Ep 159: The Basics of Fabric Covering

[00:00:05] Hello everyone and welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I’m Ron, I’m daniel and I’m dave, so tommy’s gone. This is one of his multiple trips of the year. I’m gonna be honest, I have not been up too much recently, so this is gonna be what. Five minutes, 15, 15. Well, good, we have some name for we’ve been running long in the last couple. Yeah, we’ve been a lot longer than normal, almost two.

[00:00:41] Hours and we used to average like 45 minutes, so I don’t know why. Okay, okay, so we have. We do have a couple things to talk about. There’s a couple new airplanes that came out we want to talk about. You guys did some night flying that we want to talk about. And then so, since daniel has the mystery man airplane that he has started to recover, what’s that? Oh, I forgot your money. What money.

[00:01:12] You haven’t paid him I’m not worried about. See, I forgot all about it. So there you go, but anyway. So since daniel’s been working on that, he’s going to be covering it with fabric and then, I assume, painting and all that kind of stuff. I’ve never done that. Dave has done that. Daniel is doing that for the first time, correct, correct? So I figured it’d be good to talk about how to do that as a primer on fabric covering primer. Primer. That was absolutely accidental, yeah, because there’s a lot of primer.

[00:01:45] Involved so that’s my thought on what to do for this episode what have you guys been up to.

[00:01:54] We can talk about that. I’ve made a couple maiden flights. Nice new aircraft, call it aircraft. Yeah, it’s an aircraft. What is the auto gyro? Oh, the durafly. The durafly g2v2, g2v2, it’s a mouthful, I tell you. So how’d that go? Well, that doesn’t sound good. Don’t take your aircraft and fly it through the sun on a test flight.

[00:02:25] Okay, yeah, I was. I was at the field by myself waiting for people to show up and got impatient, decided to take it up for his test flight because I figured how bad can I hurt myself with this thing?

[00:02:37] And does everybody know what an auto gyro is? You guys know, well, I do, yeah, I, I do, okay, so go ahead and describe it. It’s an unpowered rotor, looks like a helicopter, but it’s unpowered, and you have a traditional tractor motor up front pulling like a propeller on the front collar pulling it, and as it pulls it through the air, air rushing up through the rotor blades keeps them spinning, hence the auto and auto gyro, yes, and so it flies like a cross between an airplane and a helicopter, but there’s

[00:03:10] No wings. There’s no wings. The wings are the blades, and no power to the main rotor, except for on takeoff. This one has a small motor that spins it at what I consider an incredibly slow speed, really until you.

[00:03:23] Get in the in the air then you shut off the motor so is that just to help with the first rotations then.

[00:03:29] Yeah it just speeds it up so it doesn’t take as long a ground run to spool up the main.

[00:03:34] Rotor well that’s kind of cool so with that then is there any control surfaces other than the.

[00:03:40] Or the blades on top you. You have you tilt the main rotor left and right for aileron and then you have a traditional elevator and rudder- okay, and it requires a tremendous amount of rudder and very little aileron. Why is that? It turns more like a helicopter, okay, and it’s just the way, the nature of the beast. It runs and flies fairly well. I was trimming it out and ended up flying it through the sun. It became a blue dot that I got disoriented on because there’s no wings to look.

[00:04:12] At yeah, and I got a little disoriented and put it down in the beans and broke off one of the rotor blades. Oh, so I’ve repaired it, but I’ve also ordered four sets of rotor blades. They were: buy one, get one.

[00:04:22] At hobby king they must know and say you’re not the first one yeah people are going to need these.

[00:04:27] Things. So it has promise it’s going to take a little practice. It’s not. It’s not as natural feeling as a normal aircraft, but it definitely has promised and it makes a very cool noise when it’s flying. Really, yeah, the main rotors make a very unique noise and so how big is it? The main rotor is I.

[00:04:48] Believe 800 millimeter. So for us americans that don’t speak metric, 800 millimeters. So what does that? Roughly like 30 ish inches. Yeah, around 30 inches. Yeah, that’s because a thousand is three feet.

[00:05:03] So, yeah, close, okay. Anyway, it was fun while it lasted. He was impatient so I didn’t get to see it. That’s too bad. Yeah, it would be nice to have him go get it out of the bean field, but at least we

[00:05:19] Have beans this year. Well, oh, is there being? Except I have not been out. Yeah, it’s beans. So because it was beans last year too, wasn’t it? No, it was corn, was it? Because it? Remember he dropped his, I dropped the bombs in the corn. Well, and it was the year before I’m in the other plane. We- I had to get the drone.

[00:05:35] For oh yeah and I took a blue one up this guy the grand tundra caught fire and went down last year.

[00:05:42] Last year okay and I searched the corn and ended up being in the next field over which was beans.

[00:05:48] Maybe that’s what I’m thinking of. Beans, then it was one field. East beans are so much better than corn. Yes and no. They hide just about as good as the corn does, but they’re not as cut your face up.

[00:05:59] Walking through them that’s the air flow paper slice or corn slices across the face.

[00:06:05] Yeah, okay, yeah, you’re right. And then we had the mctwist out. Oh, the ready-made rc, the new aerobatic, the one that looks like an ultrax kind of ultrax, yeah, yeah, and made test flights on those. My first flight was incredibly tail heavy and I thought, wow, this thing doesn’t fly all that well, but it’s very sensitive in pitch. I brought it back and realized I had pushed the battery too far back.

[00:06:37] Repositioned it much better behaved aircraft, but I know it’ll fly an extremely tail heavy position for hovering and things like that, so it’s got a lot of potential for 3d. Oh cool. Yeah, that’s very, very.

[00:06:49] Aerobatic and you both have one right so you both put the light kits and yep yeah now I have the.

[00:06:55] Differential thrust set up on mine where daniel is just using a y harness that’s boring well.

[00:07:02] Differential thrust will give you that fun little pancake and I watched him do it he was doing that.

[00:07:06] So you’re going to change up then, huh, I don’t know I’m doing all right now. I mean it’s, let me get used, let me get used to it, and then, yeah, and it, I did put mine down, it was.

[00:07:22] I? What was I doing? Oh, I was you’re, you’re high alpha, yeah. So I was pushing the nose up and trying. Well, I figured out, when you cut it back too much and it starts rocking side to side, you’re, you’re done, and yeah. Then I got upside down and then I just lost if I was up, if I was down. So I was about four foot off the ground. So I just set it down in the dark and set it right down. It’s like, okay, I’m done, but didn’t do any walk back over, threw it right back up in the air and off it went. So

[00:07:52] Now I’m pretty sure I’ve asked before, but I do not remember. Is that an airfoil or is that flat? It’s flat okay, flat plate okay, and those fly- good too. I mean again another very, very easy build. I mean it’s.

[00:08:05] There’s nothing to it. Nothing to it, I mean, the lights are spend more time. Yeah, the lights, the lights are what takes forever. Yeah, I remember you sitting there doing that at the. Yeah, that was.

[00:08:18] That’s the worst part but yeah it’s not bad cool excellent flying aircraft and not too expensive.

[00:08:24] Yeah, and I think we’ve decided we need different lights on the bottom. I have more lights ordered, different colors. Yeah, because how my wing, I’ve got the blue lights on the bottom, red and blue or red and green on top. Yeah, this is kind of hard, for me at least, to tell up, and which if I’m yeah, yeah, because I need something on the bottom. Are there lights on the bottom? Yeah, but it’s the same as the lights on the top. Top and bottom are fairly similar. Yeah, so, and this whole thing’s more, it’s got red, green and white and but to me it’s more white than red and green. It’s a lot.

