CafeenMan

When I bought this kit I searched this forum to see what various people were saying about it. The overall theme was that it's a good kit and a really fun plane to fly. So I bought one.

One member mentioned he made the elevator removable rather than putting the hatch on the bottom. I thought that was a good idea so I did that too.

As you can see from the photos the model is highly modified. The tail is a separate piece now rather than the model being a flying wing (If you don't think it was a flying wing, ok). The stabilizer leading edge is going to be modified so that it begins to taper at the same location as the ailerons rather than as far out as it is in these photos.

I didn't like any of the fin shapes so I did something different there as well.

I'm using two servos for the ailerons instead of the single servo in the wing center.

I'm very tempted to embed a wheel in the bottom of the fuselage ala sailplane, but I haven't decided yet. The fuselage and tail will be glassed and painted. The wing will be plastic covered.

Any way you look at it the bottom of the fuselage is going to get scraped up whether I land on the fuselage bottom or on a skid glued to the bottom. I may just live with it or add the wheel as I already mentioned.

If I decide to go without the wheel then I'll use 2 oz glass cloth on the bottom of the fuselage to strenghten it and so it takes longer to wear through. That should take a long time anyway since this isn't the kind of plane I can do touch-and-goes with.

Portions of this model were built with help from:

AC/DC
Blue Oyster Cult
Mark Knopfler
The Cars
Widespread Panic
Rush

WMB

My Feedback: (1)

I love the fins! Kind of has a Star Wars look to it. I have the Shrike 10 with 85 grass landings and the monokote balsa has held up great. A few scuffs is about all. I also have a Simple 400 that I added the wheel ala sailplane. It worked well. I used small wire with a 3/4" tailwheel if I remember right. If I did it again, I would drill out the wheel to accept a brass/bronze sleeve for a bearing. My axle eventually broke in half. A bigger wheel would reduce the rotational speed seen by the axle.
Have fun, MikeB

RVM

Your workmanship is amazing.

By the way, great choice of assistants!

carlosponti

My Feedback: (1)

neat i like it. when are you gonna finish that biplane you were working on. i wanted to see what it looked like finished.

CafeenMan

RVM - Thanks. I didn't take photos of the construction because I had two intense 18+ hour building sessions this weekend and didn't slow down to take photos. But I am taking photos of the details and those will be on my site with the article when the plane is finished.

carlosponti - You mean Wermacht's Scorpion? I've built 5 wings for it and still didn't like them. I got fed up with it and it is in a closet where it's safe from my rage. But I plan to revisit it when I've figured out what I really want to do for wings.

The problem is (typical of my designs) that the model is way nose-heavy. I plan to swing the top wing forward to move the CG forward, but that puts the bottom wing back with a larger stagger than I'd like and it probably won't fly well like that. The other alternative is to somehow shorten the nose without trashing the fuselage. There's no real way to lengthen the tail moment without building a new fuselage. So I'm stuck for now and working on things that are going together better. I haven't given up on it though. Just taking a breather.

carlosponti

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well i have patiently waited to see that bipe with its skin on

CafeenMan

Wermacht appreciates your patient and is hopeful you can maintain it for a while longer.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

You're a maniac Paul! I love it!

BruceTharpe

My Feedback: (1)

Thumbs up!

CafeenMan

I'm back on this project again. I haven't been able to work on it since the last photos I posted here until this past weekend.

I'm gluing the canopy to the wing. I sanded the inside and outside of the canopy with 400 wet or dry paper and then degreased it. The inside of the canopy is sprayed with several light coats of Tamiya smoke acrylic. I had to remove the paint twice due to fisheyes. I'm not sure why that happened as the canopy was meticulously cleaned but to avoid them I had to spray several dusting coats.

The fingerprints you see are on the outside of the canopy and were sanded off after the paint was fully cured.

I wanted a fillet around the canopy but didn't want it to be micro-balloon colored on the inside. I could have sprayed the canopy frame with some color but that means the glue holding the canopy would only be as strong as the paint.

There are dyes made for epoxy but I don't have any. I tried a test batch with some fabric dye (powder) but it didn't mix.

I have some aluminum powder made to make metallic paints. I bought it from a screen print shop that was going out of business. It's incredibly how little of this stuff you need. A teaspoon in a quart of paint is way too much. I used it in some dark blue many years ago and it turned the blue a blue-tinted silver.

I don't know the hazards of this but it is so finely ground that it feels like talc. It wafts all over the place. If you dip your finger in it you can rub your finger on anything and turn it silver. I'm sure there's a lot of cool effects that it can make. I don't know much about it as I haven't used it that much.

