Sm Tall alk W
ell, after a couple weeks of beau- tiful flying weather the snow is flying and we’re back into typi- cal winter weather, so thoughts
are once again back to the workbench. Hey, that’s not an altogether bad thing, as there are a couple of projects that really need fin- ishing, and when the good flying weather is upon us the likelihood of getting anything done in a timely fashion rapidly diminishes. Meanwhile, one of the major problems en- countered in my daily building routine are those pesky plugged-up CyA glue bottle tips. Seems they work fine till all three hands (and at least one foot) are used up trying to align the trickiest part on the model only to find that the glue won’t flow! I used to re- place those tips after they were so chewed up from clearing that they were literally un- usable, but these days, where all too often, modeling supplies must be mail ordered, you just can’t afford to risk running out, so here’s how I solved that problem. At the end of the building day I switch out
the tips on both bottles (thin and medium CyA) with a fresh tip. Now here’s the secret —the tips are stored in a jar of acetone. The acetone dissolves the CyA residue in, or on the tip, including the glue goobers that have dried on the outside. Keep four tips in the rotation, two in the acetone, and one on each bottle, and by switching them daily you can increase their lifespan from days, to months. I still order tips a dozen at a time, but now I order once a year rather than once a month. And as long as we’re on the subject of ace-
tone, here’s a little something I picked up from Bob Aberle’s Q & A column in Model Aviation magazine. When adding trim over a film covered model using film for the trim colors, it’s virtually impossible to get the trim layer on using heat without it turning into a bubbly mess! Some film suppliers of- fer a solvent to activate the adhesive with- out heat, but now we’re back to the “mail-or- der-modeling-supply” syndrome again. Bob, at the advice of Jim Minadeo from BP Hobbies, tried using plain old acetone as a
by pat tritle You can reach Pat Tritle at 10313 Snowheights NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112 or via e-mail at
patscustommodels@aol.com
PHOTO: JOHNNY CHAFLIN
Johnny Chaflin built his Dragon Rapidefrom the Dumas Kit. With smaller models like the Rapidewith their “skinny little wings” the recipe for a stable and steady flyer is simple: keep it light.
solvent with good success. I tried it too, and found that when putting Litefilm or MonoKote over Litefilm it really works. However, I also tried it using UltraCote ParkLite over Litefilm and it didn’t work at all. Ironically, I have used Windex with Am- monia D as an adhesive to attach trim for years, but it won’t attach ParkLite either, so there must be something unique about the adhesive used on that particular material. That’s too bad too, because the film is
quite light, and they do offer several terrific colors, but it applies much hotter than Lite- film, so without some kind of solvent to ac- tivate the adhesive it just doesn’t work. Any suggestions are welcome, so please do drop me a line if you have any ideas.
A sampling This month brings us a nice cross section
of modeling projects from those dedicated builders out there. First up is the 42-inch span Dragon Rapide built by Johnny Chaflin from the Dumas kit. Johnny reports the model to be a slow, stable flyer that’s very easy to handle, and unlike what one
would expect from a model that size, and es- pecially one without wing tips, that the mod- el is very docile and scale-like in flight. The model is covered with Litefilm and trimmed with paint and with the exception of a gus- set or two here and there is built box stock. Once again, the old “light is right” theory has proven itself. Next up is Gerry Dudeck’s 47.6-inch span
Ford Trimotor built from the PCM Short Kit. Jerry is not new to these pages, and again has proven his modeling skills with his lat- est efforts. The model is powered by three, E- flite Park 250 outrunners with Castle Cre- ations 9-amp ESC’s. Hextronix 5-gram servos were used for the ailerons with a pair of Hitec HS-55s for the rudder and elevator. A Thunderpower 1320 mAh 2S battery pro- vides power for the model. Cover is Microlite with trim from Callie-Graphics. The model must be a good flyer too since it appears that all the passengers are still smiling. And as long as we’re talking about multi-
engine models, let’s talk about David Payne’s T-41-A built from the PCM C-310 Short Kit. The conversion was a great choice
PHOTO: GERRY DUDECK
Gerry Dudeck built his Ford Trimotor(above left), complete with a cabin full of happy smiling tourists. Residing in Arizona, it’s only natural that Ger would trim the model in the Grand Canyon Airways color scheme. David Payne converted
34
PHOTO: DAVID PAYNE
his civilian C-310 (above right) to the military T-41-A transport version. The conversion is a simple one, but resulted in a very striking color scheme, and a great looking model of one of the more obscure military transports.
APRIL 2012
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