n8622t

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Hey Smullis...I think the bare wanted the bearcat cowl size

Joespeeder

Hey Guys,

I thought I posted this report but don't see it anywhere[X(] Maybe I was in the wrong thread.....[X(]

I glued my wings and fitted my cockpit today. Since the wing doesn't have any holes or dowels yet I couldn't clamp it like I normally would. So I had to glue it and hold it together myself as everything set up. First I taped each half up to the edge of the joint and preglued the dowels into one side of the wing.

Next I gathered rubbing alcohol, paper towels, a sacrificial brush and mixed up a bunch of 30 minute epoxy. I slathered all down one wing half joiner opening and the wing center, then inserted the joiner and coated the other side. Push the wings together and wipe the ozing glue from the joint with rubbing alcohol. Then sit and watch some bad scifi while it sets with me keeping pressure on the wings. Not too bad with a bad movie on.... I did this once in the evening and the power went out.[X(] I sat there in the dark holding that stupid wing for what seemed like forever. Today was better.

Next I fit the cockpit. Looks good and I got tired of fiddling with plastic. I will finish the fit tomorrow and maybe get to the base paint.

I tried to remove the mission stars with some heat. But they are a very thin sticker or waterslide decal. I'll probably sand them and then paint over them. I have some time to think about it.

Sorry if this is a repost....

Joe

n8622t

My Feedback: (8)

LOL... now that was good story speed When the power came on was the wing straight Man that must have been a long period to pass through Post some pics when you have time...we would like to see that wing especially

n8622t

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Just fyi speed Im very close to finishing the p40...then on to the LA7

smullis

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Sorry bout that bear. My mistake. S Mullis

rare_bear

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not a problem.
do you guys have a final weight on this plane (LA7) with a 50/53/55cc gas engine?

Joespeeder

Hey Guys,

Here's some quick shots of things. I know my control rods have no lock nuts..... All that kind of stuff gets finalized when I do my final radio set up.

You can see my first (incorrect) set up in two of the shots.



Joe

n8622t

My Feedback: (8)

Sweeeeeeeet Speed! Nice install on the wing

glazier808

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Joe, you might reconsider using the ball links on the control surface side. With this setup the push rod can rotate the ball link side. Connectors like you used in your first picture will not allow this.

I found that even with a double lock nut, it had a tendency to rotate off of center.

Casey

glazier808

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Edited above....dang phone changed the words lol

Joespeeder

Thanks Casey,

Yup, That was showing the incorrect and corrected set up. Everything has a clevis now.

Joe

glazier808

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No problem, from your above post, I was unsure of which one you went with. Hate to see you have to deal with that in the air!

Casey

rcfan450

Ok so I got my replacement plane in the mail yesterday. It still had a few flaws, cracked cowl and really scuffed canopy being the worst (much better than the first time). Tomas didn't want to send me another cowl/canopy though I guess.

Couple questions for you folks.
1. One of my flaps won't fit inside its compartment. I pushed the flap inward tell I heard things start to crack and it just won't fit in there. Did anyone else have this problem? If so, what did you do to get it to go in the hole?
2. How would you fix a cracked cowl w/o leaving a trace of evidence? I'm doubting thin CA will do the trick. It may stick it together but I doubt it'll have the strength to last.
3. How would you fix a scuffed canopy?
4. What is the order of operation here? I was thinking...
- install and paint cock pit
- weather the fuse
- put the rest of the plane together
- ESM landing gear last. Love the aluminum wheels on that gear!

This should be a fun build (if you can call an ARF a build that is). I'm using the 53cc twin. I plan to stick a sullivan smoke pump in too if it's feasable.

What I'd really love to do is custom bend and craft some exhaust tubes and route them to the scale exhaust location. That would be sick, not sure about the logistics of that though. We'll see....