What I do know is that I wear a particle mask and latex gloves and keep the jar away from anything I can't clean the stuff off of. It goes everywhere.

I used about twice the amount of micro-balloons as shown in the photo. I used 1 hour laminating epoxy because the stuff I use takes forever to set up and I didn't want it hardening noticeably while I was working with it. I added just enough micro-balloons to keep it from running. I wanted an easily shaped paste that didn't pull away with the spatula.

I centered the canopy on the wing and then traced around it on the covering using a fine Sharpie marker. I then put a piece of paper over the tracing and taped it down. I could see the line on the covering through the paper and used it to put the canopy back in the same place. I then traced onto the paper.

I scanned the paper and enlarged the image to make a second outline which was meant to be the width of the fillet. It was too wide and I ended up making a freehand cut what looked to be the proper spacing after the canopy was rubber-banded in place.

I used the original tracing to cut a piece of black covering which was ironed on the bare balsa. I wanted a pilot and basic instrument panel but wasn't motivated enough to go search toy stores for a suitable pilot and decided to go without.

When the canopy was ready to be glued on I used a rubber band to hold it tightly to the wing.

CafeenMan

I'm planning on painting the forward fuselage to match the spinner I use. That color will be carried all the way around the canopy which means painting the covering. That means I can sand the fillet and not worry a lot about the covering getting scratched but I still have to be careful not to sand too much into the covering. Basically I'm going to have to go slow and be very careful.

I've never done this before so I don't know how well I'll do. If I botch it too badly I'm building another wing. I'll probably try the same thing with the canopy again only I'll fully sheet the wing and glass it instead of using plastic.

The spatula looking thing is a Tamiya paint stirrer. It's one of those little tools that is simple but well made and in the right circumstance is a blessing to have. They come in sets of two and like all Tamiya products they are insanely over-priced.

I used it to remove as much excess putty from the covering as possible. Then using lots of Q-Tips dipped in alcohol and shaped to a point I very carefully removed everything that was left behind on the covering.

The whole process of applying the fillet and cleaning up took about an hour. As I write this the fillet is still wet and very workable. In fact, I could remove the whole thing, do some clean up with alcohol or lacquer thinner and be back where I started.

Because the canopy wasn't glued down there were some areas around the perimeter that weren't tight against the wing. I had to be careful while applying the fillet to not flex the canopy in because it would spring back out and screw the fillet up in that area.

The front and back of the canopy will be a separate operation when the first fillet is cured and the rubberband is removed and out of the way.

CafeenMan

PS. Even though it isn't evident in the photos which make the canopy look opaque, it is very transparent. It looks opaque because of the angle of the shots and the black cockpit.

The canopy looks like it's scratched up because it's scratched up. I'm hoping a clear coat takes care of it. If not I have gazillions of hours of sanding and polishing in my future.

CafeenMan

PPS. The covering is Oracover Light Cub Yellow. MinnFlyer was about to ask about that so I thought I'd go ahead and answer him.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Kind of scarey when others can predict you so well isn't it???

Ken

MinnFlyer

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I'm used to it - You've met my wife

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Touche!!!!!

Kem

CafeenMan

The next day I added the fillet to the front and back of the canopy after removing the rubber band. Because there was much less area to work with I used 30 minute epoxy instead of the 60 minute I used for the first application.

A little over 24 hours later I used a 3/16" round file and one of my [link=http://www.airfieldmodels.com/information_source/how_to_articles_for_model_builders/tools/make_a_fillet_sander/index.htm]nifty fillet sanders[/link] - a smaller scale version having a 3/16" brass tube instead of a dowel - to smooth the fillet.

This morning I sprayed the first clear coat. It's drying in my "clean" room and I don't have photos of it yet. Unfortunately, my airbrush gave one brief spatter and left a spot right in the middle of the canopy that's highly visible. I'll sand and apply a second coat.

From what I can tell adding the aluminum powder to the epoxy/micro-balloon mixture was entirely unnecessary. When viewing through the canopy you can see a dark frame but you can't tell what color it is. Everything else was the same so I didn't really lose anything by trying it.

This photo was taken after sanding the fillet and masking the wing for the canopy clear coat. I used frisket to mask around the canopy because it's low tack and I don't want all the covering pulling up when it's removed. Newspaper was used for the bulk of the wing and taped to the frisket.

CafeenMan

Other enhancements...

I cut wood fillets but had to use epoxy and microballoons at the front of them. I didn't put a hatch on the bottom per several suggestions here at RCU. The tail and hatch are both removeable on top of the fuselage. The tail is held on with three 6-32 nylon bolts.