Was the plane too damage to graft a new nose on?   I know when my P-47 went in on maiden flight, I too many pieces to pick up and internal pieces was unbelievable.

No Doc, it wasn't too damaged.  Just the front end.  It was heavy and I didn't have the heart to rebuild the front end.  I ended up giving it away.

Flawless work...

Marcus

Thanks guys.  Greg, I laughed out loud!

Here's a "teaser" pic of the canopy!

Now that's why i asked you about that in the PM! That's so smooth, it looks like molded plastic. It's beautiful!
Thank you Christ

I thought I'd share the equipment I use when spray painting my models.

I use a cheapie $20 HVLP Touch Up gun from Harbor Freight to spray the white and clear coats.

I use a Badger 250 "Spray Gun" for the red and blue trim colors.  I also use this when inking to clear coat the ink lines as I go.

I use a Badger 350 single action airbrush to frost the canopy and apply the de-ice boot to the fin LE.

I also have a 2 HP 8 gallon Harbor Freight less than $100 air compressor that I use.

I use 3M fine line tape from the 471+ family.  This stuff is great.  Great adhesion and very flexable to make a tight radius like the aft portion of my windows.  But pretty pricey like $11 a roll at Walmart.com.  Good stuff and worth every penny.  You spend months building and finishing a model and blow it on paint lines?  No way with this stuff.  1/4 inch stuff shown in the picture.  I mostly use 1/8.

Today I sprayed the blue on the bottom.  I mix 3 parts SIG Dark Blue and 1 part Miami Blue to get a color that matches the Sapphire Blue Monokote trim.  I added some retarder and thinner like I did with the red and used my Badger 250 spray gun.  Tomorrow I'll do the stripes and weigh the model.  My guess I added a few grams of blue.

 Lookin' good!

The canopy is frosted!

I outline the canopy "framework" with 3M 471+ 1/8 fine line tape.  On the "windshield" frame I like to put a taper as it goes to the bottom of the frame work.  It seems to add some "beefiness" to the structure and looks authentic.  Once taped and masked off I use my Badger 350 single action airbrush to very lightly go over the whole area to begin the frosting.  I usually do this with the airbrush a little bit further a way from the canopy.  I try to get individual dots of paint.  I don't over do this.  A little goes a long way.  Otherwise you'll end up with a darker canopy.  Once the whole area is "spotted" I readjust my airbrush to give me a nice small "foggy" type of pattern.  I then go all around the outline and up the vertical frame work.  I usually start off the canopy and move the airbrush onto the area I want sprayed.  Again, I go with just a little at a time and go around several times till I get what I want.  When that's done, I then go to the corners and spray a small radius of frosting onto each one.  You can see what I mean in the pictures.  Remember what Windy would say, "less is more".  Don't over do it.  Under do it is better.  

After I unmask the canopy, I then spray on a coat of clear to protect the "fragile" frosting.  

The frosting seems to darken after a coat or 2 of clear, that's why you don't want to over do it.

Then once that is dry, I'll spray the whole model with a coat of clear to seal all the colors and trim.  Then it'll be on to the inking.  Stay tuned!

You are an artist in disguise.

Thanks Doc.

I inked the model tonight.  I use Staedtler pigment liner.  These pens are acid free and archival quality ink. I've used these pens on models 10 years old and the ink lines have not faded.  Good stuff.

After wet sanding the sealer coat I then ink the panel lines and rivets.  When I make a mistake the ink can be "erased" with some Q-Tips and rubbing alcohol.

Next up the clear top coats.  I'll spray on at least 2 and probably 4.  We'll see what the weight increase goes with each coat.

 How "touchy" or prone to running is the Staedtler ink when you're spraying the clear over it?

I wet sanded the first 2 coats with 1200 grit sandpaper. Then I shot the final 2 coats of clear today.  Both went on very smooth and laid out very well.  Very happy with the finish.  I'll let it gas out for a few days then work on getting the motor and electrics mounted.  Then in a few weeks, I'll wet sand and start the rubbing out process.
Total weight of the finish was 90 grams.  20 gram over budget which was 15 grams under estimated!  Might make 49 ounces total ready to fly.  Realistically more like 50 ounces.  We'll see.

I started the finish on Feb.11th.  3 weeks ago today.

