Here are a few pictures before the Sam-Rai gets its covering.

The servos were installed and tanks were tried out.

It looks like the 5 1/4 ounce Tettra tank is the best fit. The Jett 6 ounce slim will fit if you enlarge the former at the wing to allow the tank to move forward.

Pushrods were made from 1/8" carbon fiber tubes, aluminum tubing, and rubberized CA.

The tail can be closed up after the pushrods are installed.

ALUMINUM tubing as a reinforcement of the joint! I love it! Thanks Scott, I keep learning GREAT ideas from you!

The construction of a carbon fiber pushrod actually came from here:

http://www.darrolcady.com/Carbon_Fiber/carbon_fiber.htm

Thanks Darrol!

A hole for the engine kill was drilled and the tube was test fit.

A piece of 1/64" thick plywood was glued in place. This raises the gear a little so that the fuselage is flush with the landing gear.

Holes for the 6-32 screws and blind nut made. The blind nuts are also glued in place with CA glue.

The hole in the front former must be enlarged to fit a Jett slim tank.

The fuselage edges were lightly sanded. Gradually reduce the coarseness down to 220 grit paper and continue to sand until smooth.

Some 2 ounce fiberglass cloth reinforces the firewall, tail, and landing gear block.

This was applied by first spraying some 3M77 to tack the glass cloth in place.

Some 3/4 ounce glass cloth was applied over the fuselage.

About 1 ounce of Skin It was mixed.

A small amount was drizzled on and leveled with a squeegee.

Set this out of the way to dry.

After a few hours I dry sanded the surface and removed any rough areas of fiberglass cloth.

The fuselage was then blown off with an air compressor.

About 0.25 ounces of Skin It was mixed. I put on some rubber gloves and rubbed the glue into open surfaces on the fuselage.

The fuselage looks great in the unpainted state and I may choose to just apply clear coat and call it good.

Scott - what sort of clear would you use? I hear some of the guys around here have been using some Urethane stuff, not sure just what.

I like the looks of a clear coated wood fuse. Besides that, you only have to paint / cover the wing that way!

Typically you want to use a clear coat that is sold for Spot/Panel type work. That type dries within a few minutes of being applied.

Duane uses a Urethane spot panel clear coat with a fast hardener. I believe his is Nason brand that is available through O'Reily Auto Parts stores.

I have Acme Finish 1 Ultimate Spot/Panel Clearcoat. I've been using the fast hardener.

I potted the wing with Skin It and micro-balloons. The following pictures shows how it was done.

Let it dry overnight before moving anything.

After removing the wing you have to clean up the wing seating.

Sand the sides of the fuselage flush. Wing fillets are not allowed in Q500.

A Dremel tool was used to remove micro-balloons around the aileron horns.

I re-tapped the bolt threads and added access holes behind the rear bolt holes.

I mixed about 4 ounces of white primer and let it set for about 30 minutes. About 2 ounces of reducer was added.

The wing was sprayed with an inexpensive spray gun.

The wing was set out of the way to allow it to dry.

FYI- I talked to Sam San and he indicates they have good luck without a coat of primer. Apparently the wing is lighter by just spraying a light coat of color and then following with clear coat.

I mixed some clearcoat and used about 2 ounces.

Spray a light mist on first. In a few minutes spray on several more coats until it covers.

Hi!
Why the access holes??

The access holes are so you can unscrew the servo mount screws. I use a long Allen wrench and go through the hole to mount or remove the servo screws.

The primer was sanded smooth to prepare for painting. If you have a smooth single colored surface the next coat doesn't require much paint.

A light coat of racing yellow automotive paint was applied. This time it required much less yellow to cover than my previous model.

FYI- I talked to Sam San and he indicates they have good luck without a coat of primer. Apparently the wing is lighter by just spraying a light coat of color and then following with clear coat.

The clear coat required some wet sanding to smooth out the finish.

In the final shot the surface is smooth, but I have not decided to finish polishing or spray another coat of clear.

The polishing continued with 2000 grit wet and dry sandpaper used wet.

After the wet sanding I switched to my 6" polisher. A clear coat polish (Scratch Out) was used first. Meguiar's Cleaner Wax was used next and really brings out a nice shine.

The finish looks similar to polished maple or oak furniture. I like the change of pace. [8D]

Some stencils were purchased from a local Vinyl Store.

They were applied to the wing and paper was also applied.

A light coat of paint was applied with an inexpensive air brush.

After a few minutes the paper was removed.

The letters were wet sanded in preparation for clear coating.

Several coats of clear coat were applied in this step.

The spot panel clear coat dried to the touch in about 1/2 hour.