SPEED51J

I applied 2 coats of nitrate dope on the entire airframe, ( sand with 400 in between coats ) then apply one coat of STIX IT just to the areas where you want the covering to stick. Using med/ high heat iron down the KOVERALL to the edges stretching the covering as you go. then dope the edges and rub it in. ( I do this because it makes it much easier to trim ) When dry you can trim off the extra covering. Now you crank up the heat and shrink the rest of the way. Koverall is tough and can warp some lighter airframes but the smith is pretty stout so i shrunk it really tight. Dope the covering right after you shrink it and you will never have a wrinkle. Hope this helps. Guys thanks for the compliments.

Rv7garage

My Feedback: (10)

Looking awesome, speed! Keep the pics coming.

Tell me, what size pilot did you use for yours? I want to put a pilot in mine, but don't know what size to go with. Thanks!

SPEED51J

Williams brothers 1/5 scale pilot . This plane is just slightly larger than 1/5 scale

TAC221

Nice Pictures, I am also at the same stage as you, I posted some pictures about a year ago and have not made great progress. I am ready to glue the fin on and then its covering time. It should be complete mid sept. I will post some pictures soon.
I also am putting into the plane a ASP/Magnum Great little engines never any trouble.Using the .61 FS unit inverted.

WacoNut

Gotta love a nice fabric finish. Your Mini is looking really nice.
Anthony

tommyhawk

Gentlemen,

I finished building my own SMP about two months ago, after nearly a year of on and off work. Nearly 500 hours of work, if I think back- whew. I made a number of subtle changes along the way, some cosmetic and others structural. I've beefed up the tail post area somewhat and added lite cross bracing from tail to cockpit to stiffen it up and prevent racking. The elevator and rudder sevos I moved back to just ahead of the horizontal stabilizer with direct carbon rod linkages. All servos are Hitec mini digitals. Each aileron has its own (its still two aileron ship). The reason I moved the servos back to the tail was in anticipation of using a Saito 82B for power. I too found the gear and struts to be less than optimal in both design and construction, and re-tooled them to be somewhat stronger and more durable, especialy the gear. The N struts I contructed from laminated birch with carbon inserts to land them in the wings. The gear I retooled with an additional 1/8 wire down the leg to the axle to stiffen it, as well as adding 1/16th wire bungee system. The struts and gear have been flawless. I covered the plane with 21st Century fabric, and it has a great scale like appearance.

However, it is a porky little plane, coming in at just over 6 pounds. I scared the crap out of myself on first flight wth the plane's tendency to climb. I reduced throttle and it mellowed a little. Investigation revealed the incidences were exactly as per the plans, as was the CofG. Admittedly, I had too much control throw, and have since reduced it, with gobs of expo in for good measure. I ended up adding shims under the aft upper wing attachments to leave the upper wing at -1.5 degrees, the lower wing at 0, the tail at 0 as well. I moved the battery forward to bring the CofG to approxiamately 3/8inch forward of the lower leading edge. I also added a touch of down thrust and right thrust and re-centered the engine in the cowl. The aircraft now flies acceptably, though still has a touch of nose-down elevator trim for level flight. I have flight tested the airplane extensively, and it displays slight characteristics of an aft CofG. I will add another .050 shim to the upper wing aft attatchments.

I mention all of this for what it is worth. I too love over-powered airplanes, and she does climb like a scalded cat, but be careful how you build it - had I done my homework more thoroughly beforehand, I would have been more careful of adding too much weight to the tail. And though 21st Century fabric is gorgeous to work with and looks amazing, it IS heavy stuff. I can't say enough about how nice an experience it is to build a kit from Sig plans - they are all truly classic old school builds.

When I figure out how, I'll post some pictures. It truly is a beautiful bird, and I quite enjoy flying her. I still have the plans hanging on the wall, and am tempted to build another one. Right after I finish my 1/3 BUSA SuperCub, my Ziroli F4U Corsair......

Glad I finally found this thread! Keep building SMP's!

Tom Mackay

SPEED51J

Got most of the painting done. Still have to paint the cockpit and apply the clear coat. Its been hard to paint here in Florida with the high humidity.

buddude8

My Feedback: (10)

Nice Bro!!!!! Top Notch work as always.

rc_wings

Look'n real good Speed51J!!

smilin jack

Hi , Found these posts looking for Smith Miniplane photos. I scratch built one from the Sig plans enlarged 25%. I put an OS fx 61 on the front. had to add 12 ounces on the nose to balance it out.  Thrust lines are straight no offset right or down. have to add bunch of right rudder at lift off to keep it from going left.  So[img]file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/pearsar/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/model%20aviation/DSC05025.JPG[/img] maybe a little right th[img]file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/pearsar/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/model%20aviation/DSC05033.JPG[/img]rust would help that. 
Rich

[img]file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/pearsar/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/model%20aviation/DSC05033.JPG[/img][img]file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/pearsar/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/model%20aviation/DSC05033.JPG[/img][img]file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/pearsar/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/model%20aviation/DSC05033.JPG[/img]

KitBuilder

What are thoughts about scaling it up to 55 or 60 inch span?

smilin jack

This was the largest I could fit in my car without taking it apart............Probably have to adjust the wing thickness and lumber sizes if going larger.
I scaled EVERYTHINGup the 25 percent. I'm sure there's someone out there who would know better than I about what to adjust from the original Sig plans.

ripmax33

Hello to everyone!

