chistech

Thanks for your compliments Chad. They are very appreciated, especially coming from you. I actually contemplated making the tail feathers airfoiled but I had already changed a lot on this bird and felt that I might be better off leaving them as is. If you look closely at the fin's leading edge I really worked it down thin to be more scale like yet I didn't give the fin the full airfoil shape either. I thought about doing the same at least to the leading edge of the stab but thought it might make the airframe a little less stable with the air flowing faster over it. I don't know a lot about aerodynamics but always thought blunt leading edges help slow the airflow down helping to create more lift over the surface. It is for that reason, and I might be wrong about my thinking, that I didn't create a more airfoil shape. I know that the way it is designed, it works, and didn't want to lessen the flight characteristics anymore than I already did. The panel lines are a lot of work with all the taping as the actual shooting of the paint is easy. Gerry has a fine Iwata airbrush that makes doing the lines a pleasure while using very little paint. Gerry's comments to me about the paint vs. ink pen is the ability to mix the paint for the lines to just the right color for proper contrast to the surface the lines are painted on. Black lines just wouldn't have looked right on the green nor would black look right on the aluminum. More to come over the next few days. The exhaust stack area of the cowl has been liquid masked off and will be painted also. Cannon barrels with get a blackened treatment and possibly some airbrushed "ribs under the cloth" look on the rudder, elevators, and ailerons.

Chad Veich

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Wow! Airbrushed panel lines must be a huge amount of work! I too will use a shade of gray, or possibly multiple shades, on the Hellcat but I will most likely use ink pens and then clear coat. High quality inking pens are available in many colors at good art supply houses. At least they used to be back in my college days. I have not looked recently but hopefully that is still the case. I also plan to try some airbrush "magic" to simulate the fabric tail surfaces on my Hellcat as well as some weathering. I will be anticipating your next update on the "George" as it is really starting to come together. While I love just about all aspects of building the detail and paint stage is, for me, the most exciting and rewarding. I am also still a fan of the smaller scale models and particularly those finished to a high standard of scale fidelity such as this.

chistech

Gerry painted the guns and exhaust pipes though the pipes didn't quite come out the way we like. The will get some additional color to our liking. Finished the panel lines today. The small curved areas around the stab and the big arched curves that delineates the wing fairings really adds a lot. The foot and hand holds add a special touch too. Though there are a few more detail areas to be painted they will be painted black like the shell ports and the opening in the fuse behind the cowl the runs around the fuse. The whole fuse got it's gray wash and the canopy was finally un-masked. Have to say I took a lot of pictures of it. It has really come out nice and by far is my best effort so far. Gerry has done a lot of work on this but I have also done more than I've ever done in the finishing/painting department. Gerry has been a great teacher and help for sure. Still have the weathering to do yet.

chistech

More pictures. These are after the gray wash of paint was applied and the canopy masking pulled. The panel lines on the cowl were also done but the cowl flaps still need to be painted. Last picture almost looks like it's sitting in a museum.

Chad Veich

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People are going to start thinking I am the president of the "chistech fan club" or something but the little George just keeps getting better with every post! What a neat little project and I hope it flies just as good as it looks chistech.

chistech

Thanks Chad. Not many have chimed in and I think it's because this is a small airframe so I guess you and Tom (scaleonly4me) are my fans! LOL. I've noticed no matter how nice some of my and my buddy Gerry's .50sz planes are done they just don't garnish the attention or admiration the large ones do. That is why I mentioned it earlier in the thread. I think some just look and think they are ARF's and walk right by. The smaller ones are harder to work on and a little harder to fly and to fly scale. You would think that would be appreciated more but if it doesn't have a wingspan of 80"+ and a DLE or Moki up front, to some it's not even worth a look. It's a shame because all of them, no matter the size, can be done well or done bad. When they're done well, you would think many would appreciate them. I think the true builders are the only ones who really appreciate the work that goes into any scale build.
Ted

PS: the included pictures are of a ARF that Gerry redid. It started life as a Kyosho FW-190 and Gerry made a new flush fitting cowl, total re-cover, and full paint. Again, another real nice .50sz. plane. He had a beautiful Kyosho Corsair that was absolutely incredible that was lost to a elevator pushrod failure. No one would have ever known it was a Kyosho or a ARF at one time. It was fully glassed and painted.

scale only 4 me

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Well Ted, one of the ole timers and great builders, at the field I used to fly at said to me. "you don't get many "that-a-boys" for assembling an arf.

