mesaflyer

No, I didn't loose it. Just replaced the covering. Like so many other Nexstar owners who didn't seal the edges of the decals before the first flight, most of the decals on my Nexstar started coming off. It started to look pretty crappy, and I wanted to gain some experience covering planes, so I removed everything down to the wood. I found a few problems!
1. Where the landing gear enters the side of the plane was completely soaked with oil because it is not sealed. Oil just flows in around the slots and in the holes under the plane that are there for removeing the landing gear. When I re-covered the plane, I left the holes under the plane covered and sealed around the landing gear with silicone sealant. Hopes this works.
2. The tail area was soaked with oil. My plane was just not covered very well in the area around the tail. The oil also works it's way into the edges where the tail and rear wing are attached. Mostly on the exhaust side of course.
3. Where the elevator attached with the CA hinges on the exhaust/right side of the plane also had a little oil in the wood.
4. I removed all of the CA hinges so I could re-cover it. Most of the hinges that I removed were set into the wood with about 1/4 inch of CA material on one side or the other of the hinge. In other words, it was real easy to remove them with my exacto knife. I cut new slots and and installed longer CA hinges.

I removed all of the oil from the wood with the heat gun and paper towel method, followed up with K2R and Sig Stiks it for good measure.

My son flys it the most, so I let him pick out the color scheme. He is a little color blind, and also had trouble seeing the mostly white plane on cloudy days. So we watched a few other planes and got a good idea on what he could easily see. This was my first covering job. I think it came out pretty good. My only regret is that I read RCKen's LT 40 build and watched Minnflyer's covering video AFTER I covered my plane. I think it would have came out a little better if I would have done that in reverse order! LOL

Anyway, I just wanted to post this for the other Nexstar owners. Maybe just pay a little extra attention around the landing gear, the tail end, and the hinges.


Pete

Insanemoondoggie

Nice job . I can tell by the pics, some ones pretty proud of it.

rceric

Looks good!

Did you beef up anything in the tail section or wing tips? They seem to be weak spots. I am on my 4th tail. One busted in a crash, one when the wind blew it off my table (also damaged the wing tip) and one when I made a U turn on the way home and it slid into the back door of my truck.

I am going to take your advice and use some silicon around the landing gear. Great advice!


[8D]

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

I'm more then A little color blind so I do some drastic things to the bottom of my planes sometimes, I love the checks, I think I could see them in the dark.
Have you ever tried an exhaust deflector?? I had to put one on my trainer because my students were getting burnt out cleaning the nitro snot off it. I made A nice bead around the muffler pipe with some JB weld and it has stayed on very well with the fiber ties.
RCER, are you sure it's A weak tail section??

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Looks great!

TakingFlight96

Looks great ! The checkered pattern on the underside of the plane looks awesome. After seeing this Nexstar, I'll never look at my Nexstar the same way again.


-- TakingFlight96

mesaflyer

Thanks for the compliments. My son and I scrolled through all of the color selections (of Ultracoat) and he picked them out. My only suggestion was the yellow checked tail.
rceric,
I didn't do anything to the tail except remove the oil. We haven't had any problems so far with the tail or wing tips. I am not sure about the silicone holding up to the oil residue. I am going to keep a close eye on it. Make sure you put some covering or tape over those holes in the bottom as well. I wish I had taken a picture, you wouldn't have believed how much oil was in the wood in that area. And by the way, I used my sealing iron (not the gun) and paper towels. Probably took me 2-3 hours to get all of the oil out. In the beginning of our flying we had a couple of rough landings, a few wing tips that hit or scraped the ground when the wind was blowing, but nothing serious. Don't think we have ever hit the tail on anything. But now, I have to tell you, my son can fly the Nexstar better than I can. My Pulse is easier for me to land, and my son brings that Nexstar in nice almost every time. We do fly off a dry lake bed, so there is no landing strip that we HAVE to hit. But we useally make a designated landing and take off area (make believe landing strip) for practice and to better our flying skills. The lake bed has saved us on a couple of dead sticks.
Grey beard,
Yes, I have tried the exhaust deflector, but it fell off. I like your idea. I also read on here about drilling a hole in the side and adding a small sheet metal screw to give the tie wraps something to hang onto. I am going to try something, because there is a fair amount of oil on the side of the plane after every flight. I have leaned it motor out all that I think it will take.
Here is a picture of the "old" Nexstar and our flying area.

YellowHawk

That's a nice looking NexStar. Makes me want to recover mine now!

nothinbetr2do

you did a great job recovering your nexstar, i really like the checkerboard. it ought to really stand out now

frenchie79

I love to see that on the nexstar. Good job your boy must love it. Did one myself after a very slight stall. Took out the dihedral/plastic brace and made it a tail dragger. Added a little extra rudder and elevator and covered in monokote.
I call it the "Next" Star.

mesaflyer

frenchie79,
That is a good looking plane. I almost removed some of the dihedral, but my 10 year old daughter wants to learn to fly. So I decided that leaving it in for now was best. She needs a little more time (and patience) on the sim. My cousin wants to convert his to a tail dragger. I can't wait to show him the picture of yours! Yea, my son like's it alot, and can't wait to go flying, maybe this Sunday, I hope.
When you removed the center brace, did you add in a wooden dowel to the LE to take it's place? Looks like a couple of plastic bolts holding on the rear. Really cant tell for sure. Could you please give a brief detail on how you did that? Or maybe some pics if you have them?
Thanks,
Pete

frenchie79

Sure pete, I'll send some pix thursday, Basically added a 1/4" ply brace between the wing halfs with a small "L" shaped tongue on the bottom of the wing that goes into the former, just like a dowel,then added wing hold down blocks and two nylon bolts for hold downs. I always loved the way this plane looked, thats why i put the time in. Good idea not to take the dihedral out for the yougster, it handles alot different. Very responsive. The enlarged elev. & rudder sure wakes this plane up in a nice way. It really looks scale on take offs/landings. With flaperons I can bring it in real slow and smooth. Sorry to step on your post-just love the next star as a rebuild.
mark

frenchie79

Can't find a picture of the brace but I scetched one out. Use 1/4" aircraft quality ply and 1/8" same quality for the dihedral brace that replaces that steel rod-at least two bays in on each side.

