WhtBronco

It occurred to me that I have done a pretty crappy job in this build thread so I thought I would give a little more info. At this point the airframe is basically ready to be glued toegther. I need to hinge the ailerons for the lower wing and install the center strut. I have spent a ridiculous amount of hours on painting this plane. Just cutting out the templates has taken several hours. I won't likely paint another plane. The time involved involved is absurd and the results have been very poor IMO.

The actual assembly of the plane has gone very quickly and been extremely simple. The parts are cut and designed to fit in such a way that instructions and plans are not required to figure it out quickly. I figure I may have 3 hours into the airframe including all the sanding. So far it's been a matter of some minor trimming(not required I just preferred it) and then gluing the parts together. Everything has fit quite nicely. I used 3M Super 77 spray for the wing skins, Gorilla glue for most of the airframe and CA for the floppy disk hinges.

The parts self align themselves almost perfectly during assembly which is a tribute to the design of the kit.

Here's a link to an Advantage build thread form a while back, but this guy did a better job of showing the build process.

[link]http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=338015&highlight=advantage+bipe[/link]

rmgmag

I've been following your thread and I think that your painting is way better than mine. I too have given up on painting. I've spend more time on painting than I did building. Now I try to scrounge up some preprinted decals or I merely paint an all black canopy and a couple of stripes on the bottom and I'm off and flying. Maybe some day and after hours and hours of practice, my painting will be easier and better, but until then, I'm keeping it simple.

WhtBronco

Yeap, you hit it Bob. Painting foam is tough. I keep thinking maybe I just putting it on too thick, but it's taking 3 coats to cover so I dunno. Anyway for my next plane I am going to get some decal paper and print that with my color printer and give it a try. My online ordered roll of tape came today according to my beautiful wife so I hope to cut some more templates tonight and get this airframe finished.

So far the decals that came with my Eflite Ultimate are the only thing I can say I like better about it. I am more than willing to sacrifice a bit of time for a better aircraft though.

By the way if anyone would like to see specific photos of my Advantage please let me know. I'm basically just taking pics like what I'd want to see.

bobrez

Hey Wht, Im also liking the way your paint-job is going. Decals just dont do it for me, Just to easy I guess.
I would like to see how you are making your paint templates and what type of tape are using. Ive read a
trick Id like ta try is to use pinstrippin tape and leave it on cause we know all tape bleads.

Crashed again but no Burn
REZ

WhtBronco

Rez, I plan to make the templates for the top wing tomorrow night and will take some pics then for ya. It's not hard to do it's just very time consuming. Basically all I do is put strips of tape on a cutting board, over lapping them by about 1/2" until it's as wide as needed. Then tape the paper drawing over the top of the tape and start cutting with a sharp X-acto blade. 1 thing I have found that helps is to then, using Scotch tape, secure the piece or pieces you just cut out back into the template. It helps to keep the template in shape when doing multiple colors.

I have found that Shurtape CP-28, purple painters tape, works the best for me. It's just sticky enough to stay on, comes off fairly easy and sticks to itself well. Regular masking tape can stick too much and tear the foam, and doesn't come off the cutting board well. Nor does the painters tape at the local stores work for me. You might be able to get away with 3M blue painters tape, the tape for delicate materials that's low tack. I haven't tried the low tack blue tape since it's the same cost as the purple tape shipped to me and I know the purple works. It's $11 a roll BTW and this plane will take about 1.5 rolls.

FWIW, I proved my theory of too much paint causing it to run under the tape this evening. I painted the silver on the H stab and elevator and in 1 spot I got too much paint and it ran under the tape. The other lines look very nice. I already knew I wasn't very good at spray painting and apparently I need to be a little more careful.

WhtBronco

Okay here are some pics of my templates and tape after cutting them out. I also got the H Stab and elevator painting finished this evening.

WhtBronco

Here's the H stab and elevator. It wouldn't fit in the previous post. I think I forgot to set the resolution on the camera down for the pics so they ranged from 1mb to 2mb each. Hopefully by this weekend I'll get the templates cut out for the left side of the top wing and get the top wing painted over the weekend, we'll see.

Ken-h

My Feedback: (3)

Looks great, looking forward to seeing the finish product.

Ken

bobrez

Very very nice. Thanks so much for the pics of your templates. I understand the process now.
That makes for some very nice work but is definately lots of work involved. I might have to print
out some decals, mostly cause my planes dont seem to last very long.

Crashed again but no Burn
REZ

HPIracer4

def. like the way your build is going. right now since my other scratch built foamy is done with, i have a blue core f-14 jet that im goin to build and paint untill my parts from john get here. i need to think of a scheme for the jet, but not sure, especially since my limitations in colors right now. even though i do have an airbrush i dont have a whole lot of colors and no money to buy more

WhtBronco

Painting like this does take a lot of time, more than I like really. I've just been using Testors spray cans, I don't have an airbrush. Besides since I only have time to paint for a few minutes here and there an airbrush doesn't make sense to me due to the time required to clean it up. Thankfully my planes tend to last quite a while. The Eflite Ultimate this plane is replacing has over 43 hours of flight time on it and the airframe is beginning to fatigue quite a bit resulting in a lot of flex.

