maxiemac

An Aquabird update - I tried Laddies 'freehand' style of painting and failed miserably - firstly I had bought automotive acrylic paint to spray on for the background white and naturally went back to paint shop to buy the same in the colors I wanted - wrong! - I found out the hard way car paint is not easily brushable if at all, it dried to quickly! - back to the drawing board.

The pics show my first attempt at hand brushing and in another it's gone - sanded off - the color was too dark and the brushing as above wasn't working - so what to do? - only one way to go now - mask it up and spray paint it.

the pics show the color now you see it now you dont - the fine line tape layout masking for the feathers - and in the areas above for the next row of colors those areas are brushed on with a paint strippable coating - it's like a rubberised pva glue that when I pull the paper and tape masks up the areas that were coated with peel off - that's the theory.

I used 1/4" 3M Fineline Tape (cream color) in parts until I found it was getting harder to pull it around the sharper curves, so then went to 1/8" tape which was a bit better to handle. I started to run out of that so back to the paint shop for more but they only had a plastic version (blue color tape) and I'm glad they did - boy was it easy to use - and it stretched very easily around the tighter curves.

So that's it for now - today is painting of the first color - maybe tomorrow the next color and so on - my float fly event is on the coming w/e - hope I make it - if not - well I tried.

cheers - maxiemac

smile it don't hurt

maxiemac

Got first color on today - pics show paint strippable mask and fineline tape being peeled back and general views of overall effect - did get some bleed thru especially around tighter curves as plastic fineline tape puckered trying to resort to original tension - but hey! this is not easy, it's time consuming and fiddly - oh well, when paint hardens off I'll go over the bleed thrus with a small brush and paint them out.

cheers - maxiemac

smile it don't hurt

maxiemac

Here is the 'first' color version ready to fly for this weekends event at Lake Hume, Albury, Australia - weather permitting - the forecast is not overly good! - got the blue paint on and have run out of time for the other two colors - but at least it's flyable for this event.

Pics show general views plus the hand drawn outlines for the next colors which I'll leave on - saves doing them again - I think it looks ok as is - however I will do the other colors and report later.

cheers - maxiemac

LADDIE

Great looking bird. You should have no problems if you balance it in the C/G location shown on the plans. I flew mine two weeks ago. My is electric.
Good luck.
Laddie.

maxiemac

Thanks Laddie - as I bought this airplane from Seeplaner (he built it) - I don't have the plans for it so I don't know where the balance point is supposed to be, however it was well built and balance has been good. If you have a spare moment perhaps you could post where the balance point is meant to be so I'll know.

Thanks to innovators such as yourself some of us mere mortals have been able to enjoy this aircraft type.

cheers - maxiemac

smile - it don't hurt

LADDIE

The C/G is 4" to 4-1/2" from the leading edge.
Laddie.

lupy

My Feedback: (3)

I have been thinking about making a quicki depron version of this, To me it looks a lot like the capricorn depron seaplanes, but more "Plane" like. On your model, the step of the floats looks to be about level with the leading edge, which I would have thought would lead to bad skipping problems. Does this location work fine?

maxiemac

Lupy - Laddie Mikulasko's Aquabird design has been around since the 80's and was on the cover of RCM Sept. 1992 - methinks Capricorn could well have been influenced by the Aquabird design for their depron seaplane effort.

On the Aquabird plan shown in RCM, the step is behind the leading edge but no measurements are shown - on the model I have which is built 30% oversize to the original, the step is also behind the leading edge - and there is no skipping - therefore the step location is fine - takes off and lands on calm water conditions as smooth as, and any water ripples up to about 4" (I don't fly off rougher water than that) with a bit of pitter patter of the floats on the wave tops until it lifts off - all the time with the fuz remaining level.

cheers - maxiemac

smile it don't hurt

maxiemac

Here are some pics of Aquabird committing aviation w/e Oct 17-2010 - sorry didn't get around to movie making - next time when it's got all it's colors.

cheers - maxiemac

Strykaas

nice !

lupy

My Feedback: (3)

works for me, I really hate skippy landings. This is such a cool looking plane. Any secrets to making the wing joint strong enough? that's a long moment arm to land on.

Thanks!

Seeplaner

This enlarged Aquabird has a foam core 90mm thick at the centre and is fully 3/4 Oz cloth covered. It also has a reinforcing bandage along the centre line and a vertical 1/8"plywood main spar.
I would say it is extremely strong. It has certainly enured its fair share of imperfect alightings, and also the odd landing on the bank.
I have managed to damage a float or sponson doing crazy things, but never weakened the wing.
Tough as nails

LADDIE

Maxiemac.

I sent you e-mail.
Laddie.

maxiemac

Hi Aquabird lovers - here's some more pics taken early July '11 - the next lot I post will hopefully show all the colors and if all goes well a video too.

I've named the pics as follows: (1) Ready to go, (2) Rear view, (3) Start takeoff run, (4) Liftoff, (5) In the blue, (6) Floating on clouds, (7) Time to go again, (8) Liftoff to more fun

cheers - maxiemax - smile it don't hurt

JimCasey

My Feedback: (1)

I cut a set of Aquabird cores for a buddy of mine once. I don't think he ever built it.

The extreme tapers were easy to cut with a single template and a pivot point for the wire out at the point where the LE line and the TEline would converge.

LADDIE

Great shots.
The RC MODEL WORLD magazine (U.K.) in August issue re-published my Aquabird. They offer some laser cut parts and the cowl. For more information go to: http://www.google.ca/url?q=http://ww...yY8BFqSV9MVCRQ
Laddie.

maxiemac

Finally got around to adding more colorlast week - weather for next few days is wet and windy so no painting the next color until ??? - pics show red color applied and masking for next yellow -Albury float fly event coming up end of month so I wanted my Aquabird to look a bit 'prettier' - cheers - maxiemac

maxiemac

Well, I didn't think it was going to happen so soon - the weather was not so goodthis Sundaybut the clouds parted long enough forthe sunto beout, the air temperature went up a bit, the plane was masked and ready for paintso I thought, it's now or not until 2 days before the next float fly soI went for it and got the third color on - at least the next 2 weeks will allow the acrylic paint to harden off before the paint 'hits the water'.

I'm toying with the idea of a 4th color applied with an air brush. However I've not used an air brush before, so I will need to practice, and I'm thinking of using a 'darkish' green color (my most least favorite color) and infill between the 'feathers' just for more color balance - I like Laddies yellow, red, green color scheme but I just don't like the color green in any quantity - it's for grass, trees etc - but that's just me, maybe a teal color as a compromise!!! - we'll see.

cheers - maxiemac

g_boxwood

That is gorgeous!

Well done and congrats for the successful flights!