I have settled on High Tower font - elegant, modern, yet classic. My dilemma now is whether to do a fast black lettering (perhaps even with MK - not so fast) or to paint over a stencil...

David.

In other news, on the occasion of my daughters 4th birthday, I managed to complete the finish!

Well, aaaaalmost - some minor details. Although the paint job turned out to my satisfaction, a little striping tape will help to seal the edges and take care of other minor cosmetics. I also feel that I need to seal the colour with a clear coat. The only problem is that metallic paint tends to loose it's sparkle when covered with clear. Any suggestions?

I guess it's time to take care of the cosmetics and move on to the radio re-install. The two aileron servos are on their way - should be here some time next week along with the batteries. I also am on the bridge about whether to use classic pattern control horns on elevators (4-40 bolt with an eyelet not visible from above) or use standard 1/2A nylon control horns. The rudder uses a 4-40 bolt with eyelets and the aileron linkage is concealed (torque rods). Decisions... I think I'm going to have to install those elevator bolts and eyelets...

Enjoy the pics!

David.

P.S. Don't understand why the mustard yellow colour persists in outdoor shots. Must be an issue with the white balance in the auto mode of the camera. It is also overcast.

David
She looks awesome! I bet she flies as good as she looks. I'm currently building the little Brushfire. I'll post some pics in the appropriate thread when I get alittle further along.
Nice job!

Chuck

Thanks Chuck! I saw that canopy blue out of the corner of my eye at the LHS and said - that's it!

Excellent news on the Brushfire. At what scale are you building it? Please do post some pics. I'd like to build one myself with a Webra 12 RE and I'm sure your build would be helpful.

Perhaps you caught wind of the short thread I started with some planning ideas. Rainedave's plans are a tad smaller than the one's I settled on. I believe I had, again, 40" span in mind.

David.

doxilia,

That plane is beautiful!

Terry in LP

"Stop playing with your toy airplanes and go mow the yard"



Very, very, very nice work, David!

Andy

Awesome Dox, looks cute as a button!

David

That's one nice looking little pattern ship.
You just got to do a video when you fly it.

Ron

Gentlemen,

thanks for your overwhelming response! Much appreciated.

I'm also glad to see that the finishing scheme evokes the same sort of reaction I had when I first got a peek at GP's 1982 catalog. I had my kit, I had a 1x2 tiny picture of what she was supposed to look like in colour and then I thought: one day I'll build a Tipo to look like that!

That was 27 years ago. I was 15 and had no idea how to build a pattern plane. Before first frost, I hope to have one of two Big Daddy Tipo's finished in an albeit different scheme. The second one will be done all in paint in this scheme.

I'm heading to put a pushrod together.

David.

P.S. Somehow, I now wish there was a retracted landing gear underneath her... good excuse to eventually build another... right Andy? [8D]

P.S.2. The mustard yellow must be an optical illusion (beside the orange and red). Even in this snap it appears darker than it is!

David,

That is a beautiful looking plane!!!! Awesome job!! Thanks again for shearing your building experience with all of us

My friend I guess its time for maiden report , be ready for a missile speed plane or as a friend called my PICO maiden " inducted flutter finger speed " you'll be surprised by... DA PICO !
Hope it ' ll be ready for weekend flight.

I told you so! Sounds like a good excuse to me!

Andy

He, he... next one!

I had to go back to the drawing board a bit with the radio install as the final servos I decided to use all around - HXT900's ($5! [:-]) - have the tabs mounted lower on the case and so end up extending higher off the tray. It's almost done though.

I lowered the fuse servos by mounting them from the underside of the tray with the rudder servo offset from the tray and the control horn just protruding from the top of the tray. I also had to switch the orientation of the elevator servo as it extended into the aileron linkage. It's now mounted flush from underneath vertically. I checked the displacement of the arrow shaft elevator pushrod and it doesn't appear to be producing any measurable (by eye at least...) differential due to the arm rotation. We'll see...

