RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Sure fabric and latex paint will be heavier than monokote but not so much that it would have negitive affects on the plane of this size. Just dont go crazy with the paint and it should only add a slight amount of weight.

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Mr Piper

Does Sig Stick-it work like the old dope and water method? If the dress liner material from walmart can be applied using this method I will more than likely use it and not monokote. I have always like cloth covering better because of the way it looks. I will more that likely be using rustolem paint to paint mine if the dress material can be used.:eek:

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Jim, Stik-it works as a heat activated bond just like whats on monokote but you brush it on the airframe and after it dries cover it with the cloth just as if it were monokote. So the glue is on the wood and not the covering. I dont want to mess with the dope fumes and possable paint incompatablities.

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Mr Piper

With the dress liner fabric being a cloth material don't you have to seal it before you apply paint? I was thinking I would seal it with Sig Dope than paint it, but if it takes paint with out having to be sealed that is even better. Less weight.:eek:

Thanks

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

AHHH! I see your thinking young Skywalker....No need to seal the weave when using latex paint as the paint is thinned just a bit to make it easy to spray. Dope is too thin to cover in one coat heavy enough to fill the weave but yet not run like heck.

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Oh...you can fill the weave in one coat of Rustoleum to I think, but I really like the water clean up of latex.

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Mr. Piper

A couple of more questions about using the dress liner for covering. When using Sig stick-it on the dress liner can you pull the covering tight enough as you are applying heat? I imagine the liner cannot be heat shrunk? And on applying the latex paint. Do you thin the paint and then us a paint sprayer like a Wagner to apply? Do you apply the covering to the body being solid balsa or do you sand and spray paint the body?:eek:

Thanks

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

I've been told that the fabric can be heat shrunk, but I havent used it yet myself.

Yep a wagner would work to spray it on I would think.

Cover the intire airframe with fabric, even the fusalage.

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Whew! OK, had a few hrs to work on the old timer finaly and I've got the fuse 80% framed up and the glue is drying now. I hope to have the plane ready to cover by Thanksgiving. I work 12hrs 6 days now. I went flying to day as the weather was as good has it gets here in November and I really am begining to like the homelite more than my ryobi's. I can get near 8000rpm on a APC 18x8 with the homie and only the mid 7'k with the ryobi and they sound like they're near red line the more I push to 8000 by down sizing the prop. I have a Husky 41cc saw motor that will be ready for flight soon and had thought about putting it on the old timer. I think the airframe wouldnt like that big banger now that I've started building it. Hows the stingray going? Piper

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Piper

I have been working on the stingray a couple of hours every other night or so. I have to give my wife sometime when I get home from work it you know what I mean. I have posted some more pic's and you can see she is coming along. I ran into a problem with the stingray. Balsa USA says in there plans to build the stablizer and rudder out of 3/8 x 5/16 and 5/16 x 5/16 inch balsa, but they did not supply the 5/16 x 5/16 inch balsa. So I am waiting for the local hobby shop to open to go out a purchase the 5/16 x 5/16 inch balsa.

I am glas to here about the homie you have. I am getting one from a friend and if the ryobi does not fly the stingray very well I will try the Homie.

Here are the pic's

Thanks

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Here are the latest PIC's of the project. It is coming along a little slower than I had hope. With the holidays coming I had things like going Christmas shopping and getting the house ready, if you know what I mean.:eek:

Thanks

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Your stingray is looking great. I came across some pictures of the one I built a couple of years ago. I changed the shape of the fuselage to help with the fit of the cowl I put on it. I also added rudder and elevator area. It flew quite well.

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Hey DBF, did you fabricate the cowl yourself or did you buy it? If so, where can I get one? I have also planned to add the canopy and a similar landing gear to yours. Any info you can give me would be appreciated.


Great looking plane BTW!

