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Balsa USA Smoothie XL Build

Old 02-27-2017, 11:12 AM
  #51  
pappy35
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Once I got the wing servo mounts installed I moved on to the fuselage by adding the turtledeck formers and stringers. I then finish sanded the entire fuelage down to 320 grit (it's easier to do this without the tail installed). Paying careful attention to alignment while framing up the fuselage paid for itself big time in that the wing and stab were perfectly parallel. I aligned and installed the tail surfaces with no issues at all.

I dreaded doing the tail filler blocks because I just really hate carving. I used a bandsaw to the cut the taper and a block plane to rough-in the shape. That and a little sanding and I had both of them done in under half an hour. I actually anticipated having a couple of failures so I even bought a set of backup blocks just in case but luckily they weren't needed.

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Old 02-27-2017, 02:26 PM
  #52  
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Hi Pappy35,
Plane looks awesome, nice neat build. Great craftsmanship.
Thanks,
Fred
Old 02-27-2017, 04:22 PM
  #53  
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Thanks Fred! My Solartex will be here tomorrow. Got travel plans to see family over the next two weekends so progress will be a bit slow. Thinking about finishing it in a faux WWI (Allied) scheme. Something like this:

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Old 02-27-2017, 05:03 PM
  #54  
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Great idea. I'm doing the stock color scheme, slightly different.
Thanks,
Fred
Old 03-17-2017, 06:45 PM
  #55  
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Got quite a bit done recently. The landing gear fairings and the wing to fuselage fairing are done. The airplane is sanded all the way to 320 and ready for covering. I decided to ditch the Solartex in favor of Monokote. I'm getting itchy to get her done and just didn't want to have to prime/sand/prime/paint/paint/mask/paint/etc..

We're having a fly-in tomorrow at our field (Memphis Propbusters) so I packed her in to take her up there and show off. Dodge Durango. Great RC toy hauler!

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Old 03-18-2017, 04:32 AM
  #56  
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Originally Posted by pappy35
I decided to ditch the Solartex in favor of Monokote. I'm getting itchy to get her done and just didn't want to have to prime/sand/prime/paint/paint/mask/paint/etc..




Solartex does not need to be primed. In fact, over open surfaces, it should not be primed, as primer can lead to cracking in the finish.

The next time you decide to use Solartex, paint you color coats directly to it. I think that you will like the results.
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Old 03-18-2017, 07:10 PM
  #57  
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I will. I have ten meters of the stuff but I just want to stick with something I know (Monokote).

Got her out in the sun today and I gotta say, other than one area on the front right side of the hatch (that damned hatch!!!) it's ready for covering.

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Old 03-19-2017, 02:49 AM
  #58  
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Originally Posted by pappy35
I will. I have ten meters of the stuff but I just want to stick with something I know (Monokote).

Got her out in the sun today and I gotta say, other than one area on the front right side of the hatch (that damned hatch!!!) it's ready for covering.


I'm jealous. I tried to order a 10 meter roll of Natural Solartex and they were out.

Your model looks great !
Old 03-19-2017, 07:23 AM
  #59  
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Originally Posted by TomCrump
I'm jealous. I tried to order a 10 meter roll of Natural Solartex and they were out.

Your model looks great !
Me 2. I ended up getting two 5 meter rolls. Thanks for the compliment.
Old 03-26-2017, 06:21 PM
  #60  
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Let the covering begin!

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Old 04-02-2017, 06:06 PM
  #61  
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Covering is coming along nicely. I was going to use Solartex and paint in a WWI-ish theme but I've got my sights on a large IMAC plane next and since I'm fussy about covering on a plane like that I figured I'd use the Smoothie to brush up on my long dusty Monokote skills.

Pics 1 and 2: In order to start covering one needs to clean-up. These are before and after shots of the workbench. The fuselage is sanded down to 600-grit. After sanding I very carefully remove sawdust by first vacuuming and then going over the whole structure with a shop rag lightly soaked in mineral spirits. The bench was also very carefully cleaned.

Pic 3, 4, and 5: Color samples and checking basic patterns. Using a set of French curves I cut templates out of poster board for each of the colors. For me, curved patterns are visually appealing but can be difficult to do so working slow is key.