I went to the trouble of retrofitting the elevators for 4-40 bolts and eyelets with ball links. More work than 1/2A control horns but it will look cleaner. The ball links should help keep the pushrod bind free on the anhedral stab. Now I just need a couple more ball links, some P-P line and a small brass tube to lock the P-P lines. I should have some update pics soon.

The lipo's are in! Maiden should be some time before month's close!

David.

David,

I hope you got more than you paid for with those servos. I have a hard time trusting cheap stuff like that any more. If you want cheaper, Turnigy has an ad for $2.99 HS-55 clones...

Just captioned the GS article last night. My daughters are excited about being in the mag. I'm thinking about resizing it to .40 (electric, of course) now. The small blue bullet is getting too hard for my aging eyes to see.

So many planes, so little time! We need to start e-mailing again, I should be coming into some time in about 2 weeks.

Andy

Andy,

yea. Thanks for the heads up. I was (am?) skeptical too but all reports say that these HXT900's are good servos. A notch above HS-55's but not quite as spiffy as HS-65's. They actually appear to center quite well and also have good torque. They are built stronger than the HS-55's although they too have nylon gears. I decided to splurge on the Hextronic's as the Turnigy's (a couple of $ less) didn't get great reviews. The only issue with the Hextronic's appears to be current draw when idle.

I didn't really plan on cheap servos but wanted something with good torque and light weight (9g). The other option might have been GWS servos but they didn't seem to be considerably better than these. I also thought about HS-45's which is actually quite a nice servo but not quite Torquey enough. At $20-24 a pop for the HS-65's I figured it was better to save them for the T20.

Finally, Rafa's used them on his Pico and swears by them. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I take it the FM September issue is in print? Did you get some coverage in the article? Please do send me some pics when you get a chance. I'd like to see how you went about the build. You should go ahead with the .40 size; 4s?

Sure thing about the email. I'd like to get cracking on the T20's once the 60's are done.

David.

Hi David,

Not sure if you have done the lettering yet for the model. I really enjoyed making the stencils for my Kaos and cutting each letter by hand. Be it a mask stencil or actual letters out of ultracoat, the final product is always a great reward for the work involved.

Good luck!

Sean

Sean,

thanks for your post. Haven't gotten around to the lettering yet. Actually your Kaos thread brought me a little closer to the idea of cutting them out from black trim sheet. I think I'll do just that as I'd rather not have paint in the rear part of the fuse where it's held. It will also, as you've shown, look nicer than printing on to clear vinyl which leaves an unsightly edge.

Any suggestions for making the stencil? I was just going to cut out the printed lettering, spray glue it on to the back of the trim sheet and cut. The tricky part will be kerning the letters on to the fuse. I guess a little care should take care of it.

I'll probably maiden her before applying any lettering or decals... it's getting close!

BTW, does anyone have any suggestions for a scuff guard? I'd like to prevent the bottom covering from getting smeared with green grass. CG used to make a tape of sorts... looks like they still do.

David.

David check PM, I send to you regarding a tape that may be useful for the pourpose.

Andy you would be surprised how good those HX900 servos work, I have bought around 35 or more and they are fantastic.
Why pay more for same performance like HS, FUTABA , JR etc ? i've used them on my PICO, KAOS, UGLY STICK all planes have MAGNUM .15 XLS tuned pipe and flying over 100 MPH each without problems and outstanding precision.

Double sided foam tape (servo tape) and a section of plastic milk jug. Use a screw at the front to hold the plastic in place, as it will peel off the servo tape (which is there to take the shock and generally keep the plastic in line). You can also use sheet styrene (from the model train dept). A strip about 1/2" wide is plenty. Styrene and servo tape stick well together. Polyethylene (milk jug) doesn't stick as well, but is much cheaper.

Not in print, but in production. The construction article is 8 pages with lots of photos (several of which you've already seen), and I still have a lot more that they didn't use. Before I do the GS 40 I have to make a 25% something so I can fly at our Giant Scale meets. Making a 67% model of a .60 sized Pattern classic doesn't count for the Giant Scale rules. Construction is very straightforward. In fact, looking at those Magic plans, it's amazing just how similar they are.

