Wow, it does a heart good to see his new baby so well received. Thanks guys, you are making me blush...
to be honest, I wasn't sure if people would like my color choices, but most of my planes up to this point have been kinda conservative and bland looking.
I really pushed against my natural instinct to get some colors on this one, so it would pop. 5 colors is more than I've ever attempted or had patience to mask before. Well, I can say that it really does show well in the air, thats for sure.
Warren - I shoulda known you'd have a few questions buddy...heh.
The Aeroproducts Quiet Pipe series is a new product from Randy, and perhaps he'd be the best person to explain it, but I can tell you it's supposed to be about 6db quieter, runs around an 18" length (where mine ran great right off) rather than the typical 17" starting point on Randys other pipes, and at a slightly slower RPM than his standard pipe.
It also requires a smidge more pitch than the standard pipe because of the RPM range, but a smidge only equals about a quarter to a third of an inch. It has the silicone rubber diverter molded right into the tail cone and feels more substantial, yet doesn't feel heavier than a regular pipe. In my opinion it is actually quieter, but mostly in the upper frequency range, seems to have a deeper, more pleasent tone to my ears. Next time I fly with Bill back to back I'll be better able to compare.
Finishing - The short answer is that it's:Fiberglass cloth on the fuselage from the wing leading edge forward. The rest of the plane got 3 coats of Sig Nitrate on bare wood, Silkspan wet with mist from Windex bottle, put down with mostly thinner with a few drops of nitrate. 2 coats Aeroproducts Zinc Stearate mixed with Nitrate to fill the silkspan, Sherwin Williams Super Fill rattle can light gray primer, 2 coats, both sanded aggressively, KlassKote white, a very thin coat almost opaque coat, lightly wet sanded, then trim colors , hit edges with credit card and overspray with MrClean Magic Eraser as per the master PTG, and he's right, it works! Then wet sanded out the worst tape edges a little more, then 2 light coats of KlassKote clear.
There are plenty of boo boo's, and I know exactly where all the bodies are burried and I'm not telling!
Perhaps I'll post some pics in the finishing forum of the full masking process (yeah, I've probably got a few hundred pictures documenting the full build actually) when I get a chance.
EricV
Eric,
As they say....."DECENT" !! Beautiful job. Looks like you got the masking techniques down to a science. Obviously a lot of masking, but the end results are worth the extra effort.
BTW, what's the story with the "quiet" pip? How does that vary from the standard pipe to make it quieter?
How about a few details on the superb finish....what did you cover it with?....did you build it up with talc filler, or go straight to a Klass Kote filler/primer/....and were there any details in the color/clear application that you could pass on to us?
Great job...."you 'da man !!"
Cheers,
Warren Wagner
Topic: Starfire done! Pics... (Read 6225 times)