Pic 6: Ceremonial first piece of Monokote. I always start in a location that's not visible. Haha.

Pic 7: Strips of Monokote are applied at all the corners.

Pics 8 and 9: Did the first two of three colors on the vertical tail. The final piece will be a black swoop that wraps around the lower rudder corner. So far so good.

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Last edited by pappy35; 04-03-2017 at 05:41 AM.
Old 04-02-2017, 06:52 PM
  #62  
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Pappy 35,
Looks awesome. I'm jealous. Question when you iron on the base color white, do you trim the white where next colors go or do you iron the next colors right on the white base.
Great job and nice scheme,
Fred
Old 04-03-2017, 05:37 AM
  #63  
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If it's a large piece like the red, I will remove the underlying covering. For the gray swoosh I marked the boundary of the piece and use a woodpecker (with only two wheels installed due to the width) to prep the surface. You have to use a fresh blade for these cuts because you want to minimize the depth of the cut so as not to slice through the balsa sheeting. After I lay each piece down I'll wipe the area clean with Monokote trim solvent (nasty smelling stuff but it works great) to clean off the ink and seal the edges.

Last edited by pappy35; 04-03-2017 at 05:47 AM.
Old 04-07-2017, 09:13 AM
  #64  
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Slow but steady wins the race...thought I'd post a little detail on the process I'm learning to use to cut curved shapes with film covering. I've been following the build threads of a couple of large IMAC airplane on FlyingGiants that outline the complete process for defining, cutting, and applying complex Monokote graphics. The two most informative were written by Tom Wheeler and Mark B. As I am planning to build something similar soon so decided to use this airplane to try to apply some of these methods.

Pics 1 and 2: Rudder and vertical stab covering is complete. I'm not too happy about the alignment of the gray trim but overall I think it looks pretty good. I cut these pieces using french curves and aligning them more or less by eye. Overall the color combos look great but I really needed to be a little more careful about alignment. Each piece is aligned very well from side to side (left vs. right I mean) the separation between them wasn't as consistent as I would have liked. Regardless it came out pretty good so I'm not going to remove it all and start over, lesson learned.

You can see in pic 1 that I removed the covering under the black trim piece and I did the same for the red tip. I did not however do this for the gray trim. On one side I used a woodpecker to perforate the covering and on the other I used a lower heat setting, each method of course was to try to prevent bubbles from occurring. The woodpecker method worked out much better but not as well as removing the underlying covering.

Pic 3 and 4:
For the tail graphics, which are going to be similar, I am utilizing tracing paper, french curves, and carbon paper to lay out the templates and mark the outlines on the stab.

You start by taping a piece of tracing paper tautly to the surface. Using french curves and my calibrated Mark 1 eyeballs, I arrive at the outlines I want for the three trim pieces. In order to make sure both sides are the same, I also added the elevator outline as an alignment aid.

Pics 5 and 6:
Once the borders are laid out, I place a piece of carbon paper under the outlines and traced over the lines to transfer them to the surface. Next time I might be more careful about this but as these are intended only as rough guides for installation I did this free-hand which is why the transferred lines aren't very uniform.

Pic 7:
Repeat the process for the other side by flipping the tracing paper over, add the carbon paper, align, and transfer. Now I have guide lines on both sides.

The next step is to use the tracing paper and carbon paper to transfer the lines to posterboard to make the templates for cutting the Monokote to size. On the stabs I'm going to cut 6 pieces for each side, one large inner white piece, two white stripes, and the three trim colors. The white pieces, since they overlap the colors, will go down first, then I'll apply the trim colors.

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Last edited by pappy35; 04-07-2017 at 09:23 AM.
Old 04-07-2017, 09:30 AM
  #65  
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One very important point. Be prepared to go through an entire sleeve of single edge razors. I'm not done with tail yet and I've already burned through about 15 of them. Also new to me was that I went to Home Depot and bought a sheet of plate glass (18" x 36" I believe) to cut the Monokote. Makes getting a clean cut, and a clean surface to cut on, a breeze, and only cost about $10.
Old 04-08-2017, 05:05 PM
  #66  
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Getting a little better at this. Stab templates cut which I used to cut two of each trim color. This came out a lot better than the vertical stab. These pics were taken before I cleaned up the surfaces and edges with trim solvent. Since I haven't figured out what the bottom pattern is going to be yet I'm calling the tail done for now.