[00:09:01] More brighter but like I said I need something on the bottom and like I said the top and bottom are.

[00:09:05] Fairly similar color even if just a couple stripes of blue or something that’s all I would think yeah.

[00:09:11] I mean my wing, that blue on the bottom, I mean instantly know if I’m upside down. I mean, it’s very easy, or maybe I’m used to seeing that and could be. If I would have got this one first, I mean, it wouldn’t have caused that much of an issue, but so I don’t know. I think we’re talking about putting something on the bottom, at least for me. Yeah. What batteries, though, do those take?

[00:09:34] Three cells from 1800 to 2200 oh I’ve got those yeah you should do one maybe I don’t need another.

[00:09:42] Project at this point. Even though it’s a day, it’s easy. I understand. It’s not a project, it’s a afternoon. Yeah well, look around at all my afternoon projects. I need to finish first.

[00:09:52] I get it a lot of fabric, tack. Yeah. Yeah, the one tube they send is not it’s enough to put the plane together. But the lights, yeah, you need their own. Yeah, we had to add to it, so it’s, but yeah, it’s.

[00:10:10] All good, what that? The auto gyro. What battery does that take? It has to have a three cell fit 1300. You might. You might squeeze a 1500 in it, but it’s going to be tight. Oh, it’s, that’s less than I would have expected. Yeah, it’s, it’s short flight times because it requires more power than I expected it to need and then just small battery. But it’s an easy five minute flight, that’s not.

[00:10:37] Terrible, I guess. Yeah, that’s about normal for planes that are a little different. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds about right cool. So anything else, night flying going on well, night.

[00:10:51] Flying did have something I never thought about: the moon being a distraction. The moon being a distraction, yeah, yeah, that night we were- it was friday night- went out there and we had a full moon.

[00:11:04] It was the strawberry moon. Yeah, we thought so. We ended up going camping last weekend in missouri and the same thing: we were able to watch the moon come up and it was huge because we were super close.

[00:11:15] To it right now. Yeah, back then it was a full moon and it was super close, and here it was orange because I guess we had a bunch of dirt in the air or smoke or something, I don’t know what it is.

[00:11:26] Where we were they had clouds across it so it looked really neat like the like the halloween.

[00:11:32] Look to it. It was kind of cool, but this was behind us and the whole time I’m flying our big twist and or the shadow seeker, it’s reflecting the back of my glasses.

[00:11:45] So you’d have a spot come up, and it didn’t mean the same thing at first time it happened, I didn’t know what was going on. But yeah, it literally was coming, and then you’d have a white spot in your glasses so you’d lose.

[00:11:57] I never thought of that yeah it’s like I need sunglasses at night I mean it was it was it was bright.

[00:12:02] Out there. I mean it was once it got up. But yeah it would. It would reflect off the glass off your glasses and just mess and just kill your night vision. Yeah, wow, I guess I never thought of that.

[00:12:14] Because usually at night I’m fine just with glasses, not contacts. And walking around out there you’d swear there’s a sodium vapor light on a pole. Yeah, it was just that orange color. Yeah, that orange color.

[00:12:25] Yeah that’s kind of neat yeah but I’ve never had the moon be a distraction I wish I could have made.

[00:12:31] That one. You guys have made that twice now. Not night flying, that’s fun. I’ve been able to go nice, quiet, cool. No cicadas this time, yeah, oh man, yeah, they weren’t there this time. I was outside earlier today and I was like, oh, it’s just the normal ones out there. This is, yeah, that’s what I told david when we got here. I said it’s quiet out here. Yeah, that’s how it should be out in the country. Yeah, so any big plans other than nothing coming up for you guys? No, I’ve been because of the heat. I’ve been spending a.

[00:13:00] Lot of time in the workshop and been working on the redoing that goldberg cub. Oh, so I forgot about that. Making progress on that, I got push rods in it from the factory. They come with a dowel rod and wire, and, just knowing this aircraft from well- it was my very first airplane I ever built. They’re pretty flexible, so I went ahead and put tube and tube push rods in it, and so that took me a couple hours. I’m real picky about those. Everything’s so super smooth now, though nice.

[00:13:30] Dubro push rods. Yes, so this is the one from toledo right. Toledo yep stripped all the fabric covering off of it. And are you- because you were talking about different color schemes- have you come to a finalization on? I think, just to piss tommy off, I’m gonna do it in blue and gray. I love how. That’s just the reason to do it, just to piss tommy off. No, I’ve. I’ve had two incarnations of this.

[00:13:59] Airplane previously. My very first one was the olive drab l4, which you already have. One of those, yes, and I rebuilt it after my instructor flew it through a tree. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, and I don’t know what happened. Things happened anyway. Tree happened. It was very impressive. Who put that there? I rebuilt it and, of course, it’s my first rebuild and I didn’t rebuild it correctly and the wings snapped and down the road at some point I picked up a second one and built it once again in.

[00:14:30] An l4 olive drab. And on my second flight on that one, back in the old crystal radial days, somebody turned on my channel and it plowed into the ground 100 mile an hour and just completely obliterated it. And so this is my third goldberg cub over the last 40 years. And you think that scheme might be bad luck? I’m doing away and I’ve got the big l4 from bolsa usa. So I think, interestingly enough, I think I want to do it in e1, which is a navalized cub a little bit different.

[00:15:06] Because it is the traditional j3 without the big greenhouse that the l4s had on the turtle deck. On the turtle deck, yeah, this has the standard cub windows in it. Well, the navy version were standard j3s right off the production line with the standard windows, so there’s even more scale than the l4. There were some early production l4s that had the standard cub windows, but majority of them were the greenhouse type. So it’d be interesting to have something- and it’s very cool- blue and gray paint scheme, just something different. Yeah, and it takes off, tommy. So that means it takes off all the right.

[00:15:44] Check boxes. Yeah, on your, on your. So it’ll. Maybe it’ll break my streak of bad luck with goldberg cubs. And yeah, yeah, nice it will. That’ll be cool. And it’s completely overpowered. It’s got the os. I put the os 91 four stroke in it, which is way too much horsepower for this thing. What’s the wingspan? That small, isn’t it? Yeah, it’s, it’s fifth scale, so I can’t remember what it is off the top of my head, like 50, 60 inch, something in there. Yeah, and this is where I’m a little iffy on it too. When we bought

[00:16:17] It. I didn’t realize. It was the clipped wing version. You could build it full span or clipped, and I didn’t realize when I bought it, because I didn’t look at that close. Well, you didn’t have to for the price. Yeah, that was the clipped wing version. So I’m now back and forth: do I clip the tips off of it and extend the wing, or just leave it alone, or just build another wing? All right, then you.

[00:16:37] Could have both. Yeah, that’s another possibility. The plans are on the internet for it, so, and if you need ring ribs and that kind of stuff, we can trace them and cut them here.

[00:16:46] Yeah, there’s. I think there’s three different ribs in the whole wing, so that’s easy. Yeah, there’s nothing there. Yeah, they’re all. They’re all. Rib five, except for the ones, except for the root, and

[00:16:57] Yeah whatever else yeah that’s something we can talk about but that’s not a bad idea.

[00:17:02] Yeah, I’ll probably end up building a second wing for it, just so I can have a full span. I would. I prefer the full span cub, just I don’t know why it looks better. Yeah, they look kind of weird in clipped wing version. They look stumpier because they are. But yeah, you’re used to the big version.

[00:17:19] Or the full size wing version and whenever you mess with proportions yeah it can mess with you.