I need some advice and answers about this wonderful kit from sig. It possible that just from buying the plans of the smith miniplane from sig ,the model can be build
completely from scratch? does the plans show all the necessary information? and is the sig coverall sutiable for the model or is just too heavy?

i'm just building a scartch build shoestring racer from a set of plans, the wingspan is about 47 inch. i would like to use medium weight tissue and dope for the fuselage, but i think that for the wings the medium weight tissue is just not strong enough with dings and will puncture easy. koverall instead seems very strong but i'm worried it will be too heavy. later i'm thinking to start a smith miniplane.


any ideas or advice

kind
regards
daniel

KitBuilder

Speed... What paint are you using? I'm looking to try a fabriccovering for the first timeon my current build but am a bit nervous about the glow fuel eating up the paint. In addition it will be a 4stroke and Iunderstand the exhaust is quite a bit hotter than 2 strokes.

rc_wings

Daniel,

If you get a copy of the plans, you should be able to build it as it has ribs, formers and such on them. If you can also get a copy of the booklet it would be very helpful as there is a fair amount of information that explains the building process. This is a challenging build compared to some other kits, but if you have a few under your belt and are comfortable with scratch building you will be fine. For the price of a kit from SIG (if you can get one shipped for a reasonable amount) it may be worth it as there is a lot of lumber in the box, plus the cowl and wheel pants.

Hope that helps.

Marko

ripmax33

thanks Marko for the reply, the instruction booklet it's not a problem because it can be easily downloaded from the sig website. in fact i already read all the instructions on most of the sig kits.
i'm curious about the covering method. for the smith miniplane sig recommends sig SILK for covering, i dont know how it is compared to tissue. it's more expensive than KOVERALL but koverall
it's more robust in my opinion. the weight is the problem i think.

rc_wings

I have not worked with either coverings so cannot really comment....sorry.

SPEED51J

The paint is sig dope. and it is fuel proof. I would not worry about the exhaust from the four stroke as long as its not directly hitting the plane.

KitBuilder

OK..I didn't realize dope was the paint. I thought it was more of a filler or base to fill in some of the weave prior to paint..
And dope is sprayed via compressor and gun?
Thanks...
Mike

frenchie79

Good thread guys, very nice looking/quality planes shown here.
Just finished reading or scanning over the entire thread andI think Ifound the plane for a New OS56a (alpha) I purchased several months ago.
I noticed or Haven't noticed any inverted engines and wondered why this doesn't seem to be done more???? Seems it would make a nicer cowl installation.

Also please continue to post results on set-up. Flat bottom wings do climb and apparently this little plane climbs like a Home Sick Angle. Seems at the minimum a guy should set the top wing with some negative Incidence and down thrust on the engine. Not sure on messing with the Stab-too many things start happening. If anyone has the "perfect" setup figured out-please chime in. Forgive me if I missed it on earlier posts.
I better get one of these on order.
Mark

PS-SPEED51J- VERYNICE, VERY,VERY Nice

RICKSTUBBZ

frenchie(Mark),

Take this with the grain of salt it is served with.... But leave the wings alone and put a little (edited was - negative) positive incidence into the stab. 1° to 2° will do it good. Or, just build it by the book and enjoy.



I meant to write positive incidence. As in up in the front. Brain was thinking right fingers were typing wrong.

rc_wings

Yep! I added + 2 degrees incidence for the stab as per the suggestions made by the great folks on this thread. Also put in 2 degrees right thrust to engine as a starting point....but mine has not flown yet. Pretty sure someone recommended that as well.......

RICKSTUBBZ

I corrected my error in post 545.

I also found the engine thrust angles to depend on your engine/prop combination. Never tried a four stroke in mine so I have no idea how they act. But a little down thrust and right thrust in the 1 to 2ish degrees range will help. Then you can adjust from there.

crash bandicoute

rick, what size motor/prop combo are you using? i'm going for a .40FX and 11x5 or 11x6 prop with mine (SMP)blowin'out of a bisson pitts style muffler. sorry for the question, an awesome 500+ post thread takes time to read. it's been a while.

rc_wings

Rick,

Funny...I did not catch the mistake in the post as knew what you meant I guess. Pretty sure it was you that also suggested the engine thrust mod. Cheers man! [sm=wink_smile.gif]