Building your own fighters...

Plans:

The first key to fighter building is to have a reliable and suitable plan and materials. A largish ripstop-and-fibreglass fighter is a much better first goal than a smallish all-bamboo-and-tissue fighter.

Precision:

The second key is to be precise. These are small, specialised kites and very small changes to dimensions, weights etc can have a big effect...

Bamboo vs Man-made:

Bamboo spines are easy and simple to make and work very well. Hand-shaped bows are much trickier to do; and unless you are very keen, or have expert assistance, probably not worth the effort.

Carbon or fibreglass bows work well. If you want to be able to fold down a fighter then use man made materials through-out, but its not hard to make a box to store kites in.

W ith ribstop-type material a key item is symmetry and keeping the grain parallel to the trailing edge. Work always to keep the weight down. This means either very narrow or no hems, and Icarex instead of heavier ripstop.

Tyvek:

Good stuff to work with. A bit too heavy perhaps, but nice to decorate. It comes in “Paper style” - order from Art Shop, or “Clothing Grade” - recycle some disposable overalls.

Mylar:

Gift wrap or florists wrap are the best sources I know. Enough for one kite should be less than $2

Tissue:

If you are fanatically keen then by all means use tissue; but for most of us this is not reasonable, given the price and advantages of Mylar.

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