[00:17:24] They take I think they took 10 inches out of it in the clip wing version so that’s quite a bit.

[00:17:28] Yeah especially when it’s that size to begin with yeah cool what else anything we want to talk about.

[00:17:36] New planes yet let’s get on to that because that’s pretty much all I got right now cool so a couple.

[00:17:43] New planes came out that we want to talk about that. We saw you want me to go first. Yeah, go ahead, go first. So the one I saw- and this was on whoops, this was on facebook. I saw an ad come up.

[00:17:56] And so banana hobby, which I don’t think I’ve ever bought. I know I’ve never bought a new banana hobby airplane, but I might have had one just in passing years ago picked up, yeah, but anyway. So x fly model, who I don’t know anything about either, came out with a blue angels fa18 hornet twin 40 millimeter blue angel scheme. We know that’s. I can’t say no to one of those, you can’t say none of that. So 40 millimeter, 169.99 Pre-order, supposed to ship sometime late august. That kind of sucks.

[00:18:34] That it’s that long it’s gonna fall before you get it ready to go yeah but I mean that’s okay it’s a.

[00:18:42] Four cell 2200 battery. That’s pretty good size. That’s what I thought like. That’s the kind that I lost that I need to buy to replace for the. Oh, my mind just went blank. Is that what you lost in? No, yeah for the. Help me out, we’re all doing. Tabra yeah, rjg, yeah, see, I gotta say that all the time. Rj, gritter, yeah. And of course, 170 does not come with a receiver because it’s pnp, but still I

[00:19:14] Don’t think that’s a bad price. I hopefully it’ll fly well, but it should be fun. It’s going to be one where I don’t leave the wheels on because it doesn’t have retractable gear. It’s gonna be a hand chucker. It has a hand launch as opposed to that, but it should be good. Yeah, it should be fine. I’m excited. Low dollar, low risk. Yeah, and if I crash it I’ll still have the receiver. I can put something. Yeah, the guts will be fine. Yeah, you say it’s a twin, or a single twin. Yeah, twin, 40 millimeter, cool pre-order, blah, blah, blah, blah. What else? What does it tell me much? I think I hit the wrong button.

[00:19:49] Where I’m not looking at everything I’m looking at before it doesn’t look too bad. Yeah so factoring slow power system: twin 14, 13, 5500 kv. Brushless motors, twin 20 amp ESCs, 4s LiPo.

[00:20:12] It says, delivers abundance of thrust for flat, fast climbs, rolls, loops and endless fun for high alpha flying. Due to the f18’s low wing load and full flying stabs, flight time around three to eight minutes can be achieved with proper throttle management. So four channels, aileron elevator, throttle steering- you can take one of those servos out if you’re getting rid of the gear. Yeah, I won’t.

[00:20:35] Have to worry about steering getting quite a bit there for 160 bucks that’s what I thought too.

[00:20:40] So three s, I’m sorry, 14 jeez 4s, 1300 to 2600 LiPo is what they’re saying. Epo construction available in two schemes: the blue angels or the hawks. So yeah, look it up, banana hobbycom, just search fa18. Blah, blah, blah. Cool. Yeah, I kind of thought that was neat. Is it a model or is it a c model? No, it’s the old, it’s the legacy hornet. Yes, so I would not have bought it if it was not.

[00:21:10] Cool. So it’s got the cool. I never remember what they’re called: strikes or strikes or whatever. Tommy called the intakes. Yeah, well, it’s also the front of the wings. Oh, lean edge extensions, lexus. So yeah, right up my alley. That’s why I couldn’t resist, and it’s gonna be small enough to store nicely.

[00:21:30] And cheap. So what do you got? So we saw this announced or released, or whatever they call it, at null. I don’t know if I call it released, it’s not really. I think it was announcement. Yeah, it is the avios plug-in pnf super tacano with retracts, flaps and led lights. It’s epo and it’s 1600 millimeter, so it’s not small. Yeah, it is the super tacano in the philippine air force colors, very nice looking.

[00:22:08] It’s a two-tone gray of course you’d like oh it’s not just gray it’s a two-tone gray and it has a.

[00:22:16] Shark’s mouth that is, yeah, yeah, it looks very, very nice, super detailed. It’s got all the little aerodynamic fences and everything that the full size has and they’re very nice looking aircraft.

[00:22:28] And it sounds good flying like I mean you remember saying it there no I don’t know where I was.

[00:22:35] Oh they flew it several times but so maybe I did and I just didn’t realize what it was it could.

[00:22:41] Have been at the e-line at joe knoll when they announced that and they were doing demo flights and all that kind of stuff on it. It has a really cool sound. I don’t know if it’s because of the prop or whatever engine or motor they’re using on it. It’s a like a five or six blade. Let me count here: yeah, one, two, three, five blade, five or five blade prop. Yeah, it’s got a cool sound, so it sounds more like a jet then. Honestly, had those been in stock for sale there, I would have bought one. Yeah, they’re not.

[00:23:06] Exactly cheap, but they’re not awful. They’re in line with everything else of this size. Yeah, 499.99 For pre-order. Yeah, and it looks like they got some deals going with the battery. You can actually pre-order it with the battery for 489.. So it’s cheaper with the battery, cheaper with the battery. It’s the pre-order combo special. Oh well, sign up what batteries it take. It’s a six cell and they got a few different options for you, but the. Unfortunately, my printer print is so small.

[00:23:40] Turner g 5000 6s, 45c. Oh, I’ve got those batteries too, yeah, so it looks good and looks like it’s fairly aerobatic. Besides being scale, it looks like it can do some mild 3d stuff.

[00:23:56] So it’s got retractable gear retractable gear led lights yep and like I said seeing that fly it flies.

[00:24:03] Really well it flies nice it does I saw them flying it in the dark with just the nav lights.

[00:24:10] Is this the one that they had to shine the flashlights on to see if the landing gears were down? I do remember that. I do remember this, other than the Reggie that was that. Yes, yes, yeah, I think.

[00:24:21] The only two people there that need a flashlight. Yeah, their gear. Yeah, yeah, it was a. It was pretty impressive. They were able to fly it in pitch black with just nav lights. They’re bright. I’m surprised it.

[00:24:31] Took that long to come out though like you announce it there you would think you would want to be able.

[00:24:37] To have people buy it there. There’s a lot of them out there in influencers hands, and so I’m thinking they were pushing them out there, kind of maybe to test fly them, make sure that all the bugs were.

[00:24:46] Worked out maybe, but that I don’t know. That just seems, I don’t know. They rung them out pretty hard and all, yeah, they did, but that was actually hobby king. There though, yes, that was actually hobby king. Yeah, I don’t know. Those were, like I said, good looking airplanes, very scale.

[00:25:01] Yeah hard to tell it’s foam from a distance it looked really good yeah it has a good finish on.

[00:25:07] It. So that’s neat. Daniel, you should buy one. No, I tried. Yeah, you should buy one. Yeah, I’d like to, but that’s a lot of money just for a purchase of. Yeah, you wouldn’t fly it that much. That’s the problem. I would like it, but at the same time I have another tacano. I need to finish. Oh, yeah, you already have one, don’t you? I do, but I really like that color, even though it is dual tone: gray. It’s not your.

[00:25:41] Traditional gray no it’s not it’s look it up if you guys want to see what it looks like but it’s it’s.

[00:25:47] Pretty cool. I would have to redo it in us. Navy colors: super texan, really. Yeah, see, I like that color scheme, that’s nice. But blue angels: super texan, yeah, okay, okay, anyway. So that’s the two new things we came across, and I swear free wing had something and I couldn’t find it when I came to.

