gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

Last fall a friend of mine called me and said he was at a local outside flea market and there was a guy there that was selling a Spacewalker II kit , and my friend wanted to know if I was interested in it. After a brief summary over the phone I knew the kit was far from complete so I told my friend to offer 20 bucks for the kit. When I finally got the kit a few days later I got pretty much just what I thought I was getting , a very incomplete kit. No plans, no instructions, no plastic parts, and very few wood parts that actually came with the original kit. What I did get was about 75% of the parts needed to build the wings and that was about it. 1/4 kit build and 3/4 scratch build was what I had in store for myself. I decided to wait till I finished a couple of other projects before I started on this one. I'm probably what would best be described as an "average" builder having built 8 kits up to this point but none this complicated. I finally got started a few weeks ago and here is my progress so far:

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

I ordered a set of plans and instructions as well as all the plastic parts and landing gear wires from Sig. I took some time looking at the plans once they arrived only to further remind myself that this will be the most difficult plane I've built so far. Since the wing components were nearly all there, in the kit, I decided to start with the wings. Here are the typical pictures of the wings layed out and assembled over the plans.

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

The next thing I had to think about was what was I going to use for an engine. I had an older ST 2500 but after laying it over the plans and holding it inside my newly received cowl, I decided not only was it heavy but it was also too big to fit inside the cowl without some major cutting and cutting I didn't want to do. I sold the 2500 and purchased a new ST 2300. Much lighter and smaller. I will mount the engine inverted and the only thing I will have to do is carve up the bottom of the cowl. And since Sig recomends a .91 to 1.2 2 stroke the 1.5, 2300 will have the power I'm looking for.

gnirwin

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The wings are done and I nearly have the fuselage finished as shown:

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

more pictures, the last one you can see the cowl fitted. The cowl comes 2 pieces that you have to glue together. I aligned both halves and hot glued them together and then I epoxied and fiberglassed the halves together from the inside. The hot glue can easily be removed later.

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

more pictures. The plastic wing tips are epoxied in place then wood filler is used to fill the joints. I stopped building to cover the tail feathers with cub yellow Solartex. I love working wih Solartex and I was anxious to see what the color will look like. I'm going to cover the plane with the cub yellow and then mask off and paint the red features for the scale Spacewalker paint scheme.

gnirwin

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the tail feathers temporary fit in place.

gnirwin

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the landing gear that Sig supplies consists of 4 pre-bent pieces that you have to solder together. I wrapped copper wire tightly around the pieces at the areas I was going to solder and added solder. later I ground the solderd areas and fiberglassed the webs. I later added some Bondo auto body filler to help shape these web areas. A little more sanding is needed and the gear will be ready to paint.

gnirwin

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I started to cover the wings. Boy this Solartex really goes around the wing tips nice. I also changed my mind and decided to cover the bottom of the wings white. I may later paint a checkerboard scheme on the bottom. Even a plane this large I like to have a different color on the bottom.

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

the finished wing

mrbigg

My Feedback: (21)

looks good. keep us updated.

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

attaching the ailerons to the wing, I like covering the hinge gap and I was hoping that the Solartex would work for this. My concerns were that since there was very little stretch to the material that it would not be what I wanted.

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

after covering both hinge gaps I think they will be fine, a little more rigid than plastic coverings but the airlerons seem to move fine.

mrbigg

My Feedback: (21)

how did the covering go over the plastic wing tips. did it give you any problems?

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

The covering went around the wing tips very well, real nice stuff. The white you see on the wing tip is where I bumped the ceiling

JCOKEEFE

My Feedback: (2)

[8D]The picture of the covering over the ABS wingtip looks great. What was the temp of
your iron?

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

I have a Hanger 9 iron that has settings 1 to 5 and I have my iron set at 4. This covering is way easy to work with. From what I've read I will need to spray a clear over it when I'm done to keep the fuel residue from filling into the weave of the fabric. This is the only negative that I see. The look, the strength and the ease of use , so far, are good.

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

I ordered another roll of covering a couple days ago in order to finish the fuselage so while waiting I've gone back to finish up the cowl.
I pulled the hot glue off the cowl which I had used to hold the halves together while the epoxie set up. I cutout the front and also cut out the air vents. I also thin CA'd the seam. Now it was onto cutting all the pieces of the engines and and engine covers out of their respective flash laden sheets. I then epoxied the engine halves to each side of the cowl. There was some gaps that I mixed up some Bondo to fill in. I will finish sanding and after the final painting I will glue the shrowds on.

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

I found an instrument panel on the web that I thought would work for this plane and I printed two out on sheet of canvas then glued them into the plane, I will blend the colors of the instrument panel better at the edges. everything is in place for me to start the covering of the fuselage. I have been off of work for the last three months and am going back this coming Monday so I want to get as much done in the next few days as I can.

Bruno Stachel

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gnirwin,

Looks good so far. Could you tell me where you found the instrument panel? I have a GP Spacewalker I've been trying to find one for.

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

here is where I found the instrument panel:


http://www.ida.net/users/paulbrab/techs.htm

Bruno Stachel

My Feedback: (4)

Thanks gnirwin. That one will work just fine.

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

well, I finished the covering tonight. This is one big yellow bird! No surprises, pretty much happy with everything but the front of the stab. May try to recover this area in the morning. Now comes the the job of taping everything off so I can spray the red on.

mrbigg

My Feedback: (21)

Looks good! you said your doing the standard colors?

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

yes, I'm going with the yellow and red paint scheme.