RAMFlyer

My Feedback: (65)

If you've got the time to go through this thread you will find a material that goes on easily, sands easily, fills and seals, is dent resistant, and can easily be painted. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10..._1/key_/tm.htm

fred985

all my full scale planes wade ceconite and were all done with buterate dope and had no problems at all. where did you see that ceconite was to not be done with dope ???? i cocer all my models with ceconite and use nothing but buterate dopw. i never use nitrate dope. for wood i just dope hell out of it and it looks good to me. boats i use marine varnish or marine enamal on the wood.

ARUP

Here is an airplane I started building over 20 years ago. The top hatches were sheeted with balsa then given a layer of 0.75 oz glass cloth and polyester resin. They were primed and painted using Coverite paints. The hatches are still as straight and true as the day I made them. I have since re-started this project so I can fly it! These hatches don't weigh much at all. The landing gear you wish to finish is in a hostile environment and subject to much abuse. I have a Hostetler kit of the Turner Special (the airplane you are working on) that I will build one day. I'll use the scale 75" wing and not the longer one! I definitely will glass the gear for durability and to put the polished aluminum skins in place.

splais

My Feedback: (25)

Just for comparison, these are pics of a test I did on a piece of balsa compared to the original gear. The test piece has three coats of white glue/talc mixture and two coats of Filler primer. You can still see a slight bit of grain but is much improved. Subsequent tests have shown that a thicker mixture than 5050 glue and water works better. But it does appear the glue-talc mixture is labor intensive; taking many coats to get a perfect finish. I actually covered the test piece above and it came out perfect.

Question - I keep reading about Nitrate Dope. Just who makes it and where do you get it?

sensei

I don't ever consider dent proofing an airframe because it will dent regardless if you hit it hard enough unless you place enough glass, resin, and of course excess WEIGHT on your airplane as ARUP has already stated. With that said, placing down .75 oz. cloth with whatever binder you use to apply over your balsa surfaces, polyester resin, epoxy resin, or as I use these days Minwax single component oil based urethane will kill the swell back that is inevitable to come back through the primer and topcoat after a few warm days in the sun, you can count on it. I love the way painted airplanes look, but I also love the way lightweight airplanes fly so I do what I can to to achieve both looks and performance. Sometimes I will cover in cloth and topcoat everything, sometimes in Monokote and topcoat only the wheel pants, cowling, and canopy deck, and sometimes I just topcoat an entire composite airframe. In either case primer surfacer adds weight fast so I load it on and sand it until everything is filled and leveled, then I continue to sand until I can see through the prime everyplace. After that I spray a very light dust coat of prime, scuff and topcoat. In all these images all finish work was performed utilizing the methods I stated.

Bob

ARUP

SIG and Brodak have nitrate dope and thinners. It is very lightweight and sands nicely. Shoot butyrate colored dope over it then clearcoat (weight!) to 'level' everything, wax and wax to your heart's desire! It's 'old timey' but I love painting with dope using spray guns.

Sensei demonstrates great technique! I like to use different colored primers for the same reasons he gives: you put primer on then you sand it off. The different colors let you know to what level you have gotten.