I'm in the process of building and moving into a new home so it may be March by the time I actually have a good spot and time to work on this. But I figured I'd work on fixing the issues my plane came with first, then get to working on the cockpit and weathering.

smullis

My Feedback: (26)

rcfan450, Well here are a few suggestions.(1) As far as the flap goes it just sounds like it needs to be sanded to fit the flap slot where it fits in.It will be easier to sand the flap than to sand the flap slot.Look and you should be able to tell by look or feel where it is binding and remove where needed and repaint if necessary.(2)For the cowl I am sure there will be plenty of suggestions on this also.First go to the inside of the cowl and see if by pushing on each side of the crack in the cowl you can close up the crack as best as you can.You might need help doing this.Next Take some fiberglass, wide enough to help reinforce the cowl along the length of the crack.Two in wide piece ought to be fine. After closing the crack as best as you can put some painters tape across the crack on the outside of the cowl to hold it shut. Now lay the glass along the crack and use some thin c/a and soak the glass and then hit it with some kicker.Just wait about a min and take the tape off the cowl and see that you have. If you just have a hairline crack you can use some body filler to fill the crack and lightly sand to blend in. Then paint as needed.I think the color of the cowl is true red but not sure.Anyway if you are gonna weather the cowl like most of us do then use the pencil lead or you airbrush to darken it in and blend it in to the cowl and you will never know it was cracked.forgot to tell you make sure you sand the inside of the cowl where you are gonna lay the glass so it will have a good bond.Just get any shine off should be fine.Now I have my way but it involves more sanding.If you do not want to use bondo for filler, after you have done your glassing take some baking soda and fill the crack on the cowl. Make it as smooth and flush as you can. Make sure the crack is full of the baking soda .Just the crack no where else. Wipe off all excess powder. Now very carefully put some thin c/a on the baking soda the length of the crack and hit with some kicker.In just a few seconds it will be as hard as cement with very little sanding to do. It is hard to sand that is why you want to just do the crack and nowhere else.Then paint as normal.(3) Now for the canopy.They sell some type of formula that takes scratches out of glasses. I think you can get it at wal-mart or a optiomologist(eye doctor) might have it also. Also try walgreens and try online at the places where you can go as seen on tv products.It should take out most of the scratches.If that fails then try a decal with a bullit hole in it and it will look like you have been in a battle. Try and use some toothpaste on the scratches.Sensodine is great on jewelry to polish the stones in rings and such. Well that is about it, so these techniques have worked for me and I hope you also.
Good Luck,
Steve(Redman)Mullis

Joespeeder

Hi rcfan450 ,

My flaps were too tight and would snap into the pocket, So I put a straight edge on each flap along the rear edge, made sure I had a new sharp exacto knife, and trimmed off a fat 1/16.

There is so much flap there you wont notice anything and by trimming the rear of the flap you can seal it with paint and no one will ever see the fix. Hopefully you don't have the flap glued it yet. As holding it and the cut will be much easier off the wing.

My flaps work great now.

Joe

rcfan450

Thanks for the tips guys, I'll see what I can do over the holidays. Oh, what's the best match for gray on this plane? I think it has been mentioned before.

Joespeeder

Hey Guys,

Here's some shots of my work on the cockpit. After the initial fitting I started the paint work. I've done a fair amount of airbrush work in the past but I've never tried preshading then spraying the top coat over the it to create depth. I thought I'd try it on the cockpit. I used both brown and black to preshade. I'm much better at post-shading.

My impression is I needed to go much darker on the preshade for it to really work like I wanted. The technique I prefer and should have done more is the salt masking. I wanted to see some light rust/brown color in the corners and in some select areas around the radio equipment. What I should have done is mask the brown buy applying salt as a mask instead of trying to preshade with it.

Other than the preshade I did my standard stuff. Starting with paint the parts silver to replicate metal, let that cure, then paint areas I want to weather with Hairspray. Yup, hairspray from a pump (non-aerosol) bottle. While it's wet I sprinkle course sea salt in the areas I want to show chipping. If you want to macks an area completely just pile it on in that area. I use a small brush to "paint the area I'm working on or the tail of the brush to dip in the hairspray so I can apply a drop or two to the pile to "glue" it down. If you want to scratch the top layer of paint with a brush, finger nail, or something after it's painted then coat the area you will be working on with hairspray. I just use the brush and paint it on.

