Hello,

I am starting to finish my ARC cardinal and was wondering how any of you have finished the fuselage? I was thinking of glassing the fuselage with .72oz fiberglass but am wondering how the cloth will be over the gapping holes? I'm worried the cloth will sag... As a solution to this, I was thinking of filling the holes with foam or maybe even ribbing with balsa?

I'm assuming the fuselage NEEDS to be stiffened.

Thanks for your advice,

-Daniel

Thanks Dennis,

If I understand correctly, you closed the holes with heavy silkspan and then glassed the fuselage?

I'm putting an enya .40ss in mine which I believe is a tad heavier that the OS LA.40.

Regards,

-dan

On mine I glassed the nose and used an iron on fabric for the rear , and finished it like the nose .Primer and color.

Why do you want to glass the whole fuselage???  Use heavy weight silkspan and glass only the nose.

John,

I only use 3/4 oz cloth and I assure you it is lighter then silkspan. The polycrylic clear will cover in 2 coats, considerably more dope is needed on paper.
One coat of primer to fill any voids and sanded smooth. Minimum paint on fuselage to get a reasonably shiney finish. It has held up for about 200 flights so far and will probably go a whole bunch more before anything needs to be looked at finish wise.
I do this simply because I really can't stand the whole dope/polish and suffer for your art thing. Guess I'm lazy but I'm a contented flyer.

dennis