<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size: medium">i'm searching for a plane that would look beautiful covered in transparent or just "plain" clear covering that is built up from just sticks. i'm talking about something like the sig kadet senior or something along those lines. i just think it would look absolutely gorgeous with see through covering. no need to worry about building skills, i've built a few kits and am just looking for something fun for the winterand then simple to fly as well. looking at planes in their bare bone state is really cool for some reason to me. with that being said, if you have pics of your planes in bare bones, please post them for the added inspiration for something to choose from. it doesn't necessarily have to be a trainer style plane. anything will do, but preferably something with NOT a lot of sheeting. here's my RV-4 ready to cover.</span></span>

How about an old timer. Say like a Quaker Flash, Buzzard bomb shell? They were stick and tissue planes so they are all built up?


I have no pics of my old Quaker. It has turned to dust a long time ago.

Dru.

Wow, I got a bunch of photos of my Kadet Senior in the bones.

A few more of my Kadet Senior, and I did mine in transparent Red and Opaque Yellow. Have to agree, the planes with a lot of sticks look great with transparent. With your building skills, whatever you do will look great.

Dang! I like that Kadet.

Credit card balance =zero.

THANKS. But it is a ton of work. And if I did it again, I'd put a .60 in it rather than the TT GP 42 I put in mine. But it flies pretty good and slow with the TT.

<span style="font-size: medium"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS">WOW Tom. that is awesome. this will actually be my first "stick" build, but i've built truss bridges and started on a 1/4 scale model of my dream house with the balsa sticks and such for the framing detail of it. getting ready to build a model of my soon to be shed/workshop also. have to wait for the spring for that one though. i'm kind of glad to get out of the garage though. too much junk and not enough space. the wife thinks she's supposed to be able to park her car and store stuffin there. hahaha!!! i love that plane, though. i'm already biased to it a little just because i like them to begin with. i learned to fly in an LT-25. i can't wait to get into something else. i was thinking about maybe just going straight up clear on the plane. making it look like a bunch of sticks cruising around up there. that would look cool too. why would you go with the bigger engine? is it pretty slow with the .42?</span></span>

It is adequate powerwise with the Thunder Tiger GP 42. Not that it is dead slow, but rather you can really throttle back and fly pretty slow. The reason I would go with a .60 is that it needs nose weight anyway, (if I remember correctly almost 3 ounces). The extra power of a 60 would help in takeoff situations where there is high grass. Once mine is up in the air with no drag from the grass, its not bad. It's great going way up, doing a half loop and trying to keep it inverted. She really wants to fall out of inverted, but it can be done. I've never done it close to the ground. Windy days are tricky anything over 12 mph. That wing has so much wing area its easy to tip over while taxiing if the wind get under the wing. If I were building one now, I would put solid pushrods to the throttle as well as the nose wheel. Otherwise a great plane. I learned how to fly on it and still have it in flyable condition.

My Kerswap clear and black monocoat:

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size: medium">are those coke bottles for floats???sweeeeeet... how is it with landing? really does look like sticks and a little bit of color. is it hard to discern which way is which with almost no color? i didn't think about that.</span></span>

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size: medium">i guess everything would look like a blip up high enough anyways... but i guess i could still tell which was which.</span></span>

Yup they are 'Clear' coke bottles and they work

I would not reccomend an all clear airplane unless there are some contrasting colors for visual orientation. Here is another of mine a small electric with one wing completely clear and another a color clear. I would not reccommend this either as its quite difficult to maintain orientation.

Also another of mine that is a vintage RC type airplane flown on just rudder and throttle it has no orientation problems with clear wings and some black. the solid balsa fuselage is also clear monocoat.

Last picture are three of my airplane that actually are trainers covered in various color clears. It includes a Senior Kaydet, Seniorita and a Senior Telemaster.

John

John,


Very nice collection,


Bob

John B., those are some nice models. And a good reason to buy multiple engines when they go on sale.

Crash B., John points out a good point regarding an all clear covering. Could make for orientation problems. Which reminds me of a kite I made with clear covering. Once in the air, if I had it out a pretty good distance, you couldn't see it. All the kids wondered how I attached a kiteline to the sky. You coudn't see the kite. But if you think you're going to always fly close in, you might be OK.

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size: medium">i never really go over 150-200 ft altitude. the field is just bigger than a football field that i fly at. i suppose if i go with a complete clear and no cover i could sit it on the ground and run a couple hundred feet away to maybe get some sort of how it would be. definitely different once in the sky though. i do realize that one. maybe painting the balsa a different color and then doing the clear covering. that would make for a very interesting design also. does anyone know how well monocrap or ultracote sticks to painted balsa? i may have to experiment. back to the drawing board...</span></span>

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size: medium">i was just thinking also...how do you start that many engines with out running out of gas on the first started one by the time you get them all going? do you have a slightly larger tank on the first couple than the others?by the way...very, very nice!!!</span></span>

Crash one guy in our club covered an old timer SAM model...I believe it was a Weatherly Westerner in clear. However what made it very neat is only half the model was clear. He seemed it right down the middle. So the entire left side was clear and the entire right side was a typical covering method. It was very well done and actually very attractive. There is some food for thought. The picture is my 1928 Airtrails Sportser in a semi transparent covering. This has been recovered the original covering was almost all transparent. Any of the old timer style stick built aircraft would look good in a clear skin.

