A View from Broadway

Hobbins Hobbies Nemesis 2 kit

The finished Nemesis 2 from the Hobbins Hobbies kit. All photos by Ken Burdick.

By Ken Burdick

Yes Folks, it’s true.

Tim Hobbins has a Facebook group that he uses to advertise his model factory. I say "factory" because he is a one-man show with a laser cutter and a whole lot of models to offer.

What's old is new: Nemesis 2!

Howard Rush’s Nemesis was a great design for Fast Combat. While later foam models obsoleted the all-wood model, it still holds great memories of one of the best all-wood models we all used in the late 1970s and into the 1980s. Wonder where you can get a kit for one? Well wonder no more. Hobbins Hobbies is cranking them out to order. so let’s take a close look at one, shall we?

I ordered the kit from Tim around the third week of March and it arrived intact by the end of the month. The kit is a precision laser cut replica of the original Nemesis 2. Tim has included the horizontal spar that is inset to the ribs and sits immediately behind the leading-edge spar. It is cut out for the bladder compartment and should give a very nice centering device to the airframe.

The kit parts.

Sheeting is not included as is the case of many short kits today, but spars are, so it’s not just a set of ribs. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the elevator was a full ¼” and not 1/8” as is the case for some short kits I have purchased.

All parts are precise and the engine mounts are good solid maple. Plywood parts, which include the booms, bellcrank mount and nacelle doubler, are of high-quality plywood. I wish I had looked more carefully when the kit arrived; I missed the two bladder tube ends and made my own.

The kit also came with full -size construction plans. I would have liked to have seen a CG on the plans set but we all know where they balance, don’t we?

Wood selection in some short kits has been an issue for us Combat flyers. Some is of the lightest variety, but not up to the rigors of a Fast Combat ship. This, however, is not the case here. The wood I received was medium weight balsa so I’m not too worried about ribs breaking while constructing it.

I laid out the parts and fit them together so you can see what you get in a kit (below).

I just needed to make the trailing edge pieces and leading edge and center sheeting. The kit assembled well and I covered it with Hobby King Transparent yellow. This covering is slightly lighter than Ultracote, but other than that they seem to be the same material. To power this once masterful fighting machine, I restored a ST G21 .35 that I used when we first started 80 mph combat here in the Northwest. It took some work, but the results are pleasing to me.

The SuperTigre G21 .35, period-appropriate for the Nemesis 2.

Shipping

Buying kits from Tim seems too good to be true, so here is the downside. Tim lives in the U.K. Shipping, depending on how you arrange it, will be expensive. Not out-of-the-question expensive, but more than from anywhere in the U.S. What to do? There are a couple of options you can discuss with Tim. One is a lower cost method that will take longer. For a single kit it costs 18 pounds sterling or about $23.00.  Tim suggests that you can combine orders to substantially reduce the freight costs. If just two and not one were ordered, it would be about the same as shipping a kit inside the U.S. 

Price

The cost of this nicely made kit is around $35. So, you can see it’s not out of line with other manufacturers. Tim uses PayPal and that makes things very easy.

That’s all Folks!

So there you have it Geezers, all you need is to get a mate for your old 120-130 mph G21 Super Tigre.

Me? I’m going flying!

-- Kennyb 

Back to Bod Busters main page

Back to Combat main page

Flying Lines home page

This page was upated Sept. 6, 2019