RE: Ziroli Skyraider Build
A little more sheeting and lots of sanding later I finally got to put everything together out on the front lawn to see what it all looked like. In the first picture you can see how I mounted the gear if you really strain your eyes. Basically I mounted a hardwood block to a good piece of 1/4-inch AC ply. I then sunk a metal tube into the hardwood block which the struts were then attached to. The struts I am using on my Dad's Skyraider were from an old Gee Bee that didn't make it through the last flying season. They should be plenty strong to support the 100" Skyraider. I haven't weighed them yet but I am not going crazy on adding detailing or anything so they shouldn't be real heavy.
One thing about the finishing on these Skyraiders. I am not going crazy on the fiberglassing to get a mirror smooth finish like some people do. All full scale Skyraiders I have seen are dented and beat up pretty good. The ones flying the skies of Vietnam were probably beat up even worse. So I am basically just sanding the sheeting until it is smooth enough and then laying down the fiberglass. I am not using filler to smooth out low spots or anything. Once the glass is on, I will hit it with some primer, sand that lightly and then spray the colors. Some may think this is crude and poor workmanship, but I justify it in my mind as adding a scale appearance.
I use .75oz cloth andbrush on miniwax water based polycrylic polyurethane floor finish. I prefer this method over the epoxy finish for several reasons. The smell isn't as bad and the cleanup is pretty easy since it is water based. Unfortunately I lost all the pictures of the glassing so nothing to show here.