Joe Casey

After reading the posts on the metal finishes, i was wondering if any special precautions need to be taken to get the antennae outside the fuselage?

saramos

What are you using for the zinc chromate paint?

Scott

pittsdriver

My Feedback: (7)

Peter G, If you had a sample of Flight Metal to compare head to head with the aluminium tapes sold at hardware stores you would find a vast difference. I too was a sceptic and can tell you there is no comparison. The Flight Metal will burnish down over compound curves very easily. The adhesive is also very thin and strong not like the rubber like cements on the others. The cost is really not great as most planes can be done with around $30 worth of flight metal. Also you are supporting a person that loves the hobby and trying to develop a source for specialty scale prouducts. I'm all for saving money but without our support most of the specialty manufacturers will dissapear. Don

Old Shep

I'll weigh in along with Pittsdriver....need to support the specialty guys who are doing what they do for the hobby and not to make a pile of money. I've seen the stuff on other folks' airplanes and it looks really good. My question: will it work well on something like an Aerotech Mustang that already has all the rivet detail, panel lines, etc?
Old Shep

pittsdriver

My Feedback: (7)

Shep, Its dead soft so yes it will burnish into the rivets. Don

Peter G.

If you had of read my post you would have noticed that I support the small business man. The stuff I have stretches well, the aggresive glue tends to be a limiting factor at times. To call it a hardware product does it no justice,.......... but then if you had a sample of what I am refering to.

At any rate, the best thing I like about RC universe is the exchange of ideas and knowlledge. If a person can obtain the same or similar product at a fraction of the cost, have fun experimenting, and share the ideas, man that's what I am here for. I received my goods with a simple phone order. Since the biggest pannel line was 6" wide I purchased that width, although it can be purchased up to 20" or more in width. The cost was less than 1: 50th of other products and you can easily mold and shape this product. It makes fantastic panel lines and in several experiments I tried to heat the product with a propane torch. The paint under the aluminum covering bubbled lifting the product. I sincerely doubt the sun will get that hot. I have sincerely forgotten if this product was acrylic or rubber based as far as the glue goes, I have gotten them all mixed up, it however holds up really well to heat. As far as taking the product off the aircraft, you can peel it off, as I made several mistakes so far. It does NOT leave a mess. Well to each his own, I have posted this to help others not to run anyone down. Lighten up, and have fun building.

Flypaper 2

PeterG:
You might try experimenting with the aluminum stickyback shelf covering. Just bought some from Wallmart in the kitchen appliances department. 20in wide roll 6 ft long. Just testing it myself. will heatshrink nicely around square edges. Havn't tried it around wingtips yet as I'm still playing with it. Looks promising. Has the brushed aluminum finished. Just tried the tube end of a ballpoint pen to make passable rivets. I thank my sister for this idea.

Peter G.

Hey that's great, sounds like some form of plastic. I had found some similar stuff at the sign graphic place for auto's. I may take a look for your stuff. I like looking at all kinds of material.

The stuff I settled on though is pure aluminum and heat does little for stretching it. I don't know if aluminum tape comes in different tempers or hardness or not like some people claim. If it did that would be a plus in my mind. The harder stuff could be used on the flatter surfaces and would resist dings and dents while the softer material could be used on compound curves, but then I think the point is mute as I believe it's all the same stuff. My mind is open though to just about anything. Who knows the stuff I am using could even be better than what others claim to be the best.

The one good thing about the plastic type material is it can be used over open framed structures. I'll probably use something like it in future. The aluminum would not stand up to open frames. It needs a hard surface under it for best results. I have to finish my P47 and B25 first but might build a fun fly after that. Good Luck, have fun.

Peter

abufletcher

Has anyone used FliteMetal to cover an ABS cowl? Can it handle the curves? Does anyone have any pics of this?

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

I think Flite metal will cover anything. Look at my post with the radiator covered in Flite Metal. Its an abs plastic. You should cover your cowl in panels like the original. That would make things manageble for you. BobH.

solarvolt

My Feedback: (3)

Yep, FM works for me too. I"ve used it on various birds and most recently a giant P-51. That product goes on super easy (once you get used to it) and comes out extremely good looking. Here's one I did recently:

Condor

bla bla,

Covering with lithplate panels sounds like an interesting technique! Does the metal covering create any issues with radio interference? How are the lithoplate panels attached to the airframe? Can the aluminum be easily painted or does it require a special primer?

Thanks for any info!

FWIW, I've worked with FliteMetal and love the stuff. Sometimes I'll do hatches out of ordinary duct tape because it's thicker and will show up better, but FM is much easier to work with. I haven't attempted covering a whole plane with either, so I can't comment on that part. I have, however, covered some pretty tough complex curves, both cncave and convex with FM and been very satisfied with the results.