[00:26:10] Come out oh really yeah I didn’t see anything else announced yeah they sent me an email on something.

[00:26:16] And I. It seems to me it was a cougar, but then it wasn’t a cougar. I don’t know what it was. I went through my emails and I couldn’t find it. So okay, anyway, it’ll pop up one of these days, one of these.

[00:26:27] Days and we’ll talk about it in four months, like it’s something new, like we didn’t realize it was already released. Yeah, okay, should we talk about anything else before we get to covering? You got anything, I don’t have anything. I don’t have anything. No, I guess we’re ready to cover. All right, well, I’m going to sit back and you guys cover covering. Okay, so various different types of covering.

[00:26:48] You can use. Traditionally. A lot of people just use the, the heat shrink mylar or polyester, the film type coverings, yeah, and those work great. They’re fast or easy, they’re light. But next step is going to fabric and they’re not super durable. That’s the problem with the fat, with the film. They you drop a screwdriver, it’s going to go through it, yeah, or dent it, yeah, and they value that you can shrink back out. It’s the holes that are the problem sometimes and they get brittle, get it all the way.

[00:27:19] Yeah, it’s as it ages, they. They get brittle and crack and I and they’re always wrinkling, constantly wrinking. So and they’re not super scale for a cub. Or, in the case of what daniel’s working on a vintage, what mystery, mystery man, mystery man going.

[00:27:42] Oh yeah there’s not a lot on the internet about them because I’ve looked there’s plans though right.

[00:27:47] There’s plenty out. What is it? Outer zones? Got the plans but I went online to look to see what other people’s look. Yeah, what’s the original look like? There’s not a whole lot of them out there.

[00:27:57] Even to get an idea how old the design is it looks very vintage it looks 40s 50s yeah and I think that’s.

[00:28:04] What it was from right well we don’t know yeah I don’t know like on the plans oh I don’t know that’s.

[00:28:09] What he said I had never did pull the plans up to look I say I looked at the plans but I didn’t.

[00:28:14] Actually pay much attention to them. So, anyway, if you got yourself a vintage aircraft- whether it be a scale or just a vintage rc- fabric is much more desirable, it’s more durable and it’s more.

[00:28:29] Authentic looking yeah it’s dull it doesn’t have that gloss sheen to it and it doesn’t sound like a.

[00:28:36] Drum like a thin drum. That’s a big thing. It doesn’t reverberate, yeah, but when you thump it- especially on a larger aircraft- if you thump it with your finger- it does sound more like a drum.

[00:28:48] But like a full-size aircraft yeah right but yeah I don’t know how to describe what I’m trying to say.

[00:28:53] But that’s okay. It doesn’t get that reverberation in flight. That, yeah, annoys you. Yeah, and there are various different ways of going about a fabric finish. There are some that you can use that are very similar to the film finishes, where they’re all the work is already done. They’re pre-paint, pre-colored and you just iron it on just like a slightly thicker version of a film covering, and that would be the solar tax or attacks and, if you can get your hands on cover right, also had a

[00:29:24] Fabric as well. 21St century had a fabric that was pre-finished and those really there’s no difference in using those versus a mylar. Covering the ones that we use mostly requires a little bit more work than that because they are not pre-finished. Color wise, there is the two main ones that I’m familiar with. It’s a stitz covering system and basically that is nothing more than a full-scale.

[00:29:57] Aircraft fabric and glue and paint system and it’s actually a system they have like a 200 page.

[00:30:04] Instruction manual oh yeah it’s it’s massive so there’s a lot to it then yeah I can’t imagine what.

[00:30:12] They did to make a 200 manual. It’s not that hard big print for old guys. And then the coverall. I love the SIG coverall and I work almost exclusively with SIG coverall and it’s not hard to work with at all, easy to repair and the big plus- it doesn’t get wrinkles in it all the time like the fabric or the like the mylar do, so you don’t have to shrink it every season. I’ve got one airplane that I shrunk every 10 years, it just, and it lives out in the garage. So it’s got hot cold, hot cold, yeah.

[00:30:46] And I took it out this spring and decided to take an iron to or heat gun to it had minimal wrinklage.

[00:30:53] So is that how you shrink these then yes it works very much like the film coverings the.

[00:31:01] Difference is and how you apply it, and then the finish. That goes on to them. Okay, you take and prep your surface just like you would for a film covered airplane, although you don’t, in my book, have to do it quite as smoothly. A little wrinkle here and there, and your little bump isn’t going to be nearly as noticeable as it would be on a film covered aircraft, but still, the better you sand it, the

[00:31:28] Better you fill it, the better it’s going to look. So is this covering thicker? Then it’s a little bit thicker, so that’s going to hide a little bit more, yes, and then the weave kind of hides a little bit, hides a little bit as well. And then the fact that it’s not like shiny- shiny it can be, depending on the

[00:31:47] Finish, you put on it. But for the most part we do want the flat or semi gloss coat paint okay. So it all helps hide little boo-boos, but still sand it as well as you can. And then you have to have some sort of he’s adhesive for the fabric. So this is just plain fabric then. Yes, there’s not.

[00:32:09] Anything like solar text or what you were talking about where it has the adhesive already correct this.

[00:32:14] Is just plain fabric with nothing on it so what do what it’s made of.

[00:32:22] When we say fabric is it like polyester I believe it’s polyester okay so I guess that makes.

[00:32:28] Sense why it shrinks, because I was doing a little bit of research and I found something last night. I haven’t researched a whole lot, but it looks like some people are actually using polyester dress lining from the fabric store. Okay, looks interesting. I’m gonna have to go buy a yard of it and just see how it works, because if that’s the case, it’s going to be really cheap- and I’m cheap, no.

[00:32:52] So that’s interesting. I want to try it out, but I didn’t want to bring it up too much on this because I don’t really, because you haven’t done it yet. Yeah, yeah, I got it, but it looks pretty much like the coverall. Coverall and the stets are very similar to full-scale aircraft covering one of the name brands for a full-scale aircraft covering a seaconite, and this is just nothing more than a lightweight version of seaconite, just a lighter version. It works the same it uses in the case of the stets products. It uses exactly the same product. In fact, on their website, they

[00:33:27] Had a listing of it- would cost you this much you do a quarter scale airplane, this much to do a third scale and this much to do an ultralight. Okay, so, yeah, same stuff. Then. Yeah, same stuff, just a lighter version. So you got to put on some sort of heat adhesive for the covering and you just brush this onto the bare air frame that you’re working with, making sure to put it in places that the kind it’s going to contact, so the tops of the ribs, all the edges, any contact points. You.

[00:34:03] Definitely want to put it there so like on a flat sheet do you cover the whole thing or just the edges.

[00:34:09] I like to concentrate on the edges but do cover the whole thing because that’s what I did.

[00:34:16] But I always make sure there’s a little bit more on the edges, because that’s where all the real gluing occurs. Or it holds, yeah, and in the case of SIG it’s called stick it and it’s a heat activated adhesive. So once it’s dry and you go to cut your piece of covering- just like you would with the films, a little bit oversized- when you can lay it on there and you’ll find that the fabric drapes so much nicer. It doesn’t wrinkle and bubble when you’re laying it down like the films.

[00:34:46] Do this conforms much better and then you take and put your heat your iron up to.

