Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Congratulations on another great looking plane Anthony. I just finished putting a new landing gear on the Super Decathlon. It is a one piece 3/8" thick 6061-T6 gear.

WacoNut

Well that was an hour just to get it clean enough to sand in Once the sanding is complete then the room will get a good cleaning from the ceiling down before the covering process starts. I have one dedicated room for building, covering and painting. I found out the hard way to make sure the room is thoroughly clean before starting the covering and paint.

Thanks Ken,
The DRI has been a fun build. I will have to check out your Decathalon thread and see how it's looking.

The fabric and dope arrived today. The fabric is a bit stiffer then Koverall but the weave is very tight. I don't thing it will take more than 2 coats of PolyC to fill the weave and have it ready for paint. The look and feel of the fabric reminds me alot of Solartex.
Later!!!
Anthony

WacoNut

Told you guys it would slow down,
I have the tail surfaces, bottom wing, middle wing and aileron's finish sanded. The top wing is about half done. It takes alot of work to sand the trailing edge and blend all the cap strips into the T/E properly. At least I hope I am sanding them correctly to get the desired effect. I hope to finish up the sanding tomorrow evening. I am going on another hunting trip this weekend so not much will get accomplished.

All of the L/E's came out very smooth with a nice blend with top and bottom sheeting.

I will post some pics of the covering process as I get into it.
Later!!
Anthony

VincentJ

Anthony after you are finished sanding, will you reassemble the plane and check the lateral balance of your plane before the covering process?

Cub Flyer Fresno

Anthony,

WacoNut

VJ,
I checked the lateral balance before tearing down for the sanding and it was pretty good at that point. The little that it was off was not enough to worry about at that stage. I will be doing alot of painting on this plane and some by hand. I will wait until the final assembly to check the balance and lateral balance of the model. I can always add a little weight to the light side at the servo bay in the wings to correct any lateral balance issues.

Dave,
I will let you know what I think of the fabric. I am sure if it works out on this plane it would work on a 1/4 Cub. I hope to finish the sanding tonight but I have to get up at 4:30am to head out for hunting. I have a vacation day scheduled for Monday, if I get lucky and tag a deer tomorrow I will process it on Sunday and spend the day Monday covering the Fokker. The deer just do not seem to be cooperating very well for me this year.
Later!!
Anthony

WacoNut

The plane is finish sanded with one exception. As per Del's recommendation I will be sheeting the sub wing to protect it from sticks/twigs etc: Unfortunately I went to the 2 local hobby shops and there was no 1/64" ply to be found. I bought another piece of 1/32" ply and after looking at the sub wing I am just going to sheet the bottom aft of the axle slot. The difference in the thickness of the ply will not be noticeable and I don't think there is as much danger of the top side getting punctured. I will also add a double thickness of cloth to the bottom of the sub wing, this will help protect the balsa L/E as well as the bottom L/E sheeting.

If anyone see's anything wrong with my reasoning please speak up. 30 heads are better then one

Later!!
Anthony

roncannell

Anthony, I am looking forward to learning a little about your covering method. I have always used more standard coverings i.e. Solartex/Monokote etc.

Your plan on the subwing seems wise enough. One thing I learned on my first DR1 is that the subwing top catches alot of abuse from above as well from exhaust/ fuel overflow. One DR1 I saw at a fly-in had the fuel tank vent hard piped with copper tube down through the subwing so any overflow mistakes ran out below the SW. It was clever and hardly noticable.

I really liked the Ax handles and they will get used. I also think I might build a tail skid like you built. Very nice.

And lastly, Streaking, I simply Chickened out! I have seen some great builds with hideous streaking jobs. Thats probably why there are so many all Red Tripes. I may dirty up my second bird to a more scale look. Some of the best weathering I have seen is on the D7 build thread. One guy had an interesting point that most WW1 aircraft did not last long enough to get very weathered.
The picture is a simple muffler mod to deflect exhaust.
Enjoying your build.
P.S. did I see that you have a 1/3 Super Cub? Thats what I am currently building.

WacoNut

Hi Ron,
The Sub wing will get sealed very well after painting. I am not worried about the oil residue too much. I will starting on the covering here soon. I am taking a break from hunting until this afternoon and going back out to a different spot.

My 1/3 Cub is a J-3 and it is an AMR kit. Very nice flying plane. It is powered with a YDA-56cc engine.

As far as the streaking goes I will make several test panels to practice on before going to the Fokker. It can't be that difficult. I will try a couple different types on brushes and the paint thinned to different amounts and see which gives the best effect.

Here is a pic of my 1/3 J-3
Later!!
Anthony

WacoNut

Ok the 1st piece of fabric has been applied.

Seems like there is hundreds of different methods for putting the fabric on. Here is how I do it.

I thin Nitrate dope 50% with laquer thinner. I then bruch 2 light coats around the prerimeter of the part to be covered. Once it is dry I give it a light sanding with 220 paper. The fabric is cut at leat 1" oversized all around then layed over the part. I then brush a coat of dope down on the fabric around the perimeter and rub it into the weave of the fabric and to activate the dope that was brushed onto the airframe. The fabric will become transparent when you have good penetration and you should be able to see the grain of the wood thru the fabric. I also make sure I brush a little dope onto the fabric all around where I want to trim the fabric. This prevents fraying when cut.