I finished cutting the templates last night so hopefully I will be able to get the painting completed this weekend. Then I can get on with the fun part, putting the airframe together. All the electronics are on hand, but I will need to get 2 servo extensions, either 6" or 9" for the aileron servos.

This is the first airplane I have assembled in years that the H stab was square on without shimming. The side rails on the 3D Foamy planes are really well done. They ensure that the H stab is square and wow do they make the fuse rigid.

If all goes well this weekend I will have more pics to post Sunday evening.

WhtBronco

WOOHOO I'm done painting, finally. I'll get it together for some pics tomorrow.

WhtBronco

Here's a few pics with the painting completed. The airframe is not glued together yet, and I have a small issue to resolve. I'll explaint ihs in the next post and show pics, maybe you all can offer some suggestions to help the idiot behind the keyboard here.

VictoryRoll-91

That looks sweet.[sm=thumbs_up.gif]

WhtBronco

So anyway the problem is lining up the top wing. I have checked the center strut location based on the plans and it is right on, yet I can only get the 2 side struts to line up correctly or the center strut. With the center strut seated I can get the side struts seated but only by bending the wing down and back a little. This casues the plane to have a little dihedral in the bottom wing and anhedral in the top wing as well as a little inverse washout which just can't be good for flight. Since the location of the center strut is the only thing that is not CNC laser cut I keep thinking I have installed it incorrectly, but based on the plans it's right on. Any thoughts here guys. The only thing I have come up with so far is to lengthen the slots in the top wing for the center strut to allow it to line up properly. Here's a few pics showing the issue:

WhtBronco

One more of the misalignment. This time with the top wing lined up on the center strut properly.

I forgot to mention that I did forget to check the alignment before I glued in the center strut, like an idiot. It's easy to skip steps with 3 little kids running around and wanting to help daddy.

WhtBronco

Thanks VictoryRoll-91, as I said the painting was a lot of work. It turned out okay though, a few of lines look like crap apparently because I tried to apply the paint to heavily. Using more, lighter coats the lines turned out very nicely. The black on the fuse was only 2 coats, but on the wing I applied 4 light coats and the results were better.

HPIracer4

maybe try flipping the side wing struts, im not sure how symetrical they are, john would probably know more about your problem, but try flipping the wing struts (with the wing in the center)

WhtBronco

HPI, thanks that was a good idea. I just tried it, but they are cut such that they will only fit 1 way. They can be swapped side to side, but that doesn't change anything except then you can see the CF rod showing.

rmgmag

It looks great. I've had the same problem with other bipes. I try to make sure the wing is seated properly on the center cabane and then if I have problems with the interplane struts I just cut new ones that fit properly. It's a pain, but it works better than having the wings all bent in weird positions.

Bob

WhtBronco

Thanks Bob, good idea. That will be a pain, but due to CG issues I think ensuring the center cabane is lined up properly is the best bet.

WhtBronco

I'm thinking about cutting a replacement side strut and repositioning the notches top and bottom that align it with the wings. Then I can just trim it a little to match the wings.

WhtBronco

Well after messing with it for about 2 hours this evening, some of that time spent cutting new struts, I have found that the struts will not align properly due to a lack of sweep front to back(the wings are staggered) and they are 3/16" too short. Tomorrow evening, if I have time, I will try adding 3/16" to each of the struts I made and see where that gets me.

WhtBronco

I am going to try to pick up some foam baord at the local craft store to use to mess with the struts until I get a set that will work. John included a nice piece of spare depron in the kit, as packing material, but I don't want to waste it trying to get struts that work out.

I still think the misalignment was due to some oversight on my part. I just have to find it. I have not measured the wing locations to compare them to the plans and will do so soon.

WhtBronco

I got the foam board and cut some struts so this minor issue is resolved.

Just in case anyone is wondering, I was 98% frustrated with the amount of time I was spending on this plane and feeling like I was getting no where. That was due to paint job I chose to apply. Not likely I'll do anything like it again. It just so happened that I found the struts not to line up following the painting. Anyway this is not a big deal and has been resolved with a little time.

FWIW, I still believe 3D Foamy has the best foamies out there. This is leaps and bounds better than my Eflite Ultimate and any other foamy I have seen at the flying field. It's more rigid, easier to assemble straight, and everything but the outer wing struts was perfect. This may need to be quantified a bit more. John was a bit apprehensive about cutting an Advantage kit for me since he had never sold a kit for it, but he knew I really wanted this plane. I only have evidence of only 1 other Advantage ever being assembled and have not been able to get a response from that gentlemen despite trying for nearly 2 years. So no matter the cause of the misalignment with this possibly being the second kit sold how could I complain. It's still a great looking plane that no other manufacturer has done a model of from what I can find.

This has certainly not swayed my opinion of 3D Foamy and I hope it won't yours. You might even notice that the Advantage bipe is not listed on the 3D Foamy website[link]http://www.3dfoamy.com[/link]. I just knew it used to be there and searched for it for quite some time by trying different URL's until I found it. John then went out of his way to cut me a kit he doesn't normally produce during one of, I suspect, his busiest times of the year. During this entire process John has been responsive, helpful and a pleasure to deal with. As I said before my next foamy wil be the Tiburon bipe and that hasn't changed. Thanks John.

Now I am off to start gluing the wings and tail on.