My Fancherized Twister build; 3 days til Huntersville

Rusty,

I like the blue stuff. The best tip I have is once you have it masked shoot the tape edges with clear to seal them and prevent bleeding.

Looks real good Rusty.

Jim

Sounds like you took the "mortarboard" suggestion a step further.

Looking good.

Phil

Thanks guys. Yeah, Wayne uses the blue stuff too. I bet it's a lot easier, maybe I'll try it. Meanwhile, I have a lifetime supply of glass balloons. Phil, what's the "Mortarboard Solution?"

EDIT: Duh! Post dialysis IQ bottomed out. My brain read "Blue stuff" as Super Fil for fillets, also blue. Even though I asked about blue tape... sorry.

Epoxy builds heat, so it has a shorter "pot life" than "open film" time. The easiest way to extend the "pot life" is to get it out of the pot! The easiest way to get a large quantity of epoxy out of the pot without pouring it onto the work is to spread it onto a clean surface that it can be scraped off of as needed IE a mortarboard.

I am sure I have mentioned this here or on Stunthanger at least once before.

Phil

pkrankow wrote:The easiest way to get a large quantity of epoxy out of the pot without pouring it onto the work is to spread it onto a clean surface that it can be scraped off of as needed IE a mortarboard. I am sure I have mentioned this here or on Stunthanger at least once before.

Phil

I'm sure you have, and I didn't retain it. It's graduation time around the family, so the term elicited another image in my mush-for-brains.

Anybody ever been to a Marble Slab Icecream shop? They mix your chosen flavors on a... guess... frozen marble slab. I think my idea is pretty cool.

KariFS wrote:Greenie for you Rusty for buying a Finnish knife! For those interested in handmade knives I recommend this guy:

https://www.facebook.com/Pajapeikko/

He says he has customers all over the world so I suppose he accepts PayPal and ships overseas too

Kari I am more than happy to spend my $$ on Finnish products. This is not my first Rapala knife as well as other angling products. My old knife went missing out of my tackle box decades ago. The blade extends all the way out the back of the handle where it is secured. Nice decorative etching on the blade too.
Rusty

RknRusty wrote:

Anybody ever been to a Marble Slab Icecream shop? They mix your chosen flavors on a... guess... frozen marble slab. I think my idea is pretty cool.

Yes, your idea is pretty cool. In some ways downright FRIGID too.

Phil

Last night I was going to prime the sanded and shaped fillets, then spot prime any blems. I got carried away and shot almost a whole can of DC-540 on it and now the whole plane is gray again. I'll sand it all off tonight and if I can figure how to keep the sanded primer dust away from it, I'll wash and dry it and finally shoot the long-delayed white. If not I'll vacuum and clean the shop tonight and paint it tomorrow. Sounds excessive but I've handled it so much I think another coat of primer was a good idea
Rusty the Frigid

Mr. Frigid,

Times a wastin! Paint that bird and sling it! Looking forward to a new contest airframe.

Ron

Cribbs74 wrote:Mr. Frigid,

Times a wastin! Paint that bird and sling it! Looking forward to a new contest airframe.

Ron

Me too, Ron, me too. I hope I don't come up with any more bright ideas on a whim. Honestly, redoing the prime was a good idea if one cares about the finish, and you know I usually do, but this one is really getting the treatment. Look here at my redneck sanding trap:


I can't believe how well this works. These are crappy flimsy limp filters my LHW store sold me. I was expecting a case of the usual Purolator 24x24 reinforced HEPA filters, and these are what I got. They have to be changed every month in the gaspack. But they pick up the sanded primer powder and keep on gobbling it up. It pulls most of it in from 3' away if I'm not right over it. I can't even see the trapped powder in it, but it's not on the floor underneath, and I can't see it in the air.

Boy that was hard work, I had to come in for a Tylenol break and a BLT. And an episode of Street Outlaws. There are still a couple of patches to finish sanding in the morning, and then I'll wash it with blue Windex, dry it with a hair dryer and mask it. I almost hate to say it again, but... then I'll shoot a coat of white on it... have I ever mentioned that before? The elevator surfaces are paint-ready right now, but the flaps still need silkspan.

I know not to get too meticulous with a finish, but this is the new flagship of my fleet, so dammit, she's gonna be pretty! And right now I'm gray. I do love modern sandpaper. Or maybe it's the material I'm sanding. But when the paper loads up, all I have to do is simply brush it off with a paintbrush and it's empty and clean again. I'm using worn out soft blocks wrapped with 220 and 320. And I have one with 600 on it for the final overall quickie.

I weighed the primed airframe minus the elevators, LG, and control hardware, and it's 26.7 ounces. I'll weigh it again after sanding just out of curiosity to see how much a coat of primer weighs.

There's no such thing as to much prep before the first coat of paint.

Are you dry sanding the plane? Wet sand and dust is a non issue. Wet sanding with Prespsol works very well. It stinks but if fumes are an issue, sand with soapy water. Sanding with soapy water keeps the paper from clogging. Just be careful not to break into the wood. Prior to using the paper, leave the paper in the bucket overnight, it makes it more flexible.

Ken Cook wrote:Are you dry sanding the plane? Wet sand and dust is a non issue. Wet sