Wounded

My next plane is going to be a P47. I want to cover it with fiber glass and air paint it. Where is a good place to get more info on glassing and painting?

I have a Million questions

Jeff

lbrande

My Feedback: (16)

Jeff,

Joe Huntley on rcwarbirds.com uses a lacqurer method. His website for information is: http://home.mchsi.com/%7Ejahuntley/help.html

CafeenMan has this website that gives an exceptional procedure for using epoxy with fiberglass. http://www.airfieldmodels.com

I have used both, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. You should experiment with both.

Lew

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

Glassing 101 as taught to me:

Required equipment: Respirator with a dual cartridge system capable of keeping out carciogenic solvents, surgical gloves, overalls, hat, eye protection, sharp scissors, cheap 1 - 2" paint brushes (super cheap or Crazy Clarkes etc). Resin kit, 3/4 oz glass cloth, metholated spirits, cheap wooden ruler or similar, 80, 120, 240, 600 grit wet & dry sandpaper.

1. Purchase the resin kit - details sent in earlier email. Get required qty of good quality 3/4 oz glass cloth.

2. Finish final sanding, filling etc on structure to be glassed. This is where a good or a bad job will be shown up. More effort you do here the better the finished job.

3. When satisifed with 2. do a blow over with compressed air to get rid of all loose dust etc. Then do a wipe down with soft damp cloth. When dry go to step 4.

4. Lay out the cloth on the structure. If a wing do one half at a time. i.e start on the bottom and do one half of that.

5. Cut out the cloth leaving say a 1" overlap all the way around. In the centre section of the wing make sure you have about 1 - 2" of overlap. This will help beef up this critical area. Do this for both bottom halves.

6. Put on surgical gloves and your respirator, you need a respirator with a dual cartridge system capable of keeping out carciogenic solvents. Wear some overalls and keep the resin off your skin. Wear eye protection, I would also wear a hat/cap of some sort. SAFETY SAFETY SAFETY. This resin is NASTY stuff.

7. ok now that you have all the above on and you look like Dr Kildaire mix up your resin following the destructions on the label. For your P51 to do the entire bottom of the wing you would only need say 60 ml of resin and 20ml of hardener, this will give you the required 3:1 ratio. Ok now mix it up well using a wooden ruler etc. Now add small qty of metho, stir well, keep adding till consistency is almost that of water. Now you are ready to apply.

8. Starting in the centre section in the middle of wing, start appying resin with the brush. You want like a strip running from the centre of the wing out to the tip of wing with resin to start to secure the cloth and form a basis for the rest of the application process.

9. All you are trying to do at this stage is fill the weave, do not try and get a " skating rink " look to it. From the centre stripe you did in 8. start applying resin outwards moving slowly and easing out any wrinkles and bubbles as you go. you may have to use the brush or even pull gently on the edges with your fingers.
When you get to complex curves like say wingtips what you do is cut the overlap into little strips all the way around the curve, in this way they will lay flat under the curve as you stick them down with your brush. You may have to keep revisting these while the resin cures and dab them down a few times. Ok in areas such as the cutouts for ailerons etc just cut the overlap in such a way so you can stick it down without the cloth being folded. you will work that out pretty easily. Just cover right over aileron/flap area openings, you can cut the opening out again later when finished.

10. ok so now you have done one half of the bottom. Pretty easy wasn't it? Ok now repeat 8 & 9 on other half.

11. Let cure for at least 2 days, maybe more if weather is cool.

12. When cured get some 80 grit wet and dry and knock off any rough edges or high spots. You are not trying to sand back the whole wing here. IF you rub through the weave on a high spot do not panic, the next coat of resin will fix that. If you make a mistake and rub through a really big area then just sand it smooth, and apply a small patch of cloth. Then go ovver those rough/high areas with say 120 or 240 grit just to smooth them up a bit. Don't samd through the weave.

13. By now you should have all the rough edges knocked back and any high spots taken care of. You should be able to feel the weave if you run you fingers over the wing and should be able to cleary see the weave. See my pics in RC Universe.

14. Repeat for top of wing and let cure.

15. Ok so now you have completed the wing with it's first coat of resin and you have knocked back all rough spots etc as per 13. What you do now is mix up another batch of resin - don't forget your safety gear!