But seriously,, sunshine is on your way,, the lighting in Gerry's shop is killing me

chistech

Tom,
You're going to get your wish. The sun is shining today (had a huge rain event for the last day and half) and I'll get some pictures for you outside Gerry's shop!

chistech

OK, first off, sorry Tom, couldn't get by Gerry's early enough to get a sunny outdoor picture so that will have to be another day. Gerry repainted the exhaust stacks and now the weathering has begun. Exhaust streaking, gun ports with streaking, panel edge highlights, and black dust streaking with the airstream. When you look at the pictures you will see some very slight shadows running in the direction of the airflow. They are not caused from the lighting but are from Gerry's work with his airbrush. Also mounted both aileron servos and the flap servo with linkage.

scale only 4 me

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hahaha,, looks great Ted..

chistech

Got some more done today and even got a few outdoor pictures though the light was not that good. Started the weathering with some silver paint. Gerry has incredible techniques with a mostly dry bristle shortened flux brush. He uses post it notes on panel corners and other areas to give the correct effect. I made and started to install the antenna mast. Getting real close now. I thought I posted the last picture in an earlier post but I hadn't . I really like it because it looks like the plane is a full scale one on display in a hanger or museum.

scale only 4 me

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chistech

More work done today. Wings are finished as far as the weathering goes. More needs to be done on the fuse. Added the black wider lines behind the cowl (masked off in picture with paper tape and GP red 1/8" tape across it in 4 areas. Also masked and painted some cowl flap lines. Masked off rear edge of canopy where this section would slide over the other to give it an impression of separation. This will be painted black also. Installed a brass tubing receiver for the antenna mast and finished the mast up. Just needs to be painted now. Just about at the end finally.

deatonbt

The plane looks great. Your skills are better than mine.

Not to back up the thread too much, but I was reading post #109 on page 5 where you had residue left on the plane from sanding. I don't know if this will pull residue from the weave of the cloth, but I have used 3M Tack Cloth to clean up the final sanded surface before painting the color coat with very good success. First wipe down the plane with a damp rag and let it dry to save on the number of cloths that you have to use. It shouldn't be many. You don't have to buy an entire case. The method is then to use one tack cloth to wipe down the entire plane even though the Tack Cloth is filling up and getting dirty before the end. Repeat the whole process of wiping down the entire plane again and again with one cloth at a time until you have a completely clean cloth on the final wipe down. Use a new clean cloth each time. I learned this method many years ago on a car that was painted with lacquer and recently on a plane painted with latex. It worked well.

If it is a sport plane latex camouflage finish without detail, damp name brand paper towels will probably work. But, I would be sure that there isn't any oil on the surface from handling the plane with your bare hands.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...gl114S24W521bl



Brian

chistech

Hello Brian,
Thanks for the tip and process. We do use a tack cloth in our finishing process. With our technique, we spread the resin very thin both with heat and a credit card squeegee. With this come some more open weave than heavy coats of resin but a huge weight savings. With the primer filling the weave, then the primer being wet sanded. What we believe has been happening is the wet sanding has made the primer into a "paste" that fills the weave and gives the impression of no voids. Even the tack cloth wiping and acetone wipe down has not helped to remove this dried paste "filler". When the paint goes on though it seems to cause the paste to "air out" from the weave exposing those areas. This is why I believe a good high pressure air blasting will help remove all this. I will do it on future models as the wet sanding is being done to prevent the primer sanding residue from drying in the weave and filling any of those open areas. It's all in the process and we need to improve it so we don't take two steps forward and one step back. The process of using warm air and the credit card has yielded very light finishes in the past. The small problems we've encountered just have to be remedied and that comes with more experiences.
Thanks, Ted

chistech

Finished up sanding the bondo Gerry put around the antenna mast receptacle and added a better scale looking tail wheel I had. The original tail wheel wire was long and had the plane with a "tail high" stance. Looks much better. Made a cut out in the lower chin of the fuse to let hot air out of the cowl. This plane was designed for a side mounted OS 52 but I changed it to a inverted Saito .65. Not much of the Saito sticks out so I needed to add some vent for cowl flow through. It will get resin then paint along with the antenna mast. Had an issue with paper masking adhesive pulling off some of the brown exhaust streaking and some of the gray wash so it will need a repaint in those area. We will use a milder adhesive type masking.

chistech

I originally posted at the beginning of this thread that I had a friend in Japan who purchased and sent this kit to me. Recently I contacted him and sent him pictures of the Shinden Kai's progress. I also asked him if he could try and get me the contact information for Mr. Tangiku, the designer and manufacturer of the whole line of these kits marketed by Tettra. Well, if you can believe it, in just one day he was able to contact him. I sent Mr. Tangiku an email stating my high opinion of his kits and attached the link to this thread. After a few days he replied. He does not speak much English so my friend has been translating both my emails to him and his to me. Below is his reply, I thought some might like to read it. I am happy he approves of our work.

