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Gentle Curves - Lucas his Skywriter


Lucas Hofman
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All done and coated once more to fill the weave. On the picture one sees the new struts. I was not happy with the old ones (shown to the right) The new ones are symmitrical and easily profiled. Satisfied now. Spraying is next. The car repair shop does hardly spray filler, and if they do they use a special gun for that. I will give it a try with a 2K epoxy primer I use on the boat. It is a high build primer so 2-3 coats might be ok to create panel lines.

The only problem is that the garage is at -10-15 celsius so not suitable for spraying. I need to create a small spray booth in the workshop in the cellar.

img_4606[1].jpg

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I have let the glass heng over any sharp corner, and cut if off after curing by sanding with a 180 gritt sanding block. The weaved fibreglass fabric is very pliable: the cowling could be done in one go without cutting or overlaps, just massaging around the corners.

Give it a go. It is easier then you think and the surface is very durable afterwards. Since my easykote still not has arrived I used finishing resin, that worked fine as well.

Lucas

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I've got an old Flair Astrohog which the balsa sheet is covered in tissue which I had to repair and that's tough. I've seen a plane that was covered with fibreglass but I couldn't tell just by looking at it. I had to be told as it was so fine and smooth I thought it was amazing. One day I'll have a go yes

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And now a question. Should I (wet)sand the filling primer before adding tape for lines and spraying those. It is a smooth service, and I would hate so sand through the filling primer some places.

Or will the top coat adhere to the glass without a primer coat without problems?

Lucas (scale newbie)

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Panels and lines marked:

img_4634[3].jpg

I have an overlapping panel (simulating the covers one needs to open to service the engine) and some butting panels (the lines where I found then logical).

While these are sprayed with a filling primer (I did 3 thin layers) I started experienting with rivets. I followed the recipe I found on a tutorial on rcscalebuilders.com. Used canopy glue with a little grey paint and one of the small Banggood bottles. the challenge it looks is not making too big rivets:

img_4639[1].jpg

(please do not laugh, masters of scale....)

Lucas

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to Tim: Not sure yet. I got a bit of car paint (water based) and a 2K top coat for a local car repair shop. Disadvantage of these are that they are optimized for speedy repairs, so short pot life and quick drying time.

Alternative would be a water based household paint.

I will try the former on my test piece to see how easy of difficult it is to work with.

But first all the nails on the fuselage (10 cm new snow last night, so plenty of building time left before spring is here)

Lucas

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I suppose the main advantage of the metal syringe needles is that being metal, they give good results and can go down as small as 30 gauge, 0.5mm. Yours look very good though and when painted will look even better (especially if you dry brush them to give a weathered look).

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Lucas, interested to see what paint you finish up with as I have to decide what to use on my latest project ( a restoration of my last surviving model from the 70’s) . It’s going to need fuel proofing as well which seems to be another challenge these days that I do not remember as being difficult in times past.

Tim

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Hi Tim,

The rear will be covered with HK film, like the wings and tail surfaces. I hope 3-4 mm is enough (kept the rivets that distance from the edge).

Tried with the car paint (on a piece of paper) yesterday. Not good. Looked like the pigments clumped together in a more transparent fluid. Next try tonight with some water based oil paint normally used for indoor woorwork. I have used that on the veneered wings of a glider before. If it goes well on the filler/primer I willl get a tin in the correct colour tomorrow.

Lucas

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Flushrivets are usually made by pressing rings in the filler, eiter mechanical (shapened tube) or burning (tube in solering iron). I have never tried that, but is is covered in most tutorials on rivetting (I went to rcscalebuilder.com).

I think flush rivets were not used before the second world war, so therefore I only have made domed.

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Painting has begun:

img_4658[1].jpg

I got some paint from a car repair shop, but that did not work at all. Small blobs of pigment floating in a more transparent fluid. So I went for a water based oil paint (yes it says that on the can). According to the shop it it a mixture of acryl and alkyd. I have used that before on the veneered wings of a glider (red underside) and it sprayed fine. He could mix a very pink pink and there we go.

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