SeamusG

Ijust finished the 3rd covering of my LT-40. I've included the "goal"pics and the finished result. I also took some 225 pics along the way. If there is interest I'm willing to do an "after the fact" covering thread of a trainer. Let me know.

Materials included Ultracote Bright Yellow, Black and Chrome.

Thatsakitbuilt

Hey SeamusG,

The LT looks really sharp. How much did you clip. And have you flown it yet? If so, how did she fly? I've got one in the hangar, and one NIB on the shelf. I may want to clip mine.

Thanks
Cal

SeamusG

Cal - I simply cut one rib off and the tip of course. It now has a flat tip rather than the upward angled tip.

No flight time - just finished covering this morning and currently setting up the throws. The high speed needle decided to run away. Emmmm, that just ain't nice. [8D]

Btw - initial build was box stock with rubber bands and tri-cycle gear. 2nd iteration resulted in wing mounted with bolts (a bayonet mount similar to the Kadet Senior ARF) and tail dragger. Took nearly 16 oz. of weight up front. After an aggressive nose over I decided to go back to a tri-cycle gear to lighten things up and clip a wing. In first two forms staight-n-level was at 1/2 throttle - anything above that resulted in an aggressive up line. We have a frozen finger fun fly Jan 1 - just maybe ....

fly20

My Feedback: (2)

Would love to see a how to. This might just be the finish I use on my telemaster 40. thanks

rafeeki

My Feedback: (11)

Nice job SeamusG,
Did u start off by covering it all with yellow then applied the black? If so how did u manage to get such a perfect looking covering? No air bubbles?
Thanks

SeamusG

The entire plane was first covered in yellow. Definitely my best work to date. Oops - except for the forward part of the fuse & cowl.

Then came the black trim. Before I started my trim I had conversations with MinnFlyer as he was doing a similar scheme on his Cub (cub yellow and black). He used Xylene as an Ultracote adhesive activator for all trim but the wings. For the wings he traced the wing trim's outline onto the yellow base and then cut the yellow from inside the trim outline leaving 1/2" boarders. I used the old standby of applying the trim with an iron. Only problem, my favorite trim iron's foot broke just before I started laying out the black. I used my standard iron for the first time in this role. I totally screwed up the trim work. Most would say that it's pretty good but I'm accustomed to having a rare bubble in my trim. It looks fine at 5 feet. It will look great in the air.

rafeeki

My Feedback: (11)

Would spraying Windex activate the adhesive before applying the trim?

SeamusG

Rafeeki - that method is exclusively for use with Monokote. Ultracote's adhesive is different and is not affected by the ammonia in Windex. Now, if Windex starts using Xylene, then it just might work.

rafeeki

My Feedback: (11)

Not familiar with Xylene, is it a paint remover?

SeamusG

The biggest "time"challenge that I had was getting a good balance in the size of the starbursts. There's a thread specific to starbursts - it really peaked my interest. I downloaded some samples from "out there". Ichose to use the format of the ARFpieces pictured. The yellow and black is MinnFlyer's beautiful work.

I have a 2D engineering oriented tool (Microsoft's Visio). I copied the images into Visio and made outlines. These were then overlayed on top of my yellow LT40 image. Lines were drawn and the starbursts were changed to black. Note that the proportions of the Cub and LTwings differ considerably. I still used the same proportions on the LT.

Idid like the idea of having the "convergence point" of the starbursts nearly on the foremost part of the leading edge. Gives are very nice swept back look. I had started by using an approach similar to MinnFlyer's of having a constant width of yellow in front of the first "burst"on the wing, fin and stab. It just looked more active with the point up forward.

SeamusG

It is a solvent that uses Xylol - Xylene is a brand name and sold at ACEhardware. MinnFlyer loaded up an old CA "kicker"spray bottle with Xylene to spray the area. Nice idea. However, the plastic bottle was seriously softened by the next morning. Xylol is not for the faint of heart.

SeamusG

Just a thought - I am seriously considering adding a piece of clear Ultracote over all of the convergence points to keep the tips from peeling up during flight / fuel residue.

SeamusG

Iapproach covering somewhat like painting a room. First thing is to plan. Next "cut-in" the room so that painting the field will be easy. Then paint the base. Finally, apply any special trim.

Here's pics of the "cut-in"process 1 of 2.

SeamusG

Cut-in 2 of 2 ...

My goal is to make sure that all inside corners are well sealed from glow goo and that there is full color coverage in the seams.

I add a strip along the fixed hinge line so that I can cut the covering for the hinge slots ANDdrill 1/16" vent holes into the interior air spaces so that the heated air from shrinking the covering has a place to go rather than ballooning the covering.

SeamusG

Time for covering the fuse "field"

SeamusG

More field covering on the tail ...

Oh yea - that balsa block has smooth leather applied to one side and 2000 grit paper on the other side. I use it the keep the razor blade & X-acto #11 blades sharp. I used 1 razor blade and 1 X-acto #11 blade to cover the entire plane. Not as good as Gray Beard but I'm pedaling as fast as I can.

SeamusG

The last of the base covering of the tail.

SeamusG

On to covering the fuse bottom ...

SeamusG

Then the sides - 1 piece of yellow ...

SeamusG

Finished off one side ...

SeamusG

On to the fuse top ...

OK - what happened to the fin? Well, the plane toppled off the table. I noticed that the fin base covering was wrinkled. Thought it was broken. Pulled off the covering. Nope, nothing broken BUTyou could move the fin back-n-forth. ????? I added support blocks at the fin's base and added a CF hollow rod vertically to provide support.

Didn't work as planned - stiffer but the first hanger hit or student mess up and that fin would break off. The stab covering was removed. Still no smoking gun. The fin didn't seem cracked anywhere. The 30-min epoxy was holding nicely. But it still flexed too much. I saturated the entire foot of the fin with thin CA. Em, rock solid - dead solid perfect. ???? Only thing that Ican think of is that the grain of balsa used for the footwas weak and that the CA covered that inherant weakness.

SeamusG

If you look closely in the last pic you can see a seam about an 1" in front of the fin's LE.

SeamusG

Blech - control surfaces.

I used 3 pieces for each surface - 2 tips and 1 sheet for both bottom and top.

SeamusG

Finished up the control surfaces ...

SeamusG

The wing - started by covering around the mount structures ...

A template was cut from craft paper in pic 1.