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Last edited by pappy35; 04-08-2017 at 07:05 PM.
Old 04-10-2017, 01:57 AM
  #67  
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Your patience and persistence is really paying off, well done!!!
Old 04-10-2017, 11:29 AM
  #68  
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Thanks Vincent.

Last night I finished the hatch and today I've moved on to the rest of the fuselage. Here's my progress so far...

Pics 1 and 2: The hatch, as I have lamented before in this thread, is a compound curved surface that is not only a headache to sheet but it also is a little tricky to cover.The trick is to cut the covering oversize, place it on the hatch, and with the iron on high (set to about 350F with a sock) run it down the center from aft forward to tack it down. Then, while pulling firmly, keep ironing away from the center and out towards the nose and the sides. I really can't emphasize enough that you need to PULL the covering as you move outwards. I had to use sandbags to help hold it down for some areas. The reward for all this pulling and tugging is a firmly bonded, bubble free, smooth as paint, finish.

Pics 2 and 3: Next up was adding covering to areas around the perimeter to give the side covering something to attach to and to add a little more fuel-proofing. It's easier to it this way that it would be to try to seal these areas while covering the sides and bottom. Thinned epoxy will be used once it's all done to seal areas that aren't covered.

Pic 4: The turtle deck sheeting needs to be one piece of Monokote from the hatch to the tail. This will be tricky as the tail is solid shaped blocks and the turtle deck is open framing. Also, working with white in these areas demands a single, uninterrupted, piece because white Monokote is not totally opaque and an overlapping seam would really stand out.

Pic 5: So once cut to overall shape, which is fairly oversized because there's going to be a lot of pulling and tugging going on and I'll need enough material to grab hold of, I cut a slot just slightly wider than the vertical stab.

Pic 6: The end result worked out great. Took about 45 minutes of pulling and tugging and ironing but what I got was a perfectly shrunk piece with zero wrinkles and no bubbles. N-ice!

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Last edited by pappy35; 04-10-2017 at 11:35 AM.
Old 04-10-2017, 02:35 PM
  #69  
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Very nice. Good job

Rich
Old 04-10-2017, 03:51 PM
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Thanks Rich.

Finished the front red trim on the turtle deck. The process goes like this:

Take a piece of tracing paper, I have an 18' roll, and lay it tightly over the area. I then mark key points like top centerlines and the hatch aft lower corner and use that as a guide drawing a symmetrical pattern. Once I have that done and checked I use carbon paper to transfer the pattern to a piece of posterboard. That is then cut and used to cut the Monokote to size. The pattern is also used to draw the outline onto the turtle deck for use as a border for applying pinholes. Since this is going to be Monokote on Monokote air bubbles are definitely going to be a problem.

Once in place, I used very low heat to set the piece down followed by a heat gun. Worked out pretty good save for one fine wrinkle. I'm definitely not going to tear all that covering off for one wrinkle so, yeah, looks great to me. 8-)

Next up, grey and black stripes on each side.

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Old 04-14-2017, 05:28 AM
  #71  
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Slow but steady wins the race...

Hoping to have the fuselage covering done tonight. Just four more pieces to cut (two white and two black). I still haven't settled on what the wing and stab bottom covering will look like.

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Old 04-17-2017, 06:08 PM
  #72  
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Well, other than a few touch-ups (mainly where the vertical stab trim pieces meet on the leading edge) and the stab bottom, the fuselage Monokoting is finally done. Next, on to the wing...

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Last edited by pappy35; 04-18-2017 at 05:16 AM.
Old 04-18-2017, 01:47 AM
  #73  
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Well done, can't wait to see what you come up with for the wing!
Old 04-19-2017, 03:19 AM
  #74  
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Pappy 35, Beautiful job. Where have all the pictures gone??? Can't bring anything up. Must be progress.LOL ???????
Thanks,
Fred
Old 04-19-2017, 05:26 AM
  #75  
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They changed the forum software and said it would take a couple of days to migrate all the images.

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