16 With the new batch of resin apply with cheap paint brush and fill in remaining weave. This time it should look like a skating rink when you are finished. Do both halves of bottom, let cure then do top.

17. By now the wing looks really glossy and sexy but wait there's more!. Wear gloves and breathing/eye protection. Again take your 80 grit and knock it back all over untill most high spots are gone and you have generally roughened it up. Do not go through the weave. Follow this up with 120 grit then with 240 and finally 600. The 600 do wet.

18. If you did 17 properly it should now feel like a baby's bum. Smooooth. What you have done in fact is removed probably 3/4 of the weight of the glass application but retained the strength.

19. Do the same for the fuz, you will probably need to work out what size, shape to cut the cloth to fit, it may take a few pieces. Take your time and work out best way to do it. Be particular around the fin and cockpit or any complex curves. Work out what you need to cut in order so that the cloth does not bunch up but will lay flat.

20. ok so by now it is probably 2 weeks and you are impatient to have this finished. What I'm not finished yet you say? BUGGER! Now take your spray gun or can of grey primer and spray the lot with primer. Let dry then take some 400 or 600 wet and dry paper and start sanding wet. What you are trying to do is find the high and low spots so you can remove the highs and fill in the lows. The lows you can fill with epoxy and mirco balloons and do what many do and use automotive bog. Supercheap stock a light weight auto filler, cant think of the name of it. You may get a few "pin holes" Don't stress the painting process should take care of them. If they are really bad then apply some resin and do the sanding steps in those areas till you are happy.

21. By now you have wet sanded just about all the grey primer off and you have filled etc as required. You may want to play with panel lines etc or simply spray another light coat of primer, gentle wet sand then apply top colour coats. Entirely up to you.

dragoonpvw

My Feedback: (7)

One thing, you use a sanding block for all the sanding.
Good Luck
Paul

lbrande

My Feedback: (16)

Pete,

Thanks for the excellent step-by-step procedure for applying epoxy to fiberglass. I printed out the instructions and sent it off to my son for him to use when he does his plane.

An aside, I hope to post pics of my TF P-40 later this year, about June. It is modeled after "Texas Longorn", Lt. Landers of the 9th of the 49th based in New Guinea.

I really appreciated you posts on the TF P-40 wing re-build. Very Informative to this newbie.

Lew

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

nope never use a sanding block and I have no probs, all comes down to personal pref

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

no prob Lew, glad to help

by the way as with all step by steps you still need to plan your process and use a liberal dose of common sense.

cheers
Peter

lbrande

My Feedback: (16)

With all the knowledge and experience gained from building the TF P-40 over the years, we all should create a new Construction Manual that incorporates the build techniques, such as, servos for airlerons, Robart, or Sierra Gear installation, Epoxy, or Lacquer for Fiberglass layup, etc.

Lew

paradiserceer

If you are concerned about weight, I would recommend using Seaconite and Epoxy. The Seaconite can be applied then shrunk with a heat gun so it is tight, Then all you need to do is apply the epoxy resin.

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

3/4 oz cloth used with epoxy resin applied correctly and sanded back till almost the weave gives very little weight gain. And it is strong!

AC2

My Feedback: (34)

Jeff,
Joe and CafeenMan are great, hard to go wrong with either one. You might try this link as I show everything from start to finish with a lot of pics. As you can see from the previous posts there are various ways of acheiving your goal as a lot of it really is personal prefrence on the part of the builder.

http://www.rcscalebuilder.com/forum/...p?TID=523&PN=1

Flak

My Feedback: (1)

Wounded,
Build it, sheet it, sand it, glass it, detail it, prime it, sand it, paint it,
clear coat it, FLY IT! Check with your local hobby dealer or go on line to find some availabel videos on how to glass. I glass and paint all of my hard skinned Warbirds. They look and fly GREAT! Try a piece of scrap balsa for your first attempt if you are skeptical. Good Luck.
"Keep 'Em Flying!"
Flak

Wounded

Great info all, I think I will get a book or video on this subject.... I will practice on a few scrap planes, before I do the real thing [:-]

Thanks all