Andy

Rafa, Andy,

thanks for the suggestions. I'll give them a try and see what seems to work best.

Andy, when you say 25% something I assume you mean of a real full scale aircraft, right? Construction of what is straight forward? The Magic is similar to what; the GS? What aircraft are you thinking of? Are you planning to design and scratch or go the faster route?

My thoughts have also turned to large scale lately. I bought my first large outrunner the other day - a 90 equivalent (for a Skybolt). Supposed to turn a 14x7 in the 10K rpm range! Not quite 25% (but could be) but getting close. I actually have a 27% CAP 232 (79" span) which I was thinking of converting to electric. Any suggestions for the power setup? 10s or 12s?

I should be able to pick up the last accessories needed for the Pico this afternoon.

David.

Hi David,

You are are the right track for the lettering. I picked the font, sized and printed them out, and then taped the whole paper to the front side of a section of ultracoat, and then the whole assembly was taped to my glass topped work bench. I like cutting on glass for this type of work. When cutting, change the no 11 blade after each letter. Use a straight edge as often as possible and I like a full set of ships curves for the portions with curves. Take your time, and you will be amazed what nice looking letters you can pump out with a bit of patience.

With your painted scheme, you might want to consider cutting out a stencil from shelf paper. I prefer the solid tan color shelf paper made by rubbermaid. Shelf paper makes a great mask that will not bleed any of the color once applied. Cut your letters on a square of shelf paper just the same as I described above. Then carefully peal the backing and apply to the fuse like a large sheet of masking tape. The nice thing about paint is you can spray multiple colors or even patterns when applying the paint. I remember one guy in stunt used a small peice of lace to dust on a gold over the top of the black for a really neat effect in the sun!

Good luck with her, David. You have done a really fantastic job on the model! I love the authentic paint scheme tied to the original. Can't wait to hear how she flies!

Sean

First post of the morning. Next time I'll wake up before typing

Yes, 25% of some man-carrying aircraft. I don't like ARFs and there are precious few kits, and besides, somebody else already has one. It'll be designed from 3-views. Bipes only have to have 60" span or 25%, monoplanes 80" or 25% (whichever is smaller). Whatever it turns out to be, wing panels will be < 50" so they fit in my car easily. They don't have to be scale planes as long as they fit the 60"/80" limit. I rebuilt a 120-size Kaos for a friend several years ago. Lots of balsa in that one!

Magic construction is similar to GS; very straightforward.

I'm not far enough along to be able to answer authoritatively, but if you go with 12S, you can always throttle back!

Andy

Well I finaly got around to reading this entire thread. Outstanding work David! Your build was exceptional, and your photos and narrative were very clear and informative. Very, very well done.

I have my plans printed, and I am looking forward to building a Picoare of my own. David, I sent you a PM through RC groups regarding cores, etc.

BTW: I found a source in Malaysia for the Dualsky XM2834CA-6 motor. $35 plus $15 to ship. The shipping is a little steep, but the bottom line still sounds pretty reasonable. Is there a better source for the motor somewhere else? 2dogrc doesnt seem to carry them.

Brian,

thanks for your kind words. I try to be informative in my descriptions however my build threads tend to be more of an "experience" narrative than a "step-by-step" of what I did, how and why. I deliberately omitted all the details of the wing and stab build as this has been done before many times by pattern builders. I did go into more build details in my Deception 10 build on this thread:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8196707/tm.htm

I haven't had a chance to check out your PM on RC groups but will do so after dinner.

After a few runups, the Dualsky motor seems to be doing well. The only thing I wish I could alter is the length of the prop shaft. It would give more options for spinners. Hyperions G22 series might also be an interesting option based on their conical design intended for gliders. I might have made some comments on that on RCG. I got my motors from a supplier in Western Canada as I contacted 2-dog as well and he mentioned they would take some time. They cost about the same as your quote CDN$43 + shipping. If you want to use the same motors, I'd go with your Malaysian supplier.

David.