[00:34:55] I don’t know. I like about 350 degrees to tack it down and, just like the film coverings, tack it down around the edges and then, once everything’s down, then go over it lightly with the iron to adhere to the rest of the surface, slice it just like you would the film covering around the edges. This is mostly like using the film covering. Make sure that you have plenty of razor blades or number 11 X-Acto blades. This stuff eats through them quickly. I’ve gone through just a little bit.

[00:35:28] I’ve done on that mystery man. I’ve gone through like four blades. I mean it’s like I don’t know I couldn’t believe they were dull on that quick. Once they go dull they’re usually start snagging and then

[00:35:39] Start pulling and, yeah, they’re perfectly usable. Once you’re done with them, just set them off to the side. You can use them to cut balsa and whatever else. You just don’t want to be cutting fabric, but it dulls it real quick and then take an iron down your edges when you go to take and put on your other.

[00:35:58] Pieces say we’re doing a wing, so we did the bottom of the wing first. Now we’re going to do the top. We have to go back and put more of that adhesive around the edge where you’re going to have overlap from the top piece, because there’s no glue on the back side of the fabric so you have to have something for it to adhere to. If you had a lot underneath of it, sometimes you can take and sit on it for a little bit with the heat. Iron and the heat will draw the adhesive up from the first layer. But I always like to go.

[00:36:29] Back and put on a light coat everywhere you’re going to overlap, and that is it as far as applying it, it shrinks beautifully. Be aware that when you shrink it will sometimes make snapping and

[00:36:41] Cracking noises. Oh so that would scare me. It’s pulling. I haven’t even used the heat gun, I just use my the iron so far and just hover it over top of it and it seems to be pulling out all my wrinkles that I

[00:36:54] Need yeah it’s really easy to work the wrinkles out in the first place because it has stretch in all.

[00:36:59] Directions. So you’ve covered, daniel, both kinds of air use, both kind of coverings on airplanes, with this being your first fabric type. What are? What do you think of it? I like it a lot better, oh.

[00:37:11] Do you really? Yeah, I think yeah, it’s it just no, I haven’t done a lot. I’ve done the bottom of the mystery man and I did the nose area last night, which that was. It has a little bit of- oh, that was a lot of little pieces because there’s all sorts of different shapes up there. Yeah, I, it seems like I don’t fight as much as when I use the other film and I don’t know. I just so far I’ve like, I like it a lot better. Have you done the wing yet? No, that’s why, because we’re trying to decide.

[00:37:45] About the ailerons or not you should so yeah that’s what we were just talking about earlier.

[00:37:50] Make it into a, an actual four channel, have the rule control. That was one of the things that made me want to get rid of it too. So just three channel. Yeah, well, the lack of rule control. Like I mean, I get your, you, you’re gonna have the. It’s gonna stay level. Like I get it, yeah, it’s not gonna be.

[00:38:09] Aerobatic because that I still like control it’s got that old smell to it once I took the covering off.

[00:38:16] Really oh yeah what was the covering like did you see yeah I had no idea what it felt like styrofoam.

[00:38:22] So I don’t. Did I send you to pictures? Maybe not so, especially the wing. There was like three different types of covering on that plane. The fuselage had two different kinds, the wing had a third kind and it’s. When I took it off it was like a film, but then it left like a webbing under it and it was a son of a gun to get off that wing. But it. The wing just felt weird to me. Yeah, and that’s, that’s the wing. See how it’s got the. It’s almost kind of like a mailing package you.

[00:38:57] Get some of those mailing packages that are yeah, yeah and but it’s that webbing underneath of it. So the film would pull right off that webbing. The webbing would stick and it was.

[00:39:11] It was it might have been silk and dope but that doesn’t look like silk and dope to me.

[00:39:17] But so some of the fuselage had that on it then the rest of it was just the normal MonoKote or.

[00:39:23] Whatever you want to call it. Yeah, because I mean you could tell it was different. The white was different type of covering, the red was on there, and looking at this picture it is weird. I mean like it’s, it’s it just. Yeah, it looks like tyvek, but I don’t. Oh, a very thin, very thin tyvek though.

[00:39:41] So I did find. I mean, once I started messing with it I ended up getting heat gun out. Now, if I heated it I pulled the film off, but to get that webbing off, it seemed like once I started heating it I was able to pull off in chunks. So I don’t know if they used the same type of glue where they brushed it on, yeah, and then stuck it down, impregnated. That maybe. I don’t know all that. I kind of wonder if it’s like polyspan, maybe it. It was bizarre, but it was very.

[00:40:14] Very rugged, though. I mean I was poking on it and everything else just because I knew it was coming off, so I was trying to puncture it and it took a good amount, yeah. Yeah, I mean it was kind of impressive how much I was pushing on it and it was indenting, but it wasn’t actually.

[00:40:33] Puncturing it. Yeah, interesting, but like I said it, just, it had a weird sound to it, it had a weird feel to it and it wasn’t anything I had ever seen. I bet we’re gonna end up a lot lighter. Oh, I would think. So that was pretty heavy, did you? You didn’t have to keep any of it, did you? Yes, well, I think I did.

[00:40:52] Have to look I think I did a little chunk of it chunks always end up underneath my workbench.

[00:40:58] Somehow there’s going to be something somewhere I think I did because I say you do have something.

[00:41:02] Like a two or three inch square piece of it I think I do because when I was peeling it off the wing it.

[00:41:08] Splintered one of my ribs, so the rib is still stuck to it. So I’ve got it set off the side so I could glue the- yeah, the rib back on. So I do. I got a chunk of it, I believe. I’ll ask some people and see if they have it. Just it was bizarre and that’s really nice. I showed him. I said: what is this? Because I’ve never seen anything like it, but I was. I was impressed, though. I mean, it was a rugged film, yeah.

[00:41:30] But just nothing but it was anyway back together nicely with the coverall you’re using coverall right.

[00:41:35] Yeah, yep, yeah, it’s so the application- the other night was the first time I ever did it, hmm, so far. So this, the smells nice that gives ventilation, yeah. That on the glue: yeah, I haven’t been yelled at yet, but that’s coming, I’m sure. But so does it smell when you heat it back up.

[00:41:59] To apply it I didn’t you can you paint it on like out in the garage and then do your covering you get.

[00:42:05] An odor when you heat it but it’s not like when you put it on yeah it’s not drying yeah all the vocs and.

[00:42:11] Stuff. Yeah, the vocs are pretty strong. Yeah, okay, but it’s, it’s, yeah and like I say, that nose had so many round, not one curves, yeah, and it did real well. I mean, there was a couple boo-boos I made that I had to and which, again, was easy to fix because I was trying one of your other episodes you said- to take a lighter to the little strings. Yeah, well, I got a little too close and burned a hole in it, so I just cut it out, popped it off and you can’t. It’s, it’s hard to see the seams. I mean it kind

[00:42:44] Of blends right in and interesting, yeah, so when you take and get it all on, which it goes on fairly. If you’re comfortable covering with film, you can. It’s pretty easy to do. Once you get it all on, then you need to seal the fabric and you want to get it all the edges cut as clean as you can. Okay, so hold on.

[00:43:01] Before we get to that part where you have the overlay, like where you have the, the new or the second layer on top of the first layer, that edge, are you trying to make that as straight as possible? Are you trying?