After the dope has dried I trim the excess fabric off then dope the edge down. If I find a stubborn spot that does not want to stick down I will use a covering iron to iron the spot down after the dope has dried. You can then give the edge a light sanding to remove any stray threads that may have come loose.

You want to make sure and wait until both sides of a surface are covered before shrinking and shrink the fabric evenly on both sides to prevent warping the part.

Here are a few pics of the bottom of the stab.
Later!!
Anthony

Cub Flyer Fresno

Looks good Anthony.  Thanks for the instructions!  I'm going to need it.

lazyace

My Feedback: (126)

what no bambe yet ? I found that fabric a little stffer than the koveral , but the weave fills easer

WacoNut

No Bambe Yet[:@] Going back out in about an hour.

The Stab and Rudder are covered on both sides and have been shrunk. The fabric skrinks much more than Koverall and it is stronger. It actually bowed the sides on the stab in slightly which in turned caused the T/E to bow as well. Lesson learned. turned the temp down on the iron before shrinking the rudder. The parts are now ready to burn out the holes for the hinges and the mounting holes then apply PolyC to fill the weave.

I am going to wait until I have all the parts covered before brushing any PolyC.
Later!!
Anthony

acerc

Looking good Anthony. When I use stits fabric I found 150 was good for attatching and 200 was good for the final shrink. 175 for everything inbetween.
But that's me. Keep it up.

deljon

My Feedback: (4)

You're looking real good Anthony,

Another reason I sheeted the sub wing is that's the way the fullscale was, to me it just don't look right
with it covered with fabric and ribs showing like a regular wing. But, that's just me.

Del

ulpilotrmh

My Feedback: (2)

WacoNut,

This is the same covering system I used on my Challenger UL shown in my avatar.The planehas a ridgid aircraft grade aluminum tubing framework and when doing the final shrink with the iron you could hear the frame creaking and groaning. it's no surprize to me that this fabric would distort a balsa framework.

Russ

ulpilotrmh

My Feedback: (2)

My avatar, my avatar is missing!I could have sworn I had one on this forum. I'll get one up as soon as I figure out how.

Russ

WacoNut

Del,
I didn't know the sub wing was sheeted on the full scale. A bad assumption on my part. I will see what I can do about sheeting the top side as well.

No Bambi,
My effective range with my muzzleloader used to be 100yds with open sights, I guess due to deteriorating eye sight as I am getting older the distance has shrunk. Time to add a scope. I missed and the deer went on it's merry way. Oh well back to work on covering.
Later!!
Anthony

WacoNut

Covering:
The tail surfaces are covered. I decided to tackle the top wing next. I do have to say dealing with the scallops is a PITA. The fabric is going down very well. It is a little stiffer then Koverall but not that much. I have the top wing covered and shrunk. I still need to go back and dope the fabric down around the servo and strut cutouts.

After looking over the sub wing I went ahead and removed the cap strips from the top and bottom. I will sheet the sub wing with 3/32" balsa and give it 2 layers of fabric. This should supply sufficient protection from incidental damage.

Here is a pic of the parts that were covered today as well as a pic of the scallops on the T/E. Even though it was a PITA to cover it turned out pretty good.
Later!!
Anthony

deljon

My Feedback: (4)

Look'n great, accually 1/32 would be plenty heavy enough.

Del

WacoNut

Thanks Del,

I just finished covering the middle wing. This took about 4 hrs. It is officail I hate covering scallops You have to deal with them like you wound a compound wingtip and they run the length of the T/E so it takes alot of work.

I should have no problem completeing the covering in the next couple of days then I can start filling the weave with PolyC.

Later!!
Anthony

jeffo

My Feedback: (68)

I was not as fast as waco in my build,it took me 3 months,not 3 weeks.The plane was a joy to build,and I'll start covering this week.I plan on doing camo streaking.Jeffo

WacoNut

Hi Jeffo,
She looks good, I see you did the trailing edge different.

I have the bottom of the bottom wing covered and I will cover the top side after dinner. I am going to try and cover the fuse and the sub wing tomorrow as well as the gear legs and the cabanes.

Arrrgggg I just remebered the aileron's and more scallops[:@]
Later!!
Anthony

WacoNut

The wings are now covered. Thank God there are only 3 of them

Overall the covering on the wings came out pretty good. I will see how they look after filling the weave and sanding. I will try and setup the saw horses tomorrow for the wings and start coating them with Polycrylic while I am covering the fuse. My cheap little soldering iron died so I am going to have to head to the store in the morning to buy another one. It is the perfect little tool for burning the holes out in the covering.
Later!!
Anthony

WacoNut

Been doing a little more research, 127/17 did have a camo streaked rudder in it's early color scheme (red cowl only)and was later painted red. 127/17 final color scheme was identical to 152/17 and 161/17.

From what I can find 152/17 and 161/17 had a white rudder before painting red. The paint scheme between these 2 tripes was virtually identical. Also from the info I have found Richtofen flew 7 different DRI's over the last few months before he was shot down and scored his last 17 victories flying these planes including 2 the day before he died. Very interesting guy and life story.

I may find it hard to start painting red over the top of the camo stripes when I get to that point.
Later!!
Anthony