Juan M. Villaveces

FliteMetal

Quote:

ORIGINAL: abufletcher Has anyone used FliteMetal to cover an ABS cowl? Can it handle the curves? Does anyone have any pics of this?

© can be applied to plastics, fiber glass, fiber glass covered wood, unpainted aircraft surfaces. Lacquer, two part automotive, and non-baseline enamel painted airframes can be covered. If Formula-U or urethane-enamel painted surfaces exist they tend to not work well because those paints tend to out-gas for months after being painted.

© utilizes smoothly flow coated acrylic adhesive which is stable well above 150 degrees F. Most gutter tapes found in home stores utilize unevenly coated and less expensive rubber adhesive. Rubber adhesives begin to out-gas when heated to as little as 80 degrees F. The high tac adhesive coating on back of © will not bubble or out-gas when the airframe is exposed to heat from exposure to direct sunlight in the summer. This condition is one of the two problems related to use of rubber adhesives on gutter tapes. The second differential is the gutter tape is highly annealed compared to © which can be applied to complex convex and concave surfaces of giant scale aircraft with no problem.

Unlike metallic plastic films or tapes which are extruded termo-set plastic materials which retain their original shape and will always try to return to their original shape due to something called "shape memory" of initial shape state, © is dead soft enabling as much as 20% stretch of area mass. Gutter tapes rarely stretch over 5 to 9 percent. © can be applied in either 6" (AM-AK625/650) or 12" (AM-AK125/1210) widths to provide appropriate scale panel widths for all giant scale designs being sold today.

The largest known panel is the side panel which runs from the inlet back under the wing on the BVM MIG-15. That is approximately a panel size of 11 inches tall by 28 inches in length. © is applied to large panels like a decal of the same size. Instead of water (as used with decals), Windex is sprayed onto the aircraft surface as a flow agent permitting positioning (sliding) of © panel into correct position prior to burnishing onto the surface.

Hopefully, this answers some of the © questions appearing in this thread.

Dean-RCU

Hi Joe I found that the antenna should be completely outside the model to get safe reception. I used a whip antenna on the P-47 i built using FM. Here is an image of an Aircoupe i recently finished useing FM. On this model i was able to get the standard antenna completely outside in a scale location. Dean

br549

My Feedback: (6)

Rivets?

Thanks everyone for an excellent forum discussion. I have felt I have learned a lot. I definately want to check out the Flight Metal for all the above reasons. Another great reason to keep a domestic supplier in business.

Just a follow on - what do you do, to create the illusion of rivets. I keep thinking of a protrusion from the surface which emulates a rivet. However - it seems like depressions are implied in this discussion.

I can wait a few months for the reply - I have a TF DC-3 I will build later this year. Still looking for Wisconsin Centrail Airlines documentation though. Any good references to retract gear plans are appreciated too. I will be building with 2 OS 48FS engines.

Thanks in advance,

BR549

AIVIA

My Feedback: (5)

Can FM be used on propellers? Not static display props, but propellers that will actually be used in flight? I would like to have a polished prop on my GP Gee Bee ... like Delmar Benjamin used on his replica. The prop is a 15x10 Zinger wood prop. Any special preparations needed for FM to be used on a wood prop? Are there other products that I should/could use, such as Monokote trim sheets?

Thanks in advance!

allmetal plane

My Feedback: (1)

Dear Colleges, Just a word on antenas on aluminum finishes:

For all of you who use the great FLITE-METAL product finishes, or build your airplanes with a fairly good amount of aluminum covering, I would like to share my advise based on my experience of building and successfully flying my all aluminum airplanes, by the way, if proper procedures are taken during the radio set up, you will have just as good reception as the non metalic finishes.

Keep in mind that an aluminum airframe can be either your best friend, or your wost enemy. Fortunately radios are very reliable for this type of contruction. I have lost metal airplanes due to my fingers, but not for lost radio signal. Aluminum airframes are a great shield that helps the reception. I make sure to ground the wings to the fuse to avoid disimilar static loads. In addition When I route the antena outside the fuse, I make sure to have at least 1 inch diameter of nonconductive material around the cable, It might not look as good, but you will ensure optimun reception. I have not tried wip antenas yet....

I hope this serves as an encouragement to modelers who build and cover those beautiful airplanes with either FLITE-METAL or any other type of metalic finish

Peter G.

