Tony Hallo

The brush lines are still there, more sanding and another coat of silver!!

Tony Hallo

The parts that are glassed are getting primed with FC900 Feather Coat, I never used product this product before so I'm not sure just how everything will turn out. The can states spray 1 to 5 coats, the stuff is like water, one doesn't do much, I'll probally end up at 4 coats. Will sand most off anyway.

Tony Hallo

There is a bunch of little parts. All steel and aluminum are primed with SEM self etching primer. The alumunim parts get scrubbed with Scotchbrite and Prepsol just before priming. I just realized this thread is over 3 years old, I better pick up the pace!

Tony Hallo

I used masking tape to protect the tape and stiches while sanding the silver, quite possibly this will be the last evolution. I hope to put the color on top of the next coat of silver, I have three coats of silver applied. I read somewhere that the silver is not necesary on a model, if that's the case I need improve my fabric installation process because there's just no way I could paint directly on top of the Poly Brush, too many little defects. During the sanding of the second I'm still finding little bubbles and brush marks left from the taping installation.
I I do this again, I will thin the Poly Brush more (Maybe 50%) when installing the tapes and install the tapes before spraying any Poly Brush.
Not trying to bore anyone with detail, just sharing experience if others try the Stits covering process.

iron eagel

Very nice!
Good tips!

rv9-a

Tony

I am considering building the BUSA Super Cub. Some questions about the PolyFiber ? How many yards did you use and what weight/grade did you use. Excellent job on the build and cover. I restored a 49 Piper Clipper and used the same process. Looking at your pictures brings back memories of my project.

rv9-a

Tony Hallo

RV9-a
I believe seven yards, Chip at F&M will know how much you need, the fabric is lite weight un-certified. I think it's about 2 ounces per yard.
Thanks for the compliment.

SteveD-RCU

My Feedback: (2)

Just about to start my PA-18,it will be on the BUSA floats which are already built.This is my 2nd BUSA 1/3 Super Cub.My first one had a Z-62 in it with a Fema onboard starter.I had many many wonderful flights with that airplane however it met its end early in life because I flew it hard not knowing that the centre section was its weak point.It wasn't designed to do high negative G manuveres.One day(a few years ago) I rolled inverted, gave it some down elevator,and that was it..one wing seperated from the fuse.It came down on hard ground so it was hard to do a post crash analysis of what gave first,but we sumized it was the centre section that gave under the high negative G load.Lesson learned.
Nice build Tony.

Tony Hallo

Well today was going to be the big day to paint the wings. The colors chosen are Daytona White and Pontiac Red, the wings are all the same color, my plan was to get the wings painted and assembled, then move onto the fuselage.

Tony Hallo

There is a bunch of small parts when you consider the jury struts, lights, tank covers, fuel filler caps, lift struts. I made several jigs to support the parts and allow turning.

Tony Hallo

My camera must have defaulted back to super fine setting, hence the multiple posts.

Tony Hallo

Everything worked out well until I sprayed the wings.

Tony Hallo

The bottom of both wings fish eyed. I took reasonable precautions along the way, cleaned with Prepsol before each coat of Poly Spray, must of had some wax in the rags I used. Had no indication of fish eye with the poly spray. I wiped the paint off both wings and will begin again! Back in the day when I worked in my dad's garage, we used a product called Smoothie to eliminate fish eye, wonder if it's still made and will it work on this paint system? This basically a two part urethane based paint similar to automotive paint, next week I'll check with Randolph Products, maybe they have an idea.
The wipe down destoryed the finish of the Poly Spray so I'm going back to square one. For those of you following along I'm using Ranthane rather than Aerothane, this was recommeded by Chip at F&M, I don't believe this was the cause however.

Just did a quick search, [link]http://yhst-13811118617756.stores.yahoo.net/mar-20238.html[/link], I can kick myself in the behind.

Tony Hallo

Steve,
Referencing the attached photo, the two formers are doubled lite ply, each root rib is also doubled lite plyand 1/8" balsa. When gluing the center section, I also reinforced the butt glue joints with 1/8" dowel rods, maybe four per joint, don't have a photo however. The center section does seem to be weak spot.