[00:43:13] To kind of well feather it. You can do it either way. I personally do try to keep them as straight as possible with a minimal amount of frame. You’re going to get phrase- it’s just nature of the beast, it’s going to happen, yeah, but I try to keep them as straight as I can. A more professional looking finish for the parts of the seams that you’re going to see. However, the seams do tend to disappear in the finishing process and, that being, you have to take and seal the fabric somehow because air

[00:43:44] Will go right through it as is, and you can’t paint on it because paint will go right through it. Oh, never thought of that either. So SIG recommends using a nitrate or butyrate- don’t remember which it is, I have to look at the directions again- to put on there. Well, that stuff is just a hard to get and awful smelling stuff. I’m very nostalgic. I do enjoy a good whiff of nitromethane dope, but yeah, it’s pretty, pretty potent stuff and hard to get. What I have found that works better than anything is water-based.

[00:44:18] Polyurethane. I use the earth farthing the blue one. Whatever the blue can is poly shade, no polycrylic. Polycrylic, yeah, I use that one and you want, and it comes in various different finishes for this. I actually do like using the flat finish, because it gives the paint a little bit more tooth to bite into. Okay, that makes sense, and this- this is the lowest tech way of doing this ever. I do not brush paint my aircraft. They’re all airbrushed, sprayed, etc. In this case, though, I do take a piece of paper.

[00:44:51] Towel folded in four quarters, dump the polyurethane on the wing or whatever you’re working on, and squish it around with a paper towel or a foam brush, really, yeah. So are you not worried about it?

[00:45:03] Because you said the paint would go through you’re not worried about it does see through a little.

[00:45:07] Bit because. But it is thick enough and you’re moving it around fast enough that it doesn’t tend to really go through. It will go through and you’ll see it pool on the back side, but it’s really nothing to worry about, other than weight, maybe other than weight, and it there’s on a huge quarter scale type or third scale. It’s going to be minimal once you get your acting gear and figure out how to do it without really having it run through. But, like I said, I use either the paper towel or I’ve upgraded myself to the foam brushes and just mop it around, and so this is before you shrink or after you.

[00:45:43] Shrink after it shrunk. Okay, go ahead and shrink it all up, make it nice and pretty. You’ll have some raggedy edges, no big deal, just make sure that they got a good coat of polyurethane on them.

[00:45:54] And then let it dry overnight and can you use the spray polyurethane I’ve never tried to spray.

[00:46:00] You may not get enough coverage, because you really got to soak into the fabric and fill that weave. You got to fill the weave with it. If you’re spraying, it may not go on heavy enough. Okay, it might work. I don’t know, I haven’t tried it. Okay, well, I know the spray is more expensive for what you’re getting. So, yeah, so let it dry overnight. Stuff dries, that touch, by the way, really fast. Nothing to worry about there. You can pick it up, move it around, shop, it’s all good. But still let it dry overnight. Because what happens when it dries overnight? All those little frays and little bits and pieces that are kind of

[00:46:32] Sticking up, harden up overnight, when that stuff really cures, and then you can take some 120 grit sandpaper to it and literally just knock off the edges. Your seams will disappear. Very, very nice to work with and if you get a lot of the fray beforehand you can take the lighter to it and burn off the little.

[00:46:51] Little strings just don’t hold it too close because it goes real quick and all of a sudden there’s a.

[00:46:57] Hole I’ve done it with a heat gun too but the lighter is a little faster and it’s more spectacular.

[00:47:02] When it burns so before we get to finishing then what is it pinking tape you do not have to add.

[00:47:12] Pinking tape. If you want a more scale finish for, like I say, a cub or a world war one type aircraft, you can add pinking tape, and those are various, available from various different places. Stitz, I think, sells them, and there’s a place on the internet that sells literally just scale pinking tape. I think brian does that too, doesn’t he? Yeah, maybe, like I know he’s, he’s got it in there, I don’t.

[00:47:34] Know if that’s one of his products that he’s bought or not I’ve not see I’ve not done obviously any of.

[00:47:40] This. So what is pinking tape for on the full scale aircraft you would put? It’s also called a rib tape. It would go around the edges and it’s just an extra layer that is bonded to the covering to help reinforce edges. And where they sew the ribs to the covering full scale aircraft they are.

[00:48:02] The ribs are sewn to the fabric okay so instead of glue it’s actually sewn and hand sewn or hand.

[00:48:10] Sewn in place. Yes, okay, and so that’s covering that to protect the covers, it to protect the, the stitching. Okay, in our case it’s not necessarily needed, but it is a nice scale touch and I use it on my quarter scale d7 I. I had it on that pup, I had it was on my dr1. It just looks nice. Is it on your l4? It is not on my l4 and I’m kicking myself for not doing it. I was in a hurry to get it done for our show and, okay, the, the wings look a little.

[00:48:45] Plain without it. It’s something I can go back and do, and is that the? Is that the stuff that kind goes up and down like it’s got the zigzag edge? Yeah, yeah, okay. However, in the smaller scales,

[00:48:58] Like quarter scale. I have found that just ribbon from the craft store works just fine and all my aircraft have been done with just the ribbon. Okay, and that’s just been glued on with canopy glue.

[00:49:11] So not actually applied. Not actually applied, it is just. It’s just a glued on cosmetic finish and you do that below the polyurethane. I do it. If I catch myself, I will do it before I do the polyurethane, because you do get a better bond gluing it directly to the fabric. If you were to forget, like I did on the cub, and want to go back and do it later, you can glue it to the polyurethane and it works fine. It just can be a little more prone to peeling up. But so if you do that, then do you polyurethane.

[00:49:47] Over it and then you pull your thing back on top of it to help kind of just bond it all together.

[00:49:51] Okay and also perhaps the ribbon for paint really doesn’t seem that difficult it’s not it’s.

[00:49:59] Not really you got two extra steps in the end the in the polyurethane and the paint everything else is.

[00:50:05] Pretty much what you’re used to. I mean, yeah, so far I like it a lot better. I’m not fighting. I always fought the monocode or whatever. It always wants to roll up. I went: when you try to lay it down flat, it wants to roll, or static electricity to your hand. Or I mean, yeah, this when you lay it down.

[00:50:27] Boom, it’s, it’s, it’s down. My problem is it’ll slide off my table if you’re using a larger chunk and it’ll just start. It’s so slick. It just slides right off the table and then it lands in the floor with all the dog hair and then I’m having to shake it out and take tape to it, get all the dog hair out and

[00:50:41] Yeah, my shop’s a mess. Well, and, and maybe I’m not doing it right, maybe I’m not letting the glue dry enough, but it, even when I go to put it on, it kind of you can kind of put it on there and push it on in with your fingers, and it kind of holds it in place so you can kind of move it around, get it where you want it. Then I’m hitting, hitting it with my iron. It does have a little bit of surface.

[00:51:03] Tack to it but actually it’s not fully cured I usually go through and brush the entire airframe.

[00:51:08] In one sitting, would that call. So what’s causing me to get glue onto my iron? Is that normal? Yeah, we’ll just melt through the fabric because it starts getting sticky. Then I start rubbing it on.

[00:51:18] My pants to clean it off I usually use a piece of paper towel that’s been folded four times and soaked.

[00:51:23] In acetone and just rub it. Okay, I thought maybe I was either putting too much on or not letting it dry enough because, like I said, at first it was all right and then you start feeling it gets where your iron’s.

[00:51:33] Getting stuck. Yeah, and that’s just because it does work. You got a little bit too much on which it’s better to have too much than not enough, and it just works its way through the fabric. But that’s normal. And that’s normal. Like I said, acetone, when the iron is hot, actually takes it right off. It takes a lot more to take it off when it’s cold, so I always like to clean it up when it’s hot.

[00:51:56] Probably because it hasn’t melted yet like when it’s cold it’s still you would think chemically acetone.

[00:52:01] Would just release it, rather it’s hot or cold, but yeah, there is a definite difference and you can clean it up after afterwards, but it just takes more scrubbing. So are you better doing this then?