Here is an update for anyone interested. This is my P47 (ziroli). I am not done yet but wanted to show everyone what the so called "gutter tape" looks like. Like I said there are only a couple factories in the US. making the stuff, no one here has claimed to own a multi million dollar factory so there fore it's all the same "gutter tape" albeit you can obtain "gutter tape" with various types of glue. I do not claim to be a master modeler and do not compare myself to one, to a sport builder or any other hobbiest. I build for fun and share my idea's I do not belive in promoting my own business with negative advertising or comments or by trying to cut anyone down. Like I said this stuff looks good, if you like it try it, if not, chill out and have fun building. By the way did anyone catch the last model airplane isuue were he uses pie plates. Looks good. I hope no one say's he has a pie plane.

ADSala

My Feedback: (2)

I'm trying to figure out how to lay Flite Metal down nice. I'm really having a hard time making it look smooth. It seems as though the metal picks up wrinkles when removing the backing. Once it's layed down onto the surface, I'm finding it really difficult to get the wrinkles and blemishes rubbed out. Did you have any such problems. Or do you just scuff/sand the heck out of it until the metal surface looks even with no blemishes. Could you share your procedure a little. How did you make the seems and rivets as well?

Your metal finish looks excellent.

Dean

Peter G.

Hey AdSala;

It was a learning experience for me as well. When I removed the backing on my metal I removed bothe equally. Either had my son hold one end or I stuck it between my lips. I then seperated the paper from the aluminum, one in each hand and pulled up as much as down. In this way I got rid of minute wrinkles that some times appeared. I don't know if this made any sense.

As far as burnishing goes..... I found no one tool was best. For hard surfaces such as a heavy resin area around the fillets one could use a hard tool such as rounded hard wood ( to avoid scratches) or even metal. If the surface was hard enough, the aluminum I was using you could even remove an overlaping wrinkle.
Soft surfaces needed extra care as I could not use lots of pressure to burnish them. I found a soft rounded piece of balsa worked well. I found only four area's that gave me any trouble. The belly was one with it's large rounded suface in two directions.

Rivets. I have 5 different rivets on the plane. Some were made with a round tube, the slot was added after. This was time consuming but I did not have a lot of those to do or justify making a tool. The flush rivets were done with a home made tool that looks like what the seamstresses use for making or tracing their patterns. A round wheel with small diameter wire soldered in spaces the same distance as the real plane(scale wise). This gave a nice crisp round rivet

Peter G.

Oh I forgot to add that the panel lines were done with masking tape. Lay the outline with the tape, put the metal on top, this does not have to be accurate as long as it covers the area inside the tape. I used a fine scaple to cut or score the metal along the tape line. Pull the tape off and you are left with the panel. The masking tape does not adhere to the finish and is a lot easier to remove.

Peter

ADSala

My Feedback: (2)

Peter,
Ok, after your great answers, and thank you very much, I'll give it another try. I was really starting to lean towards silver paint.

A couple of more ?'s. Did you sand or polish the surface in anyway or are the pictures just as the metal looks from the roll? How did you make flush panel lines if any? Do you mind if I share some of your experiences in my thread?

Thanks this really helps
Dean

Peter G.

Hi ADSala;

Hey we are all here to learn and share idea's. I did not polish the aluminum in any way. Straight from the roll. I did try on a few panels, fine steel wool. The finish on the plane is a little too bright yet and I have not decided if I should take steel wool to it yet or not. I alternated some of the panels to get an opposite grain, as in the real plane. Yes both the aluminum tape and real aluminum have grains, anyway I am afraid I might loose some of that effect if I steel wool it. I also have not aged it as of yet. In short wipe paint over the panel lines and rivets, then wipe it off leaving the paint (looks like grease) inside the panel lines and rivets.

As a rule all my panel lines are flush, butted up to one another. There are some overlapping ones. Another neat effect you can try is to put the metal over an existing metal edge, looks neat, or over a rivet. The panel lines were made by the way I described earlier, with the masking tape.

Don't get discouraged, if you have an area that you can not get, no way no how, without wrinkles, try adding a panel line on that spot, I know it's cheating but it's better than a wrinkle. The only other thing is, you should have a good base to apply this stuff ie: glassed. I thought I had done a bang up glass job till I applied the metal. Found two or three bubbles and one dent on a wing tip that I had missed. Everything will show through.

Peter

abufletcher

Peter, your roll of aluminum tape looks much better than the crud I picked up at the local Home Depot which I realized only AFTER opening the package actually has lettering written all over the tape. Plus it is REALLY REALLY thick and sticky as a mouse trap. I can imagine using bits of it on cockpit interiors and maybe a hatch or two but as a covering material it stinks. What is the brand you are using? Both the roll and your plane look GREAT!

canadair

This is amazing! some great pictures and techniques. Has anyone done a large Ryan STA? if so any chance of pictures? a polished STA, that would be nice!