New Big Gull updates

After years of mothballed storage, the Big Gull has come back out to play.  When she went away, it was just the main gull frames and the wing tips.  One of the reasons the plane was put away was distractions from other project and life itself, but another reason was that one of the tips had developed some really bad war page in the leading edge.  I can't explain it, and I couldn't undo it, so it put it away for a while (like 2 years....).

However, after building a number of other models and getting frustrated as my hobby progressed into more sophisticated and complicated controls, I started missing the simplicity of the old timer and good old 3 channel controls.  So the Gull was brought back out.

The first thing I did was take another look at the wing tip.  I stripped the sheeting off and tried to get to a point where I. Ight be able to repair the warp, but unfortunately the sheeting was attached too good and I ended up breaking a number of ribs.  So the decision was made to ditch the wing and start over with a new tip.

It was quickly rebuilt over a weekend, and I was re-energized again!

Well, this build is going to be on hold for a while.  I'm pretty much ready to apply paint, but I don't have an indoor paint booth.  Just like the rest of the Country, it's a bit too cold to paint anything in the garage.

So, wait we shall and I'll try to get some other projects updated!

She has a (dummy) engine!

Aside from paint, this is just about all the engine detailing I will be doing until this thing flies!

done covering!

Finally done covering the airframe.  I ran out of Koverall and couldn't get to the hobby shop until just before Christmas.  But now the wings are done, and everything has two coats of poly.  Next comes primer and paint, then I can start assembly and setup.

I need to get this plane off of the bench because my 8 year old girl just got her first RC airplane.  It's a small span glider from Mountain Models, and of course we need to build it!

http://www.mountainmodels.com/product_info.php?products_id=718&osCsid=bd8ba740cd4ce84f438956ede787bbc8

Kovering with Koverall

"It has been years since I have used Sig's Koverall covering.  I forgot how much fun this stuff is, and I really like the fabric-like look that it gives the plane.  It's probably a little heavier than if I used Litespan, but I had a bunch leftover from years ago so I decided to use it again.

For the adhesive, I used a mixture of water and Modge Podge.  My wife has a well stocked craft room, and has a new bottle of the stuff.  It's basically thinner white glue, and I read somewhere on RCG that it can be used instead of Stix-it or other model specific adhesive.  I made a test frame, and it seemed to work pretty well so I went ahead and started coating the frame with it.  Well, I got it too thinned out the first time, so I had to apply another coat for he Koverall to stick properly.

I've made a couple of re-learning mistakes on things like seams and overlaps, but so far I'm happy with it.  I have also applied one coat of water based poly with a brush to seal it, and will apply the second coat with the spray can poly.  So far I'm pretty happy with the turnout, but now I need to order more Koverall to keep the ball rolling!

A little more rigging progress

I managed to get some build time in today as it rained most of the day.  I focused my efforts on mocking up the airframe with rigging to make sure I had all of the rigging anchors correct.  Speaking of anchors, I made mine out of pieces of sewing hooks.  I cut them apart to get the loop end, then anchored them with CA glue.  Then I used black sewing thread to mock up the start of the rigging.

Radio day

Today I got my mind set on installing some electronics, and I managed to do just that.  As you can see, I fabricated a servo mount because I don't like gluing in servos, and we also got the fuselage servos and controls mounted.  Yes, that is a a piece of aluminum soda can used as the servo strap.  I decided to put it shiney side up instead of advertising for Diet Coke. 

Satisfied, I went for a 30 mile bike ride.  :)