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Looks as if everything is coming along nicely Jim. I just ordered mine. I will be posting pics also when the construction begins. I don't know when yet, as I am working on two builds as it is.(Hopefully Soon) I can't wait to mount the 25 on this plane! Good Luck!(as if it's needed):D

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

teufelhund, The cowl is from a Great Planes .40 size Extra. I believe the canopy was off of a Cap 21. These were items I had laying around when I built this project. I just changed the top formers to match the shape of the cowl. the firewall was set back about 2 inches. Power was a G-38. I put the elevator and rudder servos in the tail section along with the battery pack and the reciever to help with the balance. The landing gear was fabricated from 3/16" thick 6061 aluminum. I hope this helps.

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

DBF

Great looking Stingray. I really like what you did to the plane by adding the cowling and landing gear with wheel pants. Do you fell it was necessary to change the land gear? I am thinking of doing it because I fell the rod type landing gear my not be strong enough with the extra added weight of the Ryobi conversion.:eek:

Thanks

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Teufelhund

You'll find this kit is an easy build. The directions leave a little out , but if you have building experience you will have no trouble. Do post pics I would like to see have your's comes along. I did like the pic's of DBF's stingray. He did a great job. Let use know if you have any questions. You'll find out that you will have to do what DBF did to balance the plane. I to am putting my servo's, receiver and battery pack to the rear of the fuselage.:D

Thanks

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

jstanton

Thanks, I built my stingray from plans only so I didn't have the wire landing gear. As far the wire gear being strong enough, I would have to agree with you. I would think on a hard landing it might bend with the added weight up front.

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Ok guys, This may be a little off topic but Jim and I are posting our progress of taking converted weed trimmer motors and flying inexpensive glow aircraft converted for the weedies. So along the same lines we're wanting to spend penuts on covering them too. I plan to use sig's Stix-It along with some lite weight Polyester fabric bought at wal-mart and painted with latex house paint. Heres the link to the article I read in MAN that turned me on to this idea. I dont have any spray equipment like it suggest you use so I'll try a very good brush to get the same effect, I hope. http://www.modelairplanenews.com/how_to/latex1.asp . Any other ideas that any of you have tried would be great and to others wanting to try this but didnt know where to start, enjoy. Piper

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Oh, one more thing. It looks like we'll need to use nitrate dope to fill the weave. It helps shrink it as it dries but it takes a week to dry enough so it can be painted with latex. I also read about a modeler adding talcum powder to the dope to further help fill the weave in fewer coats, this is brushed on of course. Piper

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Mr. Pipercub

Thanks for the link. I have print the instructions and have already bought the material from wal-mart. I plan on trying this on the tail section on the stingray this week. I have the sig stick-it but I need to get the nitrate dope to seal the material.

I did go out an buy the landing gear for the Hanger 9 ultra-stick 120 to put on the stingray. I fell with the added weight of the ryobi the stock rod type gear was to lite for the job.:D

Thanks

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

OK , I made a 6"test square from 3/8x1/2 balsa and tried the stix-it and fabric from wal-mart and it works great! using a houshold iron set on "polyester" to tack it to the airframe and then turn it up to "cotton" or a bit more shrinks it very well. I've also found that using Auqanet Super Hold #3 hairspray works well to seal the fabric for painting. I know it sounds odd but I use hairspray instead of Balsarite to seal airframes before monokote so I thought I'd try it on the fabric before painting and it works. I've never done the dope thing so I cant compare the two but if your wanting to experament a little, give it a try and see what you think. Piper

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

I will try this on a piece of fabric I got at Wal-mart. The person at Wal-mart told me cotton would work better so I got it. I see you got the polyester. Is that what I should have bought? I too need to get the nitrate dope yet and I am thinking of trying your hairspray method. If it works out, it would be cheaper than the nitrate dope method. I'll try the hairspray method this week and let you know what I think. I'll be using it on my Stabalizer first.:eek:

Thanks

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Yep, use polyester and not cotton. The polyester has less weight and is heat shrinkable, dont think the cotton is. The poly also as less "give" than cotton so it should make a more ridgid airframe. Make sure you use cheese cloth to wipe the fabric with after you apply it and again just before you seal and paint it. I had all kind'a fuzzys in my test square.

RE: Balsa USA Stingray & Ryobi Pic's
 

Jim,

I was wondering how far you have gotten with the Stingray. I know this is a hard time of year for finding time to work on planes! Just wondering.

Rich