[00:52:12] With no sock on the covering iron yeah because you’ll be throwing away the socks and the stuff.

[00:52:18] You can’t scratch you’re not going to scratch the fabric so go for it interesting yeah I like it I mean.

[00:52:26] It’s, it’s good so far. I’m not fighting it, no, I’m just. Yeah, I’m just starting. This is two nights of messing with it, so but so far, and it’s like, say, I just hover the iron over top of it and it’s, it’s pulling it. I’ve got it pulled tight anyhow when I’m putting it down, but any little bit of wrinkles I just kind of hover over top of it. You can just see it just go right out of it.

[00:52:51] And so now can you over shrink this to where you’re going to worry about warpage oh yeah this.

[00:52:59] Stuff shrinks hard. So if it’s a light structure, you can either crush or warp a structure. Is that the crack and popping sound you’re talking about? Cracking popping actually is what you’re hearing is the little threads in the fabric catching on little bitty splinters, oh, and as they pop over that little splinter, okay. So you have to be more careful shrinking this than you do it. It shrinks at a very controlled rate, so it’s not like it just tricks it. It’s slower and it’s very controlled it’s.

[00:53:29] Not a problem but if you if you keep pushing the issue you can literally crush a structure.

[00:53:35] Interesting good to know good for you to know and the nice thing is it also takes a lot of heat to put.

[00:53:41] A hole in it. So if you get a little crazy with the heat gun, you do get a second chance, but if you do put a hole in it, it’s very easy to patch. I just cut literally a patch, just like they would have.

[00:53:51] Patched a full-scale airplane and like, say you what I did? You can’t hardly see the edge where you’ve done it either. I mean just kind of blends all right in, yeah, you just stick it on there and literally.

[00:54:03] Stick it in it and so what about patching after the plane is finished and been flown and all that and.

[00:54:09] Exactly has a finish on it. If you somehow or another manage to put a hole in it, it’s just patch, just like you burned a hole in it. Just put that patch on it. But you will have to put whatever.

[00:54:19] Top coat finish that you put on it so do you need to sand it down first or what do you yeah I like to.

[00:54:23] Take a little acetone and remove whatever paint or surface that you got on there. I like to clean that area up, a little bit bigger than the hole put on the patch, put back on your polyurethane, just like you did the whole thing. It’s just you have to build it back up to where you were and you can- actually you can- make a patch almost completely disappear with minimal work.

[00:54:49] Nice and then finishing so you’re you’re to the point now where you have your polyurethane on it’s.

[00:54:54] Dry, dry. I will usually take a green scotch right pad to it and scuff the surface a little bit, being careful on ribs and corners and stuff that you don’t cut through it, just like you don’t sand through fiberglass. You don’t want to sand through this stuff. But I usually take the scotch bright pad to it and that breaks up any smoothness in the polyurethane finished, gives the paint something to bite into. Also it helps in a little final sanding when you put it on with the foam brush. Sometimes your foam brush will chunk out a little bit and leave a little bitty.

[00:55:26] Marble- what do you want to call it? Piece of foam, yeah, the, the scotch red pad will just pull that stuff right out so it gives you a little bit cleaner surface and then finish it with whatever you want. I typically will use water-based paints. Latex house paint is one of my favorites. Get the samples from lowe’s and those work really well. You can use rust-oleum, any- basically any finish that you want to use that is appropriate for the type of fuel that you’re using.

[00:55:57] You don’t want to use something that it’s not fuel proof on a glow power dark plane, although something typically you’re using fabric on is going to be gasoline or electric. That doesn’t sound terrible. It’s not, just not. I mean there’s very little bubblage down the road and whatever it is there shrinks out, especially if you use latex house paint. Latex house paint stays flexible, so when

[00:56:24] You do hit it with the heat gun it just flows with the go so how do you finish like do you spray it do.

[00:56:31] You brush it, do you roll it? You can finish it however you like. I will always spray my aircraft. I think you get a better finish, but there are places that you may want to hand brush. A lot of world war one stuff was painted in the field with brooms, basically. So where a more uneven finish is more appropriate, you can use that. Basically, however you want to finish it. Interesting, I do it all with an airbrush.

[00:57:01] It’d be nice to have a little jam gun but I’ve never bought one so I’ve got an old airbrush that I stop.

[00:57:05] Way out so it the spray pattern is huge and so then for different colors you can just tape.

[00:57:15] Wow, okay, I like using a little mat, a low tack tape such as tamaya, because it can pull up depending on what’s underneath, but it’s generally not a big deal. I’ve had very little issues with.

[00:57:29] That to me it seems like it’d be easier to put stripes on and versus cutting MonoKote and getting.

[00:57:38] The bubbles? And yeah, it does. Yeah, actually having a blank canvas: yeah, as opposed to trying to layer it. Yeah, much, much easier, especially over open structures, if you’re trying to do a couple different colors over a wing or something better looking finish: yeah, but it is heavier. You’re probably

[00:57:56] Going to end up a little bit heavier than a film covering just because the nature of the beast you’ve.

[00:58:01] Got a heavier covering to start with and you’re right and then you’re adding a couple layers of.

[00:58:06] Paint. So, yeah, you’re going to end up with a heavier finish. If you’re careful, though, it’s not significantly heavier. There’s a lot of paint on certain aircraft: my fokker d7. It is done in a cheddarboard pattern, the entire fuselage. There are 500 individual checks on that airplane. Yeah, I had to count them and it ended up exactly 500.. Wow, that’s a lot of paint and tape and it was no issue at all.

[00:58:38] And the finish has held up for 15 years now that’s cool so what color are you doing your.

[00:58:45] Mystery man I have the slightest idea you’re not going to go back same with what it was.

[00:58:49] I’d like to see what originally what it was, but I can’t find. The one picture I found was a black and white picture and obviously it was white, so the main fuselage was white, but then something dark- I don’t know if it was black or what it was- and it said mystery man down the side. Now I, that’s the only.

[00:59:08] Photo I’ve seen of one I bet it was red and white. Red and white. You think red will look very dark, almost black sometimes in a black and white photo, depending on the age and the hue. But like I said, I

[00:59:19] Can’t find any a lot of photos of them out there so I’m kind of shooting in the dark right now.

[00:59:26] I’ll figure it out when I get there I got I got a way to go yet you can do whatever you want on I.

[00:59:33] Guess, but I did take the picture of the wing before the mystery man off the wing before I- that’s smart- demolished it and that way I can go back on if I need to and vinyl cut what I want back.

[00:59:44] If put it back on there and then you could even the vinyl cut and use that as a mask.

[00:59:49] Mm-hmm well I could do that yeah I didn’t think of that yeah my l4 my d7 there.

[00:59:55] There’s no vinyl on them there that’s all paint yeah that’s so cool so yeah so far so good so this.

[01:00:04] Is like, say, the first one, and then I think my next one’s going to be the pete and paul, that one’s going to go fabric too. You haven’t ordered that, have you? No, the one I got, yeah, no, not the big, big one.

[01:00:15] Okay no I was I got excited for a second no that hasn’t happened yeah it needs to.

[01:00:23] Oh yeah what needs to be fabric covered is the cub is that cub yeah you need to strip that thing and.

[01:00:29] Start fresh and which may end up happening. I mean, I was going to try to save it and paint it, but I don’t know. Yeah, I might as well. That’s all right. I think we’d be better off stripping it, and so far.

[01:00:39] I mean as easy as this is going I mean I then you can see if there’s anything underneath that you need.

