Small Flying Arts

Thanks, Gwyl, Monz...

Monz, I have some difficulty remembering exaclty. It was in Aeromodeller, in the early 80s (82-84?). It was a series of articles (around 10 ?) on building free flight scale models. Or it might have been in one of his Scale Matters column.

Unfortunatley I do not have access to my magazines at the moment, I did not have them all anyway. Perhaps Tim or Peter might be able to help here, or somebody else hopefully.

George

Outstanding George!

Love the detail.

-Joe

Thanks Joe...

Some progress shots, in the covering phase.

Tail surfaces are done, as are the bottom wings. A coat of dope has been applies, a second will follow.

Due to a planing error, I am out of the projected light blue tissue for the fuselage and grey for the root section of the top ribs.

I expect it to arrive within the week. Depending on the day, I might manage to complete the covering and take the model with me to IIFI.

Dummy engine is missing too, as are many other parts for proper completion. Too optimistic?

George

Very nice George. Are you doing a tissue only finish or do you just want the coloured tissue as a background colour for painting?
Have a good weekend at the IIFI. I'm too busy to take any time off this year .
Tim

Hi Tim,

tissue only for the moment. Airbrush will be used for the second version...

I wasn't expecting or planing to go to IIFI either. Recent events (a professional move to Germany) made it possible to consider, so why miss the fun...

I expect to see you at the next Interscale there though.

George

significant progress has been made, but not yet photographed.

Model is completely covered, given 3 coats of dope and awaits assembly start. Might manage to post something tomorrow, I hope...

here are some current photographs...

Model is put together temporarily. Once the control surfaces are fixed to their place, real assembly can begin.


I was very disappointed with my treatment of the silver esaki tissue. I was sorry to (re)discover that silver paint simply melts away by dope and thinner.
I had some paint melting at the nose, where dope was applied with a brush, so I thought of doing the wings with an airbrush hoping to avoid contact with the tissue, thus leaving the silver paint intact.

In theory this worked, but i was too eager with the airbrush, so instead of many thin spraying applications, I ended up with a big fat one, as a result. Naturally this melted the paint and changed the surface color. What cannot be seen in the photographs is that the tissue surface is actually very smooth, only discolored.

I have decided to finish the silver areas with paint applied with a paint brush. I am hoping that the doped tissue underneath does not get affected by the new dope application...

Shots from various angles: Maybe using a flash was not the best option, the model comes too shiny.












Registration lettering is made of black esaki tissue, cut and positioned with dope and thinner on the wing (doped twice). then given a third coat of dope.

Weight estimation so far, 30-40 grams, much lighter than my other models of similar size... Painted finish does make a difference...

George

Good evening, George and others!
Yesterday morning I have observed that SFA is running again!
Nice!

George, great progress on your Bellanca. You are not the first one complaining about silver tissue... Never tried it myself....
I like tissue only models, so for me, there is no need to paint your models On the other side, opaque finish is also nice...

Robert, good to see that you found the way back to SFA


Roman