Dear Mr. Brito,
I apologize late response for the mails which I received from Mr. Brito previously.
I looked through articles on RC universe, I impressed so much about an improvement of the inadequacies of the kit, also about the details of each part which is pursuit of the best stuff.
I have never seen such an excellent model.
I appreciate Mr. Brito about constructing of Shiden-kai as a perfect model by excellent workmanship and by great effort. Also, I feel divine favor as the manufacturer.
I hope you enjoy a good flight of it soon.
Best Regards, Sheiichi Tangiku

chistech

Gerry added more of his special touches to the fuse and it is now completely weathered from the cockpit back. There is still some more work forward of the canopy on the fuse and some weathering on the cowl to do. The antenna mast is painted along with the tailwheel. Sprayed some polyurethane inside the fuse firewall to fuel proof it. Installed the fuel tank, servos, battery, and receiver. Battery and receiver are still able to move around when it's time to balance. The relief I cut in the fuse chin to let hot air out of the cowling has been resined and painted. It's now got life to it's flight surfaces. Maybe by this weekend it will be done.

chistech

Got more done today. When I got to Gerry's he had been busy with the weathering of the cowl and had put very fine lines of black in places to simulate separations line the canopy bottom, bottoms of handholds and steps, etc. He also painted the baffles behind the cowl again. It still needs a light wash of brown and gray in the exhaust stream areas.
Finished installing the radio gear along with the Saito .65. I used an old school Saito muffler because of the cleaner lines it has. I made a 90d fitting on my lathe for the exhaust also. The exhaust even though it's outside the plane is not too obtrusive. (I will be cleaning the muffler!) Here are some pictures of how it sits now. Very close and should be done for the weekend. Still waiting on my Tru-Turn spinner I ordered for this. It will get painted the green with white tip. Gerry is also making a real nice static 4 blade scale prop for it. Found an illustration of Lt. Takashi Oshibushi and his plane. He was the commander of the 107th, part of the 343rd JAG. His squardron was the safest to fly in be he too was lost by the overwhelming numbers of US pilots, most in Hellcats, leaving only inexperienced pilots to defend the Japanese mainland.

chistech

Just doing the finishing up now. Gerry finished the real nice static prop, painted it, and painted both the static and flying spinners. We laterally balanced the wing and added a slight amount of weight to the right wing panel. A small drill hole filled with lead shot then the holes get covered with epoxy then the marker light gets painted over the area. The tail light on the rudder and both port and starboard wing lights have been painted. Epoxied some fiberglass cloth on the inside of the cowling where the mounting screws go through. Tomorrow night it will be taken to our club's meeting for it's first unveiling of it totally finished.

chistech

Well it's basically all done now. Took some shots outside today, though it's cloudy and gray, with the scale prop on it. One shot has the transmitter with the plane to show how really small this is. In most pictures it looks larger than it is.


Note: Forgot to mention I took it out to the garage today to weigh it with all components ready to fly. It came in at 5.8lbs exactly. That seems pretty good. Not sure how much the glass and paint will add but I still should be good with the weight.


Above is an earlier post of mine of what it weighed before the following: glass, paint, scale inner doors, scale dash, scale gun sight, cannons, scale tail wheel, glass added to the inside of cowl, pilot improvements (to his head), pilot's seat, antenna mast, and a heavy Tru-Turn spinner. Today I weighed it with all components above and included a 14x8 MA prop that I have. I will be using a 13x6 Evolution prop which will be slightly lighter. Both Gerry and I were getting a little worried that the weight was going to be way up, in the 7-7.25lb area. Well I have to say I am extremely surprised with a total weight, this time ready to fly @ 6.722lbs! I am really happy with that for sure. With all those additional add-ons and the finishing and we added less than one pound. One difference is I swapped out 3 standard servos in the fuse to 3 HiTec 225BB's like what I have in the wing. Those servos weight one half of a standard one. I did swap out my Spektrum 6 channel receiver for a JR 9 channel one so I added just a little there. All in all, I can't complain and hopefully it will fly as good as it looks. In the case someone is wondering what kind of scale I'm using I can tell you it's a digital postal scale so it is correct and I'm not living a pipe dream! LOL
I still want to put some travel stops in the gear struts so they don't completely compress as this will cause the gear doors to most likely strike the grass causing issues. The gear presently travels about 3/4" or more and I will cut it down to no more than 1/2".
Most likely won't fly it until spring because our field is really bumpy and will need to be rolled. A lot of rain and geese have taken their toll this fall/winter.

Chad Veich

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A thing of beauty chistech and it should be a trainer at less than 7 pounds AUW. Great job and looking forward to the (eventual) test flight report.

scale only 4 me

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Looks Awesome Ted,, you and Gerry are a great team!!

c550

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Very impressive!

chistech

Thank you all gentlemen. It's actually a relief to finally have it done. Last night it got it's official unveiling at our club meeting and it was received well with a few guys knowing it was a "George". I will post again in this thread once the maiden is done.