[01:00:45] To be concerned about. Yeah, especially with playing that big, because there is issues with it. There is there’s duct tape holding chunks of fabric on, so and that’s the way it was when I bought it. So I mean, yeah, there’s a long way, yeah, so it that may, yeah, that may end up happening. I mean, I hate to do it, but that’s a lot of fabric. If I could save the wings, the wings.

[01:01:11] I don’t know, but I don’t know what the design. If you paint over it, if are you going to see the design that’s already in there, you gotta see it. I mean that’s the only thing other than that the wings are perfect now the fuselage has got some issues. Yeah, so you’re going to see the design, even.

[01:01:25] If you primer it and sand it put so much paint on it that to hide the previous pattern it’s maybe you.

[01:01:31] Can stick with the same pattern but just different color. Maybe we’ll see. That’s tbd I need. I need- yeah, I need to mess with that one again, but it’s sitting on the sun porch on my new stand. I dig it is.

[01:01:47] Nice up on that stand yeah so I need a list of things you bought because I might end up getting.

[01:01:55] Myself another one. Yeah, I’ve thought about. I thought maybe menards, I have them on sale, maybe this fall, that’s good. Yeah, I never thought like get switched over and I’ve got the list at home of what I found worked the best. I mean it seems to work fine and you can adjust, you can.

[01:02:13] Adjust to what you need. How? Why? I just measured the code because I knew that’s what I wanted on there, so I measured the width of it and you’re gonna find anything much wider than that. No, no, so cool, and it wasn’t that like, say, the chair was what was it 49 or something? And I’ve got maybe less than 10 bucks in pvc elbows and joints and yeah, that’s something I need to put on my list of.

[01:02:40] Things to do maybe we’ll we’ll put a how-to or something on the website anybody else wants to do it too.

[01:02:46] People were looking at me strange because I’m standing with that chair out and then plumbing department: I’m trying to stick pipes on. They didn’t. They didn’t even come up. Matt, do you need help? They just walked right on by. You need help? Oh, that’s awesome, that’s so, but I, I did it until I found the ones that fit just perfect on there, but cool, but yeah, anything else. So you want to anything else about covering? I’m sick of covering right now. Hey, can I, can I put the glue all over?

[01:03:19] The fuselage, or do you do it as you, that stick it, or can I do the do it all? I go ahead and do it all to start with, because all I’ve been doing is the area I work on, I do it, and then that’s it. Yeah, and then I move on to the next area. I didn’t know if I could just do it the whole thing, and yeah, I, I go.

[01:03:37] Ahead and just base coat all to start with and then as needed I can concentrate on it add more if needed.

[01:03:43] Here and there and foam- don’t use foam brushes. Oh yeah, foam brushes and stick. It does not work together they it eats it pretty quick, it just starts to deteriorate and it just starts falling apart.

[01:03:55] Oh, what do you use then? I typically will use an acid brush. Oh, it’s a little tedious to do a full quarter scale fuselage with the start. Those are like what? Half inch wide. Yeah, it takes a little while to do that. I’ve I’ve got a couple cheap chip brushes I can use for that and throw them away. The stuff doesn’t clean out a brush real well unless you get it before it dries. Once it’s dried, yeah, my brush last night it’s. Yeah. For the bigger areas I will use a chip brush, but they tend to shed and I don’t like that. You’re always can use a roller of any kind as long as there’s no foam in.

[01:04:32] It no fuzz that comes off yeah but that’s going to be a little overkill because that’s going to cover.

[01:04:38] Too much area at a time I wasn’t sure like talking about a bigger I think.

[01:04:43] These, as I looked, was it amazon? They’ve got different width of those acid brushes too. They’ve got some whiter ones, I don’t know. I think I’m gonna order some off there typically.

[01:04:54] Use because they got a metal handle and the. I can soak them in acetone to revive them if they do get a little stiff. Yeah, mine got like that last night. Yeah, I put it in a bag, even a ziploc bag.

[01:05:07] Trying to save it yeah that stuff does cure real quick that stick it I mean it’s not drying you’re.

[01:05:15] Right it evaporates off and cures and if you take and stick acetone in a glass bottle and just.

[01:05:22] Leave the brush in it. That’s probably your best route. I said I just think I bought three brushes in town yesterday. Yeah, I paid too much. I paid too much for them because you go on amazon you can buy like 144 of them for like 15 bucks and I paid last a while. I paid four dollars for three of them.

[01:05:45] So ironic that was the cheapest item we sold in the shop was acid brushes they cost us seven cents a.

[01:05:52] Piece. Yeah, well, now they’re selling for a dollar 49. And the kid that would open? They’ve got it locked behind a glass. They’re locking up acid brushes. Yeah, oh really, I went to code the true value there on stevenson. He’s got it behind the glass. He goes. Boy, these are sure gone up, he goes. They used to be like 39 cents, well, now they’re buck 49 a piece. Yeah, they used to cost us seven cents. We sold them for 35 cents a piece and I’m fine with 35. I mean, yeah, no kidding. So yeah, so you’re literally throwing away. So as soon as I got out in the truck I looked at amazon. I go, I’m gonna order, order some. So

[01:06:27] That’s nuts, yeah, it’s, but yeah, foam, the foam brush, I mean instantly it was. I know it was about the third time I went to get some of that stick it. It just started just crumbling and I mean it was yeah, so I don’t know what’s in it. That’s stuff that the state of california says is probably so.

[01:06:51] You can still get all that through SIG, then that’s all available through SIG, okay, and I’ve kind of been hoarding it because I expect it to go away at some point. But there’s other products out there too. You could- actually you can- adhere the fabric with just the polycrylic, just like you did back in the silk and dope days- brush a layer on it on, stick it to it and then brush another layer on top so it saturates through and it’ll glue itself in place. I don’t think it sticks nearly as well, but

[01:07:21] It does work. Now, can you heat this stuff up to real to pull like if I, if I put something down, I want it back off, you heat it back up, come back off or not? Oh yeah, it’s heat activated. So.

[01:07:33] Anytime you take and put heat to it’ll it’ll turn into goo again nice yeah I gotta try it sometime.

[01:07:41] Probably won’t be anytime soon but I gotta try it sometime yeah I love the stuff cool anything else.

[01:07:50] That’s all I’ve got. Oh, all, right me. Neither. We’ll see what this week’s brings with trying to finish covering it, so we’ll keep us in the loop. I want to see. I can’t wait so far, so good it’s. It’s not easy to cut. That’s the one. You’ve got a big piece of fabric and I’ve tried three different types of scissors and they just don’t seem to cut real well sharp. But I

[01:08:16] Typically will just lay it out on my on my bench and take a razor blade to it and then throw the.

[01:08:21] Razor blade away yeah it runs I can’t believe how quick it’s dulling it I mean that’s like wow.

[01:08:26] As soon as you see it start snagging stop change your blade because it does it’ll just start pulling.

[01:08:31] And once you start pulling that thread it just runs and that’s probably bad on it too to.

[01:08:37] Have a thread completely pulled out because you’re losing part of your structure. Yeah, just make sure it’s on the edge and just sand it off. All right, cool? Well then, I’m done until next time. Thanks for listening. I’m Ron, I’m daniel and I’m dave. Good night. You enjoyed this episode of the rc.

[01:08:58] Plane lab podcast for topic suggestions. To ask questions or to give any feedback, connect with us at rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either Ron at rcplanelab.com or Tom at rcplanelab.com. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please subscribe, rate and review us on your favorite podcast app until next time. May your landings be gentle.