One more thing.. What size is the spinner you're using?

Yes but when you soak a pice of wood in the water you aren't shorten it's strength,life etc?

caux - Thanks for the kind words. I'll get some pics tonight of what I'm working on for the engine trim pieces. The spinner size is 2.25"(57.15mm).

Kostas1 - I haven't noticed that the pieces of balsa I've soaked were weaker but I can't say for sure.

Probably from my build thread for the SSE. That's exactly what I did! Works pretty well, huh?

Nice to see how your build is coming along. Keep it going!

No. You're "relaxing" the wood fibers so the wood will bend easily. Whatever "strength" the piece of wood had will return when it dries.

The underlying formers and stringers give the structure strength. Sheeting does add stiffness, but in the case of a turtle deck its mainly to provide a smooth outer surface.

just caught up on your thread somegeek, looking good!!

Thanks kiswa and tuwood.

Kostas1 - you can see how this helps with gluing the sheeting in place on the turtle deck. The sheet held this shape after being removed from the plane after drying overnight.



Got the stringers and spine touched up with some final sanding for the sheeting.



Sheeting in place and trimmed up. Pretty happy with the results.

Next I got the hatch piece glued in place on the turtle deck.

OOO [X(],
yes Somegeek,pretty good.
Just a question.
You applied only some "drops" of water in this piece of balsa or you just put it in water and left it there for some minutes?
Thank's again for your important information.
Kostas

I planned to just get the sheet wet first by running some water over it but then decided to just soak it in a sink full of warm water for a bit(2-3 minutes) and then worked to bend it under water.

Just be sure to give the wood grain some time to "give" and bend along the grain line, not across.

Also, the use of ammonia speeds up the process, but IMO has inherent risks (aside from the odor). I've done this a few times, but the wood seemed to be more prone to cracking when dry. Not sure about this; just a couple of experiences that left me wondering.

There is no doubt that mixing ammonia with water and spraying or wiping it on the wood makes the wood more pliable in less time than using plain water. But unless you are in a real hurry, the best method is to soak the entire piece in warm water for some time; the longer the soak, the more pliable the wood.

And using a form makes things easier too. Geek used the airframe, but that no doubt got water all over the airframe. No problem if it was built with CA or waterproof wood glue. But some of us prefer aliphaitic (wood glue), and not all brands are waterproof.

Just something ELSE to watch out for... but that's why they call it "modeling".

Somegeek, you're work looks impeccable; good job. I've had our plans laid out on the board for over a week; but the kid keeps getting nailed for some transgression or another and his mom won't let him come work on it. He's going fishing with his other grandfather this week-end; so perhaps we can get started next week.

This kid has got it made; I take him flying and shooting; the other grandfather takes him golfing and fishing.

Life in general has gotten back to a busy but less chaotic pace... time to get back to this build.

Got the fairing blocks temporarily mounted to shape...


This applicator tip went a long way in helping me apply small drops of CA so the blocks were secure for the shaping but easily removed afterwards.




Sanded the turtledeck sheeting...


Got all the cracks and uneven surfaces puttied up for the primary final fuselage sanding before mounting the stab and fin. I built the upper surface of the fuselage from the canopy area to the firewall level to change the profile a bit vs sloped.


Letting the putty dry overnight to assure I don't hit any soft spots when I sand.


Nice to be making some dust again.

somegeek

AHA! CA, I knew it!

Hey, at this rate you might be ready for flying season.....in 2007 maybe. It looks great geek but get that thing in the air already, it's only a model plane after all.

Hey Geek! Today is training day at the field.

Chuck.

Thanks for the reminder, balsabuster2003.

Was good to get back down there and get my LT-40 in the air. The strip looks good with the new covering.

Landed for the first time today... getting a smooth landing is more difficult than it looks(a little bounce goes a long way).

First time I've smelled root beer scented exhaust.

for bending balsa mix about 10% to 15% windex to water just spray it on it soakes into the wood fast and drys over night if you tape the wood to shape you dont end up with to many pin holes.I just won this plane at out clubs raffle its a solid looking model with nice lines.

Got the fuselage sanded and fitted the engine and spinner to verify I had the cowling sanded to the right diameter... everything seems to fit okay.

Saw in another persons thread where they were pretty liberal with the putty. Worked great for this build to even stuff out.



I have two cowling trim pieces I'm working on that will cover the starboard engine cowl side.





Looks good cept I need to even out the face that sits behind the spinner.



Think taking 1/32" of an inch off of the cowl face would give it just enough breathing room.

Good to see the build documentation resuming!

Got the canopy completed...



Read a ton of canopy tinting threads on RCU. The SSE has a canopy made up of a material that is pretty resistant to dyes. I used a packet of royal blue rit dye and two packets of black rit dye in water that started at 130ºF and then left it in for two days submerged. It took on the slight hue you see above... least it took a little. Attached the canopy to the hatch using 1/4" strips of ultracote.

I built up the front end profile of the plane a little...



...and as a result needed to open the bottom front edge of the hatch a little so it could clear the top of F2(hatch secures at the back first then the front lowers down into place).



Fuel tank ready for install. I had a tank but no brass tubing... picked up some some 1/8" stock brass tubing from the LHS and noticed it was not as soft as the tubing that came with the tank. I had a few pieces snap before the bend was at 90º. Making 90º bends resulted in a little bit of a collapsed corner.. still open enough for this application though.



Got the main gear drilled for the axles and then noticed they stuck out on both sides about 1/8" too much. A dremel with a cut-off wheel made quick work to trim them to length. I then I rolled the ends on the face of the cut-off wheel to taper the edges of the ends of the axles to 45º.







somegeek

Ah Somegeek-the usual great quality! It would be interesting to see what you'd do with a scale plane.

You bought this:

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXR818&P=0

instead of this

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXBLV7&P=0

makes a big difference.

Got the bottom of the fuse covered...



...was planning on covering the whole fuse last night but a bit under the weather so it'll get done later.

Being sick sucks.

somegeek

Hey somegeek, hope you get better soon- nothing worse than a springtime cold![:'(]

Your build thread is awesome, its nice to see someone take their time and get creative with a kit. I see that you have chosen to cover everything after assembly, and will be watching to see just how you manage to make it look good ('cause we all know you will!). Keep up the good work.

Just FYI, I used 6 oz. of RIT liquid dye in 1.5 gal water @ 150 degrees for 15 minutes, and got decent results. You just gotta not cut the canopy out first- as I learned the hard way[X(]! Here's a pic of my just-completed SSE, I love this plane!

Ok, I read where krossk explained his method (This is , by the way krossk's, not mine) Hope this helps!
Karter

Got time to finish covering the fuselage, bottom to top and back to front...

Prepped the tail feathers for covering by trimming the seams... (thanks to RCKen for his pics in his LT-40 build thread)



Covered the lower sides...



This covering piece had some wrinkles that came out easily by
hovering a hot iron over a few spots to shrink and pull it tight...



Covering the tail pieces was difficult at first but I learned a lot while covering
this plane so the next one will go smoother. Trick for me to covering the tail
surfaces was to trim the covering piece on the leading edge and inner edge and
then the outter edge and trailing edge could be trimmed once the piece was in
place. Assured a clean line on the leading edge.





Can see that the leading edge here is consitent. I'm not good enough yet to assure a
clean edge when trimming leading edge pieces while on the plane.





Done covering the fuselage...





I have two trim pieces I need to cover and install on this side of the cowl which will
fill in around the engine a little completing the look of the cowl.





Time to install the guts of the the plane next. Going to balance the plane, add
weight to the wing ends if needed and then cover the wings.

Gettin there!

somegeek