C/LStunt I
am currently finishing up an Oriental I have had in a fully assembled stage for over ten years. It does not match the length of time I needed to complete my
Do-335 1⁄2A twin profile scale, but this Orien- tal needs attention. I am to the final canopy attachment stage, and my method is a con- glomeration of information from Charles Reeves, Jim Lynch, Windy Urtnowski, and Al Rabe. You must cut and sand the canopy so it will sit with no pressure where it will be located. If any pressure is needed to hold the canopy in place, sometime later it will jump up and bite you.
Carefully lay the canopy on its location and mark the outside perimeter of the canopy with a pencil. Remove the canopy and begin to dig a “trench” in which the canopy will sit. Now is the time to do your entire fancy interior cockpit detailing. If adding a pilot and seat are to your liking, Windy Urtnowski recommends that you find a hidden place to glue a small piece of coffee filter so there is an air hole from the canopy to the body interior. The coffee filter allows the canopy to breath but the filter does not allow balsa dust to get into your nice canopy. My detailing normally consists of lightly spraying model car candy colors on the in- terior of the canopy at 15-minute incre- ments until I achieve the darkness that I want. Once done with the interior, I begin to permanently attach the canopy to the fuselage. I drill tiny holes around the perimeter of the canopy at the lower ex- tremities where the canopy fits into the trench I dug earlier.
I now mix up an equal portion of Ambroid glue and paint thinner in a baby food jar lid. I place the canopy in the trench and hold it in place with a piece of masking tape. Re- member, that the tape is there to just hold it in place, not force it into the trench. I take a toothpick (round, square or fancy, your choice) and pick up a bit of the glue/thinner mix and begin to apply it to where the canopy and fuselage come together. I make
by allen brickhaus You can reach Allen Brickhausat PO Box 206, Golconda, Illinois 62938, or via e-mail at
abkb801@shawneelink.net
PHOTOGRAPHY: ALLEN BRICKHAUS
Allen’s Oriental, designed by Dee Rice, is to the stage where he is permanently attaching the canopy. Please note the small drilled holes around the perimeter of the base of the canopy.
certain that the mixture goes into the holes drilled in the canopy. The thinner/glue mix softens the plastic and it then “melts” into the trench of the fuselage. I keep going around until I have completed a solid “glu- ing” of the canopy to the body. Then I allow this to cure and dry.
When the canopy glue is dry, I remove the masking tape and then mask the canopy so I have one tape section on the canopy and about 1⁄8 inch above the canopy/fuselage line and another on the body just 1⁄8 inch outside of the same demarcation line. There should only be about 1⁄4 inch of canopy and fuselage visible.
Next I use a step Al Rabe shared with all
of us to further attach the canopy to the body. He puts a small amount of epoxy in a baby food jar lid and thins it to brushing con- sistency. He cuts pieces of half-ounce fiber- PHOTO: JIM LYNCH
glass cloth. The pieces are about 1⁄4 inch wide and 11⁄2 inches long. He lays a cut section of fiberglass cloth so the cloth adjoins both the canopy and the body. He then brushes the thinned epoxy into the weave of the cloth and continues around the canopy until the cloth has been applied all the way around twice. Each one overlaps the last one glued down. Once cured, pull the masking tape from the demarcation line and finish as you would normally paint your model. I wish I had done this step on earlier canopies that I put on models. They are now “bailing out” and attempting to eject from the plane. My present Oriental shows the point to where the Ambroid and thinner combina- tion is going to be applied. The second canopy is on my Mr. Brickhaus’ OPUS as published in the June 2002 Aviation Model- er International out of Britain.
Allen’s Mr. Brickhaus’ OPUSis seen with its finished and painted canopy. This shot (above) was taken on trim flights at the Barkley Field FBO section of the Paducah Airport prior to September 11, 2001. Model flying was permitted at this FBO area until the security implemented after 9-11 went into effect. Jim Lynch is shown at his house (at right) with the new Volunteer III. It is an exact duplicate of his original Volunteer I(CF302) as published in the May 1973 issue of FLYING MODELS.
38 JUNE 2013
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