Building my first balsa wood Guillows plane at 46 years old. Should I thin the dope for coating the frame or not?

Umm i would rather urs monocote then dope

On a guillows plane? Are you out of your mind? Monocote.. gees, the thign would be so heavy it would never get off the ground :P...

Sorry, don't mean for that to sound harsh, I mean it in joking.


I don't know much about dope, but there are several different kinds that are used in different (ish) ways. Head over to the 1/2a forum/section and ask there. They will be able to give you a much better answer.

BTW, what do you plan on using this for? As the rubber/CL model it is designed to be or for something else?

I would recommend staying away from Monocoat. The balsa used isn't strong enough to handle Monocoat. As for stick and tissue, I would not worry about thinning out the dope as you want some build up on the balsa to stick the tissue to

OK ,thanks for the advice. Have a good one .

I just recently finished my first Guillow's kit at the tender young age of 38. You'll want to use straight dope to brush onto the airframe to provide a smooth, even surface for the tissue to adhere to. When you actually attach the tissue to the air frame, you can either use more straight dope, or use plain old white school glue thinned with a bit of warm water.

The dope dries up very quickly, so it can be difficult to get larger pieces of tissue pressed down properly without getting loose spots on the covering. The thinned white glue sticks much better, but if it pools up in the joints it can get the tissue too wet and it will shred.

One the basic tissue covering is applied to the air frame, you will gently spray it all over with a light misting of water. When the water evaporates, it will gently shrink and tighten up the tissue covering. After you have the tissue tightened up via this method, you then go over all of the covering with a 50% dope and 50% dope thinner mixture. This coating will continue to shrink the covering ever so slightly while adding strength to the covering. This is also a good time to be applying color by using colored dope with thinner.

Make sure you do all of this in a well ventilated area, or 5 minutes after you open the cap on the dope bottle you'll be imagining that your furniture is talking to you.

Good luck and good building!

i had noooooooooooooooooo idea im brainless with kits i always get ARF's,Sorry guys

You should check out the Guillow's rubber-band powered airplane kits, -EXTRA-:

http://www.guillow.com/GuillowDetail...=22&FamilyId=1

I built this lancer kit, and it took me a good long time. It was pretty educational though, and I was pretty happy to finish the thing. This is the kind of thing that kids used to build back in the 30's, 40's, and 50's.

I took my Lancer kit to a club show-and-tell and then later launched it in a gymnasium. I couldn't have been prouder than, when on my second flight, the plane flew perfectly clear across the gym and I got a standing ovation from the rest of the guys.

OH WOW, Thats what its going to look like,thats exactly what I'm buildind,as soon as I figure out how to put up pics I'll do so. I want to thank everyone for their replies. I have doped the frame as well as myself,took me 20 min to type this. Now to apply the tissue. will open door this time for fresh air.

Posting Images "How-To"
[link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_2629917/tm.htm[/link]

Ken

Thanks Ken

When I was a kid I ended up at the doctor with ringing in my ears because of too many hours in the basement with dope (solvents not drugs!). No more solvents for me unless I had a high volume exhaust hood, or working outside. Stuff is dangerous to the nervous system in a confined space. Thank god for modern lightweight plastic coverings.

Yeah, That's kinda what I'm going through right now. I'm doing more flying than the plane. I'm experienting with different ways of applying the covering and have come up with a good method. Use the stick glue after a couple of coats of dope and sanding, then use the 50/50 dope thinner works pretty good. You still have to do something about the fumes but it's alot less of a problem with gettin th tissue paper to do what you want,in otherwords it stays down and where you want it and I don't think the dope has any adverse affects on the glue, it seems to be working out alright so far. I have the bottom of the plane left to cover and then one more coat at least of dope and then I'll think about painting it.

Lancer1: Wing, aileron, and rudder are covered trying different methods. Lancer2: close up of how the two wings look after trying different methods, neither seemed to really do the trick, both where hard to get the edges to lay down right. Lancer3: crooked frame. Lancer4: not a very good Dihedral. Lancer5: Several repair jobs already. Lancer6: A different view, getting ready to apply tissue to the fuselage. Will post pictures with the glue stick and 50\50 dope thinner method.

Lancer1: Wing, aileron, and rudder are covered trying different methods. Lancer2: close up of how the two wings look after trying different methods, neither seemed to really do the trick, both where hard to get the edges to lay down right. Lancer3: crooked frame. Lancer4: not a very good Dihedral. Lancer5: Several repair jobs already. Lancer6: A different view, getting ready to apply tissue to the fuselage. Will post pictures with the glue stick and 50\50 dope thinner method

What is the difference in the UHU purple stick and the yellow stick, anything?

OK, I know, I need a different light. I'll see about that. The whole fuselage was easier to cover than any one of the wings. I used the stick glue to get the tissue to stick about where I wanted it, a whole lot easier than using just dope, and there doesn't seem to be any problem with using the 50/50 dope/thinner over the stick glue.

Wow, that's funny that we both happened to pick up the Lancer kit in particular! You're going to make me go back to work on mine and finish the cover so it doesn't look so "raw." I was curious why you didn't build the polyhedral into the wing as per the plans? Your wing looks much flatter than mine.

When I flew my Lancer in the gymnasium, all of that polyhedral proved useful for keeping the plane tracking straight. If you have any intentions of flying your Lancer, the more shallow wing angle will help with lift and overall distance, but it may not track so straight that indoor flight is recommended.

I tried to put dihedral into the wing, I guess it didn't turn out to good. I also warped the rudder and had to flatten it out and still it isn't to good. I'm going to wait for the week end to go to the flea market and get an airbrush for seven dollars, then to the hobby shop for some air and some paint.

OK, Got the airbrush, but I'm not paying $14.99 for a can of air from the hobby shop, FORGET IT! I'll wait til next week end when the flea market guy has cans of air for 2 or 3 bucks a can, thats alot better. One hobby shop closed up in this area.