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R/C Modeling Tips
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Clogged Glue Tips - This is the best tip I have every picked up. I don't remember where I first heard it but it works great.
- Fuel Overflow Bottle - This is part of my regular set up at the field, works great and keeps the pit area at the field tidy.
Get a glass jar big enough to hold the glue tips from your CA bottles. Fill the jar with a sufficient amount of acetone. When you have use a glue tip for a while and it's getting clogged, drop them in the jar with the acetone and let them soak. The dried CA will come loose and your glue tip is like new. Just wipe off any remaining acetone and they are ready to use.
Get a small bottle to catch your fuel overflow. I use an old rubbing alcohol bottle. You can either just hold the overflow fuel line into the top of the bottle or if you get ambitious, you place a fuel nipple in the cap. So, now, instead of dumping fuel onto the ground or work bench, you catch the overflow in the bottle. If you keep it clean, you can dump the overflow back into your fuel jug.
When setting up your approach, make sure that your shoulders are parallel to the runway. For me, this makes my pattern more rectangular and landing straight down the runway easier.
One way that may help in your quest for sheeted built up wings is the following:
Do your normal wet-down of the sheeting with water/ammonia mixture.
But before applying the glue, place the sheeting on the wing structure, form it to the curve of the airfoil, then wrap the wing/sheeting structure with ACE bandages to hold the sheeting to the structure until dry. Note NO glue is used at this point!
Once dry you will have a hydro-formed sheet that will be less of a struggle to get it to go/stay where you would like it to once your ready to glue, ...and no pin holes!. Also as the sheeting is now stress-relieved, so to speak, it will impart less pre-load to the wing structure, so the chance of a warp is reduced also. The sheet will be happy to take the airfoil shape as it's pre-formed to it, ..follow?
I'd apply the top side sheet first gluing from the bottom side access to the ribs. The pre-formed sheeting can be pinned/tack glued in place, then go back to the ACE Bandage to do the hold down job again. Glue application is easy to control as you'll have access to the rib locations from the underside, ..contact and non-contact spots (sheeting to rib) will be easy to see, and appearance of the top surface can be made the best possible.
Underside: This will be the trickiest of the two: You'll be flying blind to some degree. The preformed sheeting really comes into its own here. You will not have to struggle with getting it to lay down on the structure as much as if you did not hydro-form it. Mark the rib locations by some means so you'll know where pressure can be applied to the sheeting, so as not to produce "between rib droops".
Glue of choice: I'd go with a slow set type. Tite-bond, Elmer's Carpenters, Alphic-resin, something that will give you max working time yet provide for a strong bond. Although CA could be used for the initial "tack" application of the sheeting. This longer working time is required more so for the bottom sheeting install. I good bead of A-R can be applied to the bottom ribs surfaces with out the fear of it going hard before your ready to set the sheet.
The ACE Bandage should have the bulk of the load placed over the structure of the ribs, this will help reduce the tendency for the sheeting to droop between the ribs. As these bandages are in the 2 to 3 inch wide range they do spread the holding power over quiet an area, so droop should not be a big problem. At any rate, with the hydro-formed pieces, you can do a lot of pre-fitting before going near the wing with a glue. Hope this helps.
This technique is also great for fuselage sheeting also, and a real boon if you'd like to make one piece leading edge sheets to wrap from top to bottom surfaces of the wing.
If your making turtle decking from solid blocks, and hate the thoughts of craving out all that wood from the blocks, with this ACE technique it easy to form multi-layer laminated parts. Just hydro-form two, three layers of sheet stock over the a foam mock-up of the part, let them dry to shape. Then when dry apply A-R glue to the sheet surfaces, re-apply them to the mock-up plug, wrap with the ACE, let dry, ...viola laminated balsa curved sheeting! (no carving of solid blocks).
The best method I've found is with 1/64" Chart-Pak drafting tape. Draw the lines, apply the tape, spray a little primer, remove the tape and paint. Makes for very subtle, recessed panel lines. You can get the tape at better art supply stores. There are other methods that work pretty well but I think this is the best and simplest.
I agree with the tape method. It might take some checking around to find, but it works well. Use your 3 views to draw out lines and lay down the tape. This tape has a tendency to not stick at all to a dusty surface, so make sure the model is well wiped down. Buy a lot of it...3 rolls for my Pica FW190. Some of my tape may have been old though. Also, be sure to spray enough primer over the lines to be able to see a definite imprint, and evenly too! After you remove the tape and paint your craft, you can dirty up the lines a bit to make them more visible by using some weathering chalk of the appropriate color, rub gently and voila!