Let the hairspray dry totally. This is when I preshadded..... So that I would get clean silver showing through once I chipped the salt away. I should have painted my brown/rust and then applied the salt technique at this time to give me that rust I was looking for.

Then I sprayed the top coat of gray. I tired to do light coats to let the preshade come through but I hadn't done it dark enough so some showed and some just got covered up. Let the top coat dry. Then assemble the little parts. I painted the red hose with black paint and while it was still wet wiped the paint off. It darkened and distressed the hose. You don't need much paint on it. Just a few swipes with a brush then wipe. Repeat if you want more dirt....


Now I got the airbrush out and turned it wayyyyy down so I was just getting a hint of color. I shaded the highlights of where dirt would fall. The tops of the rails, the corners of rails and the cockpit, the tops of controls. Stuff like that. I was very careful NOT to do it perfect. I use QUICK bursts and most of the time you don't see paint being sprayed. But it accumulates and builds in layers. Then I sprayed all the flat surfaces in shorts NON symmetrical busts of the same light coats. I just get a hint of unevenness and keep repeating till the panel looks less plastic. Once you feel like its need just a little more ...STOP. The panels will no longer have that freshly molded look of a model.

Then I turn up the color just a bit and hold the airbrush above the surface of the piece about 8-10 inches and pray in non-symmetrical bursts letting the color settle from a distance. I move closer and farther away from the surface as I spray. When done the entire piece has a VERY VERY light coat of "dirt" that has NO distinct pattern.... If you only weather in the panel lines or seams it looks funny to me. Doesn't the rest of the item get dirty??? This light over spray fixes that.

Normally I use Smoke color by Tamyia to do this kind of work but I just used flat black this time. In the cock pit I thought I need to be able to overdo the color just a bit. So I turned down the amount but used the darker color of black since it was inside and harder to see.

Oh yea, I shaded around the salt I had used on the foot well where the pilots feet would wear the floor. I sprayed the salt and around it in a splotchy fashion. Not heavy but darker than the surrounding area slightly.

Now use you finger nail and chip away the salt you used as a mask. Be sure to rub, pick, chip the salt away in the direction that the wear would come from. The pilots feet would move back and forth from front to back so I chipped and rubbed in those directions as I took the salt off. Any scratch or rub marks just make it look better.

The silver will show through and all your RC buddy's will Oooooh and Aahhhhh at your work.

Joespeeder

More Pics

Joespeeder

Last ones for now

stoat

rcfan, Tamiya make a plastic polish that works great for this sort of thing. If the scratches are deep then you will have to start with wet and dry and work your way down.

nextofkin

My Feedback: (8)

What engines are you guys using I have herd of everything from 26cc to 55cc and everything between. I have a Zenoah G38 and wonder if this will fly this plane like its suppose to and not be a dog.
Thanks
nextofkin

LA7flier

My Feedback: (1)

Has anyone tried one of Gene's spinners for this plane? If so, how does it look?

smullis

My Feedback: (26)

Hey Fellows, Does Gene Barton Have a website? If so how do I get in contact with him for a spinner? There is another thing I was going to ask the pilots who have flown this plane. It looks to me that there is no right thrust built in the firewall,if there is, it is very little. When you installed your powerplant did you have to put in your own right and down thrust? I just want to get this info before I mount my engine so I can plan it in the build.
Thanks,
Steve Mullis

swede5

My Feedback: (1)

I believe that you can find Gene here ................

http://www.genebarton.com/

Joespeeder

Hey Guys,

Having trouble getting to the LA-7 in during the holidays. I hope to work on it Sunday Afternoon.

However I did find a version that I bet someone would like to build....




http://tanks45.tripod.com/Jets45/His.../La126-138.htm


Joe