (Mothers) and spun it a
bit in the drill press. When it was all cleaned and dry,
it spun freely in the case.
The piston and liner just needed run time, and I raised
the head a little with shims that some can be removed when
it’s broken in. I ran a few tanks through it and was
impressed. Easy to needle and had a nice RPM of 19k on a
7x8 APC.
That’s about it, lil' Geezers. Now to figure out a way to
get the model from the backwoods of Canada to John.
Modifying the crankshaft.
Refinished with epoxy.
Ready to fly.
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was updated July 22, 2026