Painted Wheel Pants - YES or NO?

[PJ Rowland]

This is simple :

When you build a pro stunt ship - What is the accepted convention here :

Do you leave them in the plain carbon weave or do you paint them to match the plane?

I personally think models look more complete when they are painted - For example Bruce Perrys Concourse winning Jester had incredbile painted Wheel pants.

Is wheel pant detail becoming a lost art like cockpit detail ?


 

[Randy Powell]

>>Is wheel pant detail becoming a lost art like cockpit detail ? <<

Not for me.  

[PJ Rowland]

I paint all mine also.. its like not painting the Cowl...... its just not an option in my opinion..

[Randy Cuberly]

Maybe I don't pay enough attention to other peoples airplanes but I honestly have not seen any stunters without painted wheel pants.  Sounds like a "too lazy" situation to me.

Can't think of any other reason not to paint them!

Randy Cuberly

[PJ Rowland]

"I honestly have not seen any stunters without painted wheel pants."

They're out there........ and some are even being planned as we speak.

You know who you are...

[Howard Rush]

I have some of the pretty carbon cloth trousers.  I thought they were too pretty to paint, but the black doesn't look as good in flight as a color that matches the plane.  I had trouble getting the paint to stick, though.  There must be residual mold release on the trousers.

[keith varley]

The white fiber glass wheel pants that are about $20. pr. and come from Randy Smith and Brodak have a very nice white gel coat finish. However they don't give a chemical bond to dope , or maybe any other paints we might use.I have uses many pairs of these , and the only way I have been at all successful in applying any paint trim is to give them a bit of sanding with fine grit paper, then at least you achieve a mechanical bond.In any case they don't stand a lot of handling without the paint (dope) getting scruffed up.Keith

[Mike Griffin]

I guess I am old fashioned because I make all my wheel pants from balsa and paint them.  I think a really nice paint design on the wheel pant is kind of like icing on the cake...

Mike

[PJ Rowland]

Howard :

I actually agree.. I had a few problems getting the paint to stick to my carbon pants and legs, in the end, I re-coated the entire structure in .02oz carbon viel and finished it off exactly the same way I did everything else.

I think your spot on with a mold release agent. No amount of chemical cleaning would suit.. I tried sanding them back, adding primer, the only thing that worked was the addition of the carbon.

Matching wheel pants : FOR SURE !

[Doug Moon]

I have gotten away from wheels pants all together and I have never looked back.  Here is what I have been using lately, last 8-9 years.

The shock is a fake but just adds a little detail.  Learned it off of Windy U. from one of his Spitfire builds.  I never was able to keep wheel pants looking good long enough.  I used to get 200-300 flights a year and they took a beating at our field.  We used to have a ton of loose gravel and little pebbles at our field in the past.  It's better as of the last several years with a couple of resurface jobs have really made a nice facility.

Anyway,  I know you were asking about wheel pants but I thought I would add a little to the conversation.

PS PJ, there is an RC company that sells there ARF 40-60 sized aerobatic planes with VR installed on the wing top and bottom.  Noticed a few months ago in an in MA.  That are placed very similar to how you place yours, pigeon toed to each other, but their go all the way across.  Pretty cool!

[PJ Rowland]

Doug : Ive experiemented with them alot as you know.

My very first series ran them all along the wing - but subsequent knocking off over a period of time, I noticed performance didnt reduce..

Eventually with each new installation, I gradually reduced them, I ran 2 pairs ( 4 on top ) for several years, until I knocked those off also.. ending up with just a Single pair.. Moving them slightly further out away from the prop wash gave me the best of both worlds. Performance and Maintence.

I've got a few idea's as to how to improve them to blend in with wing construction but thats my secret.

Short answer : How I do them in 1 Pair configuration V toed is the best way.

I expect to see them on Riff Raff.

Incidently, if you want a set made from Carbon fiber quite thin , I can make you up a set from new carbon sheet I have specifically for this. ALOT thinner than Ply, I now make them from 0.015 Carbon sheets.

I have considered selling them premade, with a kit to allow for alignment, 8 per Kit, but I think the market is to small to warrant spending hours making them up.

Let me know..

Wheel fairings look good .

[Derek Barry]

This is simple :

When you build a pro stunt ship - What is the accepted convention here :

Do you leave them in the plain carbon weave or do you paint them to match the plane?

I personally think models look more complete when they are painted - For example Bruce Perrys Concourse winning Jester had incredbile painted Wheel pants.

Is wheel pant detail becoming a lost art like cockpit detail ?


 

I hate you!

Derek

[PJ Rowland]

 

I hate you more.

[john e. holliday]

Derek & PJ,  shape up kids or the old man will get you.    I love the gorgeous planes with pants or fairings.   Just don't have the patience, plus the rough grass field I use.

[Derek Barry]

I hate you more.

You know payback is coming in 2013....

Derek

[Bruce Perry]

PJ,

Firstly, thanks for the kind words. 

I use balsa pants, but if I were to use the carbon "trousers" I'd be real tempted to use "black" in the paint layout and leave some weave showing.  Then you have the paint match and the "cool" look of the carbon. 

Your Tiger Scheme would be perfect for this with the black stripes left in carbon cloth. 

B

[Larry Cunningham]

..they need to be painted, in some bizarre scheme which is completely unrelated to the finish on the model (preferrably unattractive) - for example, you could have them in a carbon fiber weave pattern finish!

Another option on pure balsa wheelpants would be to stain them, to accentuate the wood grain - cherry, walnut, teak, etc.

Or, I suppose they could be made to look like a transformer part, something armored with looks of rivots and bolts, likely to fold into the airplane as it becomes a race car or a destruction machine, perhaps a dragon that breathes fire.

They definitely need to look like something you would never actually see on any full sized airplane.

(So WHY do you ask a silly question like this??) ;->

L.

"The simplest questions are the hardest to answer." -Northrop Frye

[PJ Rowland]

Bruce : True that would be cool ! Atleast your still saying Paint them .


Derek : I still haven't paid you back for 1996. - In 2013 ITS ON - Now get painting the votes are in.