frenchie79

Couple finished shots

PipeMajor

My Feedback: (1)

Ooooo, be careful about leaning an engine out excessively only to deposit less oil on the model. I'd gladly sacrifice a few decals rather than fry an engine. Two stroke glow engines will always goober up a model - that's why electrics have become so popular. Electrons are a LOT easier to wipe up.

frenchie79

A men brother! a dead stick is no fun.

mesaflyer

Thanks PipeMajor,
I should rephrase that. I have leaned out the motor all I feel comfortable with. I do a lot of searches on here for info, and have found many that have fried their motors from probably too lean. I am sure I am running a little rich on all my motors, and I don't mind the clean up, because I have my son wipe down his Nexstar after every flight. Don't clean it, just wipe off the excess, and then a final clean at the end of the day. He is learning that cleaning is part of this hobby.
Mark,
You can step on my post anytime! I would rather someone do that with good info and help, than too not say anything. Especially if you are going to provide pics of such a nice looking plane. And I love the name "Next Star".
My cousin will really appreciate the info as well. I know when he sees the detail and the outcome of your plane that he will really want to convert his. In my opinion, you made a good looking plane look even better. Gave it a whole new style. And thanks for the info on how it handles. He still has a rough time on some of his landings (gets his left and right backwards when the plane is coming at him), so I will suggest to him that he waits until next winter before he starts converting it. He soloed in October I think, so he needs more time on the sticks.
Anyway, thanks again to everyone for all of the replys.
Pete

Bogun

I recovered my Nexstar over the Fall/Winter break. I was inspired by the Spektrum colors, and have received many compliments at the field. I used paint stipper to remove all the white paint from the landing gear. They now have a cool looking, rough, aluminum finish. The white spinner works well with the colors too. While I had the original covering off, I also converted the model to a taildragger, and removed all the dihedral from the wing. I had already added the flaps shortly after I began flying it. Check out pics in the next post.

Bogun

more pics...

bingo field

You did a very nice job!

crossman

Some nice looking planes here! It's good to see some of these ARFs being personalized a bit. I recall some student nights at the field when there were three or four Nexstars in the air together, I never knew who was flying which one.
I am in the process of recovering my Goldberg Eagle and the worst case of oil damage that I found was around the main gear. I have fuel-proofed it and strengthened it, but I think I'm going to try a little silicon there too, can't hurt!

ro347

My Feedback: (13)

WOW! great color combo!!!

Gooseman240

Very Very nice Bogun!!

I have to say, this is my first plane, yes yes I know it is starting to sound like an AA group meeting here.

I have a few questions, how did you determine where to put the forward gear when converting to a tail dragger?
How did you determine the length required for the flaps?
Did you/anybody increase the throw on the ailerons? (mentioned in here rudder and elevator has been adjusted, did these changes make the plane a little more responsive on rolls and loops?)

I have no building experience in planes, but I am an all around handy man and have access to a few experience carpenters that know the wood better than most of the beavers around here . But I have some damage done to the underside near the front gear from a failed touch and go. After pulling up and away after a soft landing on the strip the motor coughed like a sick dog and the plane went down at a steep angle (Forgive me I have sinned, the motor was running to rich or it just was idling to long on the approach [&o]) . Looks like I may need to patch the piece directly behind the firewall, hole is the size of the refreash button on your browser window (Made you look) maybe the size of a chocolate smartie (M&M).
Can this be fixed when I take all the covering off?

Kinda off topic with this question, but I do not have a field where I live. But what would be the best way to grab the crank shaft when you have to replace a damaged prop? (Point me to the correct thread if possible)

Bogun

Gooseman240,
To answer some questions, you'll want to check out the other pics and info I posted in another thread. This link should bring you there, see the last three threads by me. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_31...tm.htm#3175594

Q1 about the forward gear location. It was driven by the fact that the axles of taildragger models need to be slightly forward of the wing's leading edge when looking down on top of the plane.

Q2 about the flap length. The owner's/user manual for the plane gave this spec. If you don't have the manual, you can search online for the pdf version.

Q3 about aileron throw. Yes, I did increase throws on all surfaces. You can do this mechanically with the way the control rods are positioned on the servo horn and surface control horn. You can also do this using most computer radios. I use a Spektrum DX7.

Q4 about damage. Simply cut all the damaged wood out, and if it's not too large of piece, and has no structural ribs/formers/stringers, just iron on a scrap piece of covering to close the hole.

Q5 about your engine out situation. Sounds like the engine was "loaded" up with fuel, and when you moved from idle (or very low throttle) to take off again. Check the low speed mixture...tiny flat head screw inside the moving throttle plate/arm assembly.

Q6 about how to easily change the prop. I never use any tool to hold the crank. First, be sure the threads on the nut and crank are clean and free of dried up/old thread locker. When you have the new prop and spinner mounted, but loose, turn the crank with your finger tips so that the engine reaches top dead center. You'll feel the resistance. With the crank/piston at that position, turn the prop so it's horizontal in position. I then hold the spinner backplate and prop together and tighten the nut. As the nut tightens, the prop really can't spin out of position because the knurled edges of the prop and spinner backplate lock together.

Hope this all helps...happy flying.

Gooseman240

Thanks Bogun,

Killed all the questions with one stone!!