Building a sliding canopy is not too difficult however it is more difficult if you want to servo operate it. One that can just be slid open for display is fairly easy. Most hobby shops have a selection of the plastic parts you need for the slide rails. The rails are like a square tube that has a slot cut in the center of one side length wise. I mount this slide rail in the side of the fuselage. The slide will then accept two short pieces of another plastic extrusion that looks like the cross section of a railroad rail. The base of this rail will slide back and forth inside the square tube with the slot cut in the side that is facing out away from the fuselage. The top of the rail shaped extrusion will eventually be cut almost flush with the face of the slide tube. A small hole is drilled into the rail shaped piece where it sticks out of the long slot in the square tube. I tap this hole for 2/56 machine screws and use the screws to mount the canopy. The two little pieces of the rail shaped extrusion will slide easily inside the square tube with just a small portion sticking through the slot in the square tube. I make the two rail shaped pieces about 1/4" in length. The Zero will have a three piece canopy with the front and the rear being rigidly mounted. I build a light frame for the rear of the front one third of the canopy and a matching plywood frame for the front of the section of canopy that will open and close. I also put two small dowels in the frame on the sliding portion that will go into two small holes I drill in the front frame. The dowels give the canopy a little more rigidity and keep everything properly aligned during flight.
I don't worry about the rear section. By tightening the two screws that mount the canopy on each side of the fuselage the canopy will stay where you lock it down. I've done this on all of my warbirds and it has worked with zero problems. The square tube with the slot in one side and the rail shaped extrusion are also available in brass if you want to make a heavier/stronger mount.
Hope this Helps. Email me (The email address for Jack Devine is: jdevine@sttl.uswest.net) if you need more information. I can probably draw a better description. Good Luck
Posted 7-4-2001 14:33 JDEVINE from RCO
You need to beef up the landing gear mounting system as the kit design is very weak. I doubled the ribs that the gear blocks mount to on both sides with Plywood and sandwiched a piece of carbon fiber between each plywood doublers and the original wing rib. Make sure that before you epoxy the mount rails down you make sure that they are parallel and the retract unit fits flat on both rails before you screw the retract unit into place. It is very easy to force the retract into a bind if you screw it down onto rails that are not perfectly parallel. Spend a little time on this part of your build because it will make the retract perform the way they were designed.
Great article on retract modification for the Top Flite P-51 listed in a back issue of RC Modeler (Sep 1997). Jerry McGhee gives detailed step by step procedures on how to beef up the gear structure for Top Flite's P-51D.
I would definitely reinforce the gear mounts in the wings they are way too weak. i added a second plywood doublers and a one piece plywood frame that goes under both maple blocks so the maple blocks were level for the retracts (this avoids warping the retracts when screwing them down). I also added triangle stock under the plywood plate
Use a Luan hollow core wood door. They're cheap, straight and flat. You can get them as narrow as 18", and as wide as 36".
They're light weight and you can stick pins directly into them, too.
Go to HOME DEPOT/LOWES/MENARDS what ever.
Get 2 Angle Irons 4' in length and 1 1/2" wide. (Hold them next to eachother to check for straightness)
Get 1 4'x1'x1/2" Laminated piece of shelving material. (this could be made of MDF,Chipboard etc.)
Get a piece of Bulletin Board Material 1/2" thick or more(This could be cork or something cork like to stick pins in. The important thing is that you have it in a big enough piece as you don't want any seams.)
Get 6 wood screws of a length not greater than that of the thickness of the laminated shelving in 3 above)
Get 3m spray adhesive. It comes in a black aeresol can and has a shelf life of infinity. (well almost that anyway) You'll use this for years to come for a plethora of projects.
Proceed to the checkout. Your bill should come to approx. $30. (not including the 3M Spray)
Drill 3 holes, a little larger than the diameter of your screws, in the angle irons. The ole' Mark One EYEBALL will suffice, just try to get one at each end and one in the middle of the angle irons.
Again using the ole' Mark One. Place these evenly spaced on the Shelving Material mark your holes and drill pilot holes for the screws. Attach the angle iron to the shelving material. Cut a piece of Bulletin Board material a bit larger than the shelving material. Spray each side with the 3M adhesive. Wait 30 sec. and ROLL the Bulletin Board material on to the Sheving Material.
You now have a Building Board that should be large enough for MOST beginning projects. If you need more surface make it a 2'x6' board. You can always use this little board to build your empennages on. Some day when the Surface gets pockmarked with too many pinholes you can scrape it off the Shelving Material clean the adhesive off with Acetone and resurface it with more Bulletin Board material. The neatest thing about this way is that if your afflicted with Short Kit Attention Span Syndrome (as I am You don't have to have your workbench tied up while waiting for glue to dry. (I stopped using CyAs) Just set it aside and pull out another to continue your work.
Use a an ironing board as a work surface. It's soft to prevent hangar rash and you can get around to all sides. Many are height adjustable too.
Don't iron the cover down onto the whole surface, it just shows all the wood imperfections. Stretch the covering down as tight as you can before shrinking, seal down the edges really well then shrink, you'll get a great smooth shined plane.
Robart How To
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Air Field Models
AMA Sport Aviator E-Zine
RC Universe Beginners Forum
RC Scale Builder Tutorials
Hockey Tips
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Skate Skate Skate - If you can't skate, you can't play
- Keep your stick on the ice - You can't catch a pass or take a shot if your stick is not on the ice.
- Shoot Shoot Shoot - Most goals are scored on rebound. Throw the puck on net and good things happen. Don't wait for the perfect shot, fire at will.
Life Tips
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Accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior
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Never, EVER leave your wing man
- Speed is life
- Never pass up an opportunity to keep your mouth shut
- Your word is your bond
