Hye Flyer

I ordered some Randolph tautening nitrate dope from spruce…. Will tighten up the silk then apply KlassKote epoxy paint to fuel proof. Since I have the KlassKote on hand…. We’ll see what type of heavy mess i can create with that combo. LOL

GREG DOE

Hye Flyer, I'm currently finishing a Quickie 500 race plane exactly the same way. The wing is dope, and tissue, except the wing tips, which are double covered with silk and tissue. Whatever color scheme I decorate my plane with is color tissue. It will get approximately 5 coats of nitrate before clear KlassKote. The fuselage is 3/4 oz. glass cloth applied with MinWax polyurethane, and then clear coated with KlassKote. If you overcoat polyurethane with KlassKote give it 4 or 5 days to gas out. With this procedure I get good looking models, that have light weight finishes.

2W0EPI

Say, Hye Flyer,

Wow, I've just built a arf(seagull) and I can appreciate how much more difficult it must be with your en devours, all I can say is there isn't much room to take the hobby any further, you have reached the top of rc class in my opinion.

Cheers
Darren

GREG DOE

Darren, I've been at this building, and finishing part of the hobby for about 65 years. It's a little work, but worth it. Yesterday I sprayed an all balsa fuselage with clear KlassKote as I describes in my earlier post. It came out great. The wing has white craft tissue on it, and will get a color "paint" scheme of tissue, and finally clear KlassKote. The airplane should be finished next week. If you are interested there is picture of one of my models on page 17 of the June issue of Model Aviation. That model was painted with K&B Super Poxy which is no longer available. If K&B paint was still available I would be using it. KlassKote is a little pricey, but very user friendly. .

Hye Flyer

Still waiting on the Randolph taunting dope to arrive from Spruce… takes a long time when not in stock in So Cal. I have glued down (nitrate) the silk… just need the nitrate tautening to tighten up a bit then KlassKote to finish/fuel proof.

GREG DOE

I got my latest quart of clear tautening from Wicks in Indiana. That was about a month ago, and I had it in 3 days.

Hye Flyer

So i really screwed up… was so excited to have received the tautening dope from spruce that I wanted to apply to the silk on the wing asap. Well, without checking the labels, it was not until the last quarter of the wing did i realize i just covered the silk in NON tautening dope (cans look identical). I was mortified. Quickly I thinned the correct tautening nitrate dope and began to brush brush brush trying to penetrate the drying nitrate dope… omg. It tightened up a bit but still not where i wanted it.

Epic fail. This will become another flying brick with as much epoxy KlassKote that will be needed to harden the silk. Ugh…

GREG DOE

Non-tautening nitrate dope used to have a blue dye in it, to differentiate it from tautening nitrate. That way you knew what you were about to use when you opened the can. Having said that I've use non-tautening in applications similar to what you are doing without problems. Non-tautening will shrink some, but not as much as tautening. I think you will be fine after switching over to tautening nitrate. It will take 4 to 6 coats of dope (or more) just to fill the silk, so your first coat of non-tautening nitrate is only a small percentage of the total dope finish. Good luck. I sprayed clear KlassKote on my newest Quickie yesterday, and flew it today.

Hye Flyer

Thanks for the input… several coats of tautening dope and no more wrinkles even after my mess up. Still the longest build I have ever done… If i could, i would change the title to The Petrified ME 109 Build.

Hye Flyer

Not much new on the ME lifetime build 109 but I did decide on the pilot. LOL

search-n-destroy

I like it 😁

Hye Flyer

Got a lot done this past weekend. Designed and laser cut the canopy for Col. Klink.

It began with the mockup.




Then the files were sent to the laser




You can follow the rest




















All and all, I think it turned out pretty darn well. Time for final assembly and details.
Also ordered my colors from KlassKote

Hye Flyer

Got my KlassKote yesterday and gave it a ‘spin’

Hye Flyer

Getting closer to maiden voyage




Also first time printing my own drawn vinyl decals.

Hye Flyer

Now just have to apply the clear KlassKote to tighten it all up (and fuel proof the decals)

search-n-destroy

Looks awesome. Great job!

Hye Flyer

Final Entry - Ready for Maiden Voyage (11 months from start - LOL)