Repainting RTFMicros
It just takes a weekend to transform a RTF micro into your own custom model!
By Jim Wiggin PHOTOGRAPHY: ANGELA HAYNES T 44
he proliferation of ready to fly air- planes over the past few years has had many advantages to the hobby of model aviation. For one thing, many small spaces, both inside and out, are available as an impromptu flying site; some- thing that was not possible that long ago. The other advantage is that modelers can purchase a completely built and decorated model from their favorite hobby outlet, charge the included battery and either fly the model with the included transmitter or bind it to one of their own. Simplicity at its best.
One small disadvantage of this prolifera- tion of RTF micro models is the fact that your flying buddy may have the same model as you. Compounding the problem is that, at any given event, the chance of more model- ers having the same plane as you is a dis- tinct possibility. Maybe you like the model but don’t want to blend in with everyone else
or perhaps you do not care too much for the factory trim scheme. Repainting is an option but you may be thinking such skills are be- yond your level of expertise. Think again.
Background Some of the most common ultra micro mod-
els on the market today are those made by Horizon Hobby and Flyzone from Hobbico. Both offer the advantage of binding any one of their models to your transmitter. When Flyzone released their micro PA-18 Super Cub a few years back, it didn’t receive as much attention as the other micros. Still, the fact that my father had flown the full scale Super Cub, combined with the fact that I was surrounded by the Super Cub growing up, has ever cemented my love of this model. My ever attentive girlfriend, Angela, is great about knowing which aircraft really trip my trigger, so it was a nice surprise to receive the Flyzone Super Cub for Christ-
mas. My only real dislike for the little semi- scale model was the color—Cub yellow. I re- ally wanted a classic red on white or even blue on white scheme, but the folks at Fly- zone chose Cub Yellow.
I guess I can’t really blame the marketing
team for this; it is the most popular color for this craft and it does make the model ex- tremely easy to see in low light settings. I gladly excepted Angela’s gift and flew it in all kinds of wind and events for well over a year. Like any small foam airplane howev- er, it did not take long for the little model to get a serious case of “hangar rash”. The final straw was one of those all too common, “Hey fellas, watch this!” moments.
The end result of a sloppy outside loop was a broken wing and a jettisoned wing strut. Of course, I could have just simply glued the wing and strut back on but at that moment I simply grabbed another plane and the little Cub was soon forgotten in its cardboard car-
NOVEMBER 2013
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