A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine had an accident with my ARFreakiNobler. Tomorrow, it should fly again! Same pilot figure, wing and tail-but an entirely new profile fuselage, landing gear and engine. The same fuel tank is used, because it had no damage.
This one is 3 sheets of 1/4" balsa, with some flat carbon fiber strips laminated in-between, and some plywood for the engine mount and doubler. The original wire gear was too weak, so this one gets an aluminum set, with fiberglass wheelpants. I erroneously believed the primer was cured on the balsa fuselage, when I painted the Monocote Blue on it, and during the process of mounting the gear, tank and engine, smudged the color layer, everywhere I held it. Dang! It was looking pretty sharp, before that-except for the splotches of non-uniform color, out of the spray can. Dang, again! So...I set it in the sun this morning, to help finish the cure, and the darn thing blistered! I guess the primer was out-gassing when it became warm, and the blue color held the gas under it, and raised a bubble. Triple dang!
This ARFreakiNobler has been a real pill, since I opened the box! Sure does fly nice, though!
If I can get the pictures to stick here, you'll see the results of my efforts. I HAD to go ahead and put the Star and Bars, and NAVY on it, because it just didn't look right without it. Since it is a Re-Built Nobler, I'm naming it Re-Nob.