SteveD-RCU

My Feedback: (2)

I like the idea of doubleing the formers and lite ply ribs Tony,and I think I get the picture of dowling the butt joints.I was also considering some 6-32 rods running from corner to corner forming a X brace,and then silver soldering the centre of the X,and adding more gussets to each corner might also help.
Another solution is to fly it like it it should be flown in a scalelike manner which I plan to do ,especially on floats..

Tony Hallo

Steve,
Scale like flying is a good thing anyway.

rdkjr

My Feedback: (12)

I'd like to see the pictures of possible alternatives to improving the structure of the center section on the super cub. I am building a super cub as well and used robart hinges and square brass tubing for the hinges on both the flaps and ailerons. This is identical to the flaps on seveal Ziroli warbird planes I have built. In particular the Ziroli Hellcat flaps. I have attached pictures of the sub assemblies I made which sandwich the tubes between two plywood and bass wood supports. The entire assembly is postioned realative to the wing with the fixture shown. The same technique was used for the tube mounts in the flap and aileron. Small screws will hold the hinge in place on the front half. The rear half will be bonded into the flap or aileron.

Bob Kurtz
Cocalico Prop Busters
Leola, PA

Tony Hallo

Bob,
Don't know if you checked out the 1/3 J3 build on the General Gaint Scale Forum, another possible hinge method [link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8964175/mpage_2/key_/tm.htm[/link], here's the link. Nice hinges by the way, they will be trouble free compared to the original. It's hard to beat Robarts.
If your building a Balsa USA verison, the vertical members that support the center section are shown in the first photo, these are in set into the fuselage sides about 3/8" long, I would increase the length of inset to increase the strength, these would be relieved on the outside to prevent them from hitting the covering. On top side I would increase the length of the lap and add two or three of the 0 x 3/8" screws into the root rib. I would also pin the center formers to the root ribs with 1/8" dowels.

Tony Hallo

I didn't clean the urethane paint as good as I should have when I wiped it off. I thought I had wiped it off good enough, it was all but impossible to clean the remainder of Poly Spray off without agressively scrubbing which in turn dislodged the tapes. Rather than fiddle around and end up with a sub-standard finish at this point, I decided to simply re-do the wings. The next time will be better.

iron eagel

So sorry to hear that...
Given what you want, probably the best route, I applaud your efforts!!

SteveD-RCU

My Feedback: (2)

I ordered the BUSA hinge kits(2),I'm almost finished the left wing .Anyone know of a good off the shelf lighting system(navs&strobes) that I can install without doing alot of soldering etc.I checked Sonictronics and they are now developing a new system.The Ram site doesn't show anything for big airplanes.I guess I could make my own but would prefer something easy.

SteveD-RCU

My Feedback: (2)

Thats a tough one Tony,I'm sure your next paint job will be great.I also did my first Super Cub with F&M products .I got everything from Chip ,the fabric,poly-brush,polyspray,polytone paint,tapes.I had very little problems with the regular Poly-Tone paint,I actually enjoyed using the stuff.I scanned a couple of old pics,they arn't great and you can see my bungee covers were a bit loose

bjconst

Tony, I just bought the super cub kit from Balsa USA, mainly because of your postings. I think I'm not the only one that did it for that reason. Maybe Balsa USA will reward you! I have read this thread more than once & will have a few questions still. I hope they won't bother you. Please tell me this kit can be put together with Bud Light, I'm just not into Miller Light. That seemed like it should be question #1. Bob Johnson

skylarkmk1

Do a Google search for rc airplane lights and a bunch will come up. Here are a few that are listed, I do not know anything about these sites or equipment.

http://www.rc-lights.com/zone.html

http://www.dimensionengineering.com/

http://www.billscustomrclighting.com/

http://www.rc-cam.com/navlight.htm

http://www.xerogear.com/XeroGear_RC_...roplane-ex.htm

http://www.electrotekrc.com/

Tony Hallo

Bob,
Please don't hesitate to ask any question you like, I'll answer as best I can. My first recommendation before starting the plane is switch to Miller Lite, you will enjoy the build more!!!