RE: Paint for Pattern Planes
 

Beautiful work crankpin. I have heard of people Monokoting glass fuses before, but never tried it personally. I have used both Balsarite and clear dope in the past prior to Monokote and it does help with the finish hardness and covering adhesion. I wish the ARF manufacturers would do something similar.

Where do you buy 3/4 oz glass cloth and finishing resin nowadays? I don't see it advertised.

I did find two good sources for dope. Brodak www.brodak.com and Aircraft Spruce and Specialty www.aircraftspruce.com
Unlike the hobby shop dopes, Randolph dope is so thick that you must thin it almost 50% to spray, so a quart ends up being about 1/2 gal.

I'm going to check with some local auto paint suppliers today, and see what I can find out.

RE: Paint for Pattern Planes
 

Let us know what you find out RC. I am almost ready to start with paint, etc., on the other fiber glas fuselage's and foam wing birds.
You can get the light glass cloth at Tower, Sig, etc. I will start glassing the leading edge of the wings, and the wingtips on these ARF's, as to give the tips a hard shell, the iron melts the fiberglass wingtips that are on the planes.

These are my last two ARF's for pattern stuff, too much nice stuff to work on.
Vince

RE: Paint for Pattern Planes
 

I would be worried about weight build-up.


Ed Cregger

RE: Paint for Pattern Planes
 

Aerospace Composite Products (ACP) is an excellent source for anything related to fiberglass or carbon fiber products.

http://www.acp-composites.com/

They have an extensive selection and online ordering.


Mark

RE: Paint for Pattern Planes
 

if you go 1/2 - 3/4 oz cloth, water based polyurethane and latex paint all of the water will evaporate. it still has to be sealed against nitro but some of my practice work is extremely light (and no seams[X(]!)

david

RE: Paint for Pattern Planes
 

here is a post from another site where the builder tracked weight gain: 9 oz's or so? compared to 4-5 ozs of monocote? doesn't look to bad.
david




I just finished covering my Top Flight GE P-51 (1/7th Scale). I wanted to know what type of weight gain I would get so I bought a gram scale before I started building. Below are my results after finishing.

I'd like to know how much total weight gain I would have gotten with other covering methods, especially monokote. If anyone can tell me I'd appreciate it.



P-51 Build Weights in Grams (1lb = 453 grams)

Note: Covered with .75oz FG cloth and Polycrylic Water Based Acrylic. Painted with Behr Metallic Silver Acrylic and Nelson Hobbies Water Based Polyurethane.

FUSELAGE:

Sanded Fuse Ready to Cover: 1069
Glassed with .75oz FG and Polycrylic WB: 1125
Bondo 907 and sanded: 1134
1 Coat Primer (unsanded) : 1272
Primer Sanded: 1180
Cockpit added: 1257
2 coats Behr Silver Acrylic: 1282
Paint (all colors) complete 5-6 coats WBPU: 1300
With clear coat (3 coats): 1319

Total gain from glassing and painting (fuselage): Approx. 170 grams

WING:

Sanded Wing Ready to Cover: 1035
Glassed and primer (sanded): 1083
1 coat Behr Silver Acrylic: 1090
All paint added (5-6 coats Nelson WBPU): 1128
Clear coats added (3-4 coats): 1152

Total gain from glassing and painting (wing): Approx. 117 grams

TOTAL GAIN FROM COVERING (ENTIRE AIRCRAFT): 287 Grams / .63 lbs

RE: Paint for Pattern Planes
 

Radio South used to sell PPG automotive acrylic enamel in smaller quantities (pints). I always had to buy at least a quart of paint when puurchasing from an auto paint supplier - which lasts forever if you're just using it for trim colors!!

I accidently discovered the ability to monokote over fiberglass about 25 years ago when the paint I purchased (had mixed, in fact) didn't match the monokote. So I decided to try to monokote the cowl and wheel pants. At little tricky at first, but the results were quite good. I did clear coat to prevent monokote peeling. Lasted several years of flying. Didn't matter much on the final crash...[&o]

Painting 'light' isn't difficult, but it is very easy to spray on more paint than necessary. Just enough for uniform coverage. Good lighting is essential!!

-Will

RE: Paint for Pattern Planes
 

i found a nice comparison chart showing the various weights of coverings: 1/2 fiberglass cloth seems to be one of the lightest coverings on the list. of course add paint but that won't increase the overall weight to much.

david


Covering and Painting Weights

Here's a table of, purported, covering weights originated by Fritz Bien, Charles River Radio Controllers, December 1996, with other contributors (August 1995 Flying Models article, Herm Perez, adding covering data, and Radio Control Soaring Exchange [RCSE] articles):

Covering Weights Chart Covering Color Weight [gm/sq ft] Comments
Monokote Red 5.8 circa 1996
Monokote Yellow 7.5 circa 1996
Monokote Metallic Platinum 6.0 circa 1996
Monokote Red 7.1 circa 1971
Monokote Black 6.0 circa 1985
Monokote White 7.3 circa 1990
Monokote Transparent Red 5.5 circa 1988
Monokote Orange Florescent 9.4 circa 1996
Ultracote Dark Red 8.5 circa 1996
Ultracote Cub Yellow 6.6 0.002 in thick
Ultracote Plus Pearl Yellow 8.2 0.0022 in thick
Ultracote Transparent Yellow 5.0 0.0015 in thick
Ultracote Transparent Yellow (lite) 3.4 0.001 in thick
Century 21 Fabric White 10.4 Heavy!
MicaFilm Yellow & Red 4.0 Needs Balsarite
MicaFilm Preprimed 3.9
MicaFilm Transparent White 2.2 Needs Balsarite
Sig Koverall White 4.3 Needs dope or paint
Sig Supercote Silver 4.8
Esaki Light Silk Clear 0.97 REALLY Hard to put on
5/8 fiberglass/paint clear 3.9 Needs filler and color
Japanese Tissue all colors 0.65 The lightest!
Nitrate Dope clear 1.0 2 coats/ 50-50 thin
Dope, gloss finish all colors 7.0 8 clear, 4 color, 1 clear coats
Dope, over silk all colors 2.0
Polyester Dress Lining All colors 4.2 Needs Balsarite & dope

RE: Paint for Pattern Planes
 

all is well except it didn't post as a chart. perhaps the link would be better.

david

http://winshiprc.tripod.com/painting_techniques.htm

RE: Paint for Pattern Planes
 

I am currently using the System 3 paints on a senior Falcon. So far, I am very favorably impressed. The stuff is water thinning and cleaning, can be brushed, can be used on open fabric - in my case Koverall - and has very little odor, and , when applied in thin layers, will dry enough to sand or recoat in 15 minutes or thereabouts. If you need to really hurry things along, you can heat the painted surface up, or bake the part at low heat in an oven and thick layers will dry in a few minutes. Since it air dries, the thicker the layer the longer the dry time. I am getting the hang of sprayng - its a bit different as the "volatiles' are not like solvent-based paints. All I need to do is dial in the paint and air settings, use as little "thinner" as your gun will allow ( I am using a devilbliss touch-up gun at 50 psi) and seems like the more pattern air the better as it speeds the evaporation. As is common with spraying, keep the temp above 60 F. First went too thin/wet, then too dry. Should nail it on the next shoot this evening.

NN