I am getting ready to go to the Golden State Championships at the end of the month.  I needed an Old Time entry, and of course it HAS to be a SMALL model!  I got a Brodak ARC Baby Clown, and have been assembling it with care.

Fuselage and tail surfaces are tissued with silkspan, the wings with Polyspan.  Clear butyrate non-taughtening dope from Aircraft Spruce and Specialties for the finish.

The Polyspan was applied as an Iron-On with Balsarite adhesive (smuggled in from Tucson!).

The silkspan was given a couple of coats of clear, then clear with lots of cornstarch added.

Fillets were 3-hour epoxy loaded with microballoons.  The surrounding areas were masked off first, then after the epoxy set up, the fillets sanded smooth before the masking removed.  Finally, Squadron white filler putty was used to blend out the ridges made by the masking tape.

Power is my old, reliable PAW 55 (.035 c.i.) and a 1/2 ounce tank.  I will convert the tank to uniflo before installing it permanently.  It will be mounted on a moveable plate so that I can get the upright/inverted runs equal.

As an experiment, I sprayed a coat of clear with ultra fine reflective glitter.  It is very pretty in the sun, but the surface is very rough.  I am not sure whether this is a good or bad thing.  Drag will certainly increase, but the flow may staty attached to the wing longer and generate more lift. 

Decals are water transfer, inkjet type.

I still need to paint the fuselage and tail, of course.

The elevator hinges are polyspan doped on under the silkspan.  Grain runs across the gap.  After application of the silkspan and filler coat, the hinges are GONE! Stealth achieved.

At present, the weight will be less than 6.75 ounces, and it might need a touch of noseweight.

I plan to use a 5x4 prop, and fly on 40' .008 lines.

If noseweight is needed, I might switch to the .049 or .061 engines.  Why carry lead when you can carry power? 

The model is masked and white undercoat sprayed.  I will mask off the canopy and spray the final color tomorrow or Monday, depending on how set up the white seems to be. I am using Rust-O-Leum paints for the colors.

Lookin really good, but I'm afraid that pushrod's gonna be a tad short...

The engine didn't "like" the 5.5x4 prop, so I switched back to the old standby 6x3.5 I had used before.  The model is a trifle underpowered and needs noseweight.  Unfortunately, I don't have time before the contest to switch engines (not sure I have enough tank capacity anyway), so I'll just have to make do  with what I have.  Final weight will end up just over 7 ounces, at least a full ounce over my last Baby Clown.

Plenty of lifting performance even at that weight, so I'm good on that score.

 

The Polyspan hinges were doped down just as if I were using the material for covering.  We will see how long they will live, I've never tried this before!