I would do clear on top and sides with transparent color on the bottom. That lets you show off your woodwork on the ground and still see the plane in the air.

The owner of my LHS is also my building mentor. He loves transparent covering - hasn't gone totally clear "yet". His advice is "build like you're going to cover with clear". According to Jerry ...<div><ul>[*]Sand everything with 220 before you touch it with glue[*]use q-tips with alcohol to clean epoxied joints / surfaces[*]use q-tips &amp; paper towels with water to clean aliphatic resin[*]keep CA joints to a minimum because they discolor the wood[*]use dado joints instead of butt joints - way nicer on the kool factor[*]plan your hinge joints - if the hinge extends past the leading or trailing edge wood add a nicely sanded block[*]when creating balsa sheeting with glue joints wash the joint down well before allowing it to set up[*]don't use ink / hard pencil to mark your wood - unless you want some reading material while preping the plane for flight[*]different aliphatic resins dry different colors - test 'em.[/list]<div>Kool project - ya just gotta do a build thread when you're ready to go.</div><div></div><div>Oh - sorry if some of the items are just down right obvious - not meaning anything by it ...

pic 1 - my only attempt at a "nearly" transparent covering job - there's gotta be a way to hide the servo wires ...

I got a bit "detail oriented". Each of the stick joints has a 1/64" ply gusset. Joints that were butt joined had little dowels added - structural and cosmetic.</div></div>

Very nice SeamusG. I'm impressed. That's one well built model. You point out another thing. Covering with any kind of transparent will show all sorts building procedures like pencil marks as well as fingerprint on the under side (adhesive side) of covering. Makes it just a bit more challenging but well worth it.

Here is my first covering job. I thought I was buying red, I got transparent orange. I guess I should read the end of the tube. Turned out pretty good for my first one. Its a Balsa USA Stick 40

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size: medium">all i can say is i can't believe the thought of competing with any of the planes here thus far. totally awesome!!!especially with some of the tips going around. this is the kind of stuff i would never have thought of. i always mark with pencil or pen when getting ready to cut or trim something. one thing i did just think of (thank you Tom) is wearing latex gloves to keep the finger prints off the covering. then with the hiding the wires, you could fashion something up as a conduit, take the connectors off and feed the wires through from the tip of the servo to where ever they may go. that one is a normal one i use just for ease of "threading" servo leads after the wing is covered, instead of dropping a fishing weight through the ribs,tied to the end of the lead.or take the connectors off, feed them through painted drinking straws and put the connectors back on at the ends of them. i'll see if i can build something up to show my description a little easier than saying it. i know everyone knows what i mean, but now i'm anxious just to do it and see it for myself. but you guys got some mad building skills and ideas and this is totally awesome. i'm so going to use every detail everyone posts on here. i have a running list of things i think of when researching a kit to build that i want to "mod", and believe me, all this is going on it. i don't mean to copy-cat, but...this is all good stuff.i usually cheat long before time to build or even buy, for that matter, and download whatever manual i can find,put everything together so i can sit around looking at it all forever and think about it. drivesthe wife crazy too when we're sitting there watching the t.v. and i'm lookingat a building manual for a plane.one thing i do have to ask is regarding the dado joints. the wood is already pretty thin; how do you get the joints without going all the way through the other piece? i'm thinking from my shop class days in school, but isn't a dado basically the same as a rabbit joint? so to speak?

i'm almost leaning toward the kadet senior for the build. i've been looking to find other planes as well and am thinking about the sig hog and hog bipe, as they also have a lot of "built up" in their designs as well. just trying to eliminate as much of the sheeting as possible without eliminating the structural integrity that it provides. maybe some lightening holes wouldn't be pushing it too much and still look good??? just have to stack the fuse sides to drill them before building to keep them symmetrical. </span></span>

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size: medium">Fly boy2, what do you do in my glorious Air Force? i'm a C-17 aero-repair crewchief/crash recovery, stationed at McChord AFB, Wa. Being in Tn., are you reserve or guard? what base is there?</span></span>

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size: medium">i had it wrong. i was thinking of the sig smith miniplane. not the hog planes.</span></span>

The "old-timers" (their description, not mine) in our club are members of SAM.. Society of Antique Models. They fly all sorts of old stuff and use either clear coat, silk, or paper covering. Most are transparent, or opaque, and are pretty neat to watch. The club has the Annual Old Timers Fly, usually the first week of August. It is attended by quite a few of the area's SAM guys.

http://www.antiquemodeler.org/

Pictures below.

Now, on the more modern side, I put together a Ripmax Rapier flying wing. Ummm.. more of a speed demon but easy to handle, AND it was awsome with it's aerobatic capabilities. Roll rate was.. well, again, awsome. More pictures below.

CGr.