The length of this build is taking on Howard Rush proportions. One the other hand, making it right is just making it right.

I installed the electrics tonight.  I removed the black battery wire from the ESC and added a longer wire and shortened the timer wires.  There is no need for a pile of spaghetti in the area!

Igor would be pleased, I put the heat sink up into the "breeze" and the attaching Dual Lock on the component side.  

Lots of room for cooling air.  It does get hot here in the Dallas area!

Tomorrow I'll add the battery hold down and the hatch release.

I had bad luck with the Pigment Liner pens. It reacted badly to House of Kolor catalyzed polyurethane topcoat. Such is life.

Yea, I've used Certified and Randolphs for years. No issues. This was a catalyzed polyurethane that reacted to something in the ink. Rare occurrence. I never had problems with Rapidograph or Micron Pigma pens. So, I'll just go back to using those.

On the arming plug, did you just glue a deans connector into a piece of plywood or can you get them with a flange?


Thanks,
MM

I finished the battery hold down, sealed the hinge lines, and hinged the rudder.  I still have to apply my AMA numbers, get a spinner, and hook up the adjustable rudder linkage.  The spinner and linkage are on order so it'll be a week before that gets done.

I did install a beat up spinner and prop and weighed the model.  It weighed 51.6 oz.  My budget was for 50.3 oz.  I checked the CG and it balanced out at 15% MAC.  I'm considering getting a Cobra 3510.24 820Kv motor for the model.  It weighs 1 1/4 oz less which will help move the CG back about 1/8 inch to about 17%.  We'll see how it flies first.

Pictures to come when it is all done.  It does look good though!

Total finish so far is 82 grams.

82 grams, does this include the film on wings & tail, or just the dope on fuse & rudder ?

82 grams, does this include the film on wings & tail, or just the dope on fuse & rudder ?

Hi Allan,
The 82 grams is just for the doped areas.  The fuselage, fin, and rudder.  I'm sure the finish could have been made lighter, but with me coming in under budget on the construction phase I felt it wasn't all that critical.  If you look at my weight and balance sheet the weights for the wing, stab, flaps, and elevators all include the Monokote, horns, hinges, and flap push rod.  It's just the way I do it.

Motor man,
You comments are way out of line.

Crist has been showing one of the best building sequences that I have seen. We all have different ways of doing things, and there is room for us all to learn how the other guy does it.  No one is saying that their way is better or worse. If you think your method is better,do it your way.

Hi Allan,
The 82 grams is just for the doped areas.  The fuselage, fin, and rudder.  I'm sure the finish could have been made lighter, but with me coming in under budget on the construction phase I felt it wasn't all that critical.  If you look at my weight and balance sheet the weights for the wing, stab, flaps, and elevators all include the Monokote, horns, hinges, and flap push rod.  It's just the way I do it.

Will you be posting and update of your 2016 W&B file reflecting the finished model ?

Looks like the weather will be good enough for the first flights on Wednesday!  A full report tomorrow.  Batteries fully charged, spinner and rudder linkage done.

I flew it this morning.  Four 1 minute flight followed by a 2 1/2 minute flight.  The first 2 1 minute flights got the handle neutral setting and the wins level, the second 2 1 minute flights got the turn rate equal on insides and outsides.  The 2 1/2 minute flight was exploring inside/outside loops and H8's. The wind was coming up when I was at the circle and the last flight, the 2 1/2 minute flight, I got some nasty turbulence off the treeline so I decided to pack up and do more flying another day.  All-in-all I'm happy with the airplane.  It doesn't feel nose heavy but I really need to do more flying and more trimming for sure.

I forgot to show my battery hold down method.  I notice that the nose section seem to "twist" a bit so I designed a battery hold and nose stiffener all in one.  The main part is a piece of 1/16 Birch ply about 4 inches long and the inside width of the battery compartment.  It is hold in place by 4 #2 Servo mounting screws.  The aft screws only need to be loosened because I notch the hold down to slip under their heads.  The pictures should make this easily understood.  On the battery side of the plywood I have some thick foam tape to actually touch the top of the battery.

Had the plane out today.  Weather was very good indeed.  Many thanks to the other DMAA members who were out flying for helping me get the wings level.  I flew 2 complete patterns today.  I'm going to really like this airplane and the way it flys!  Still working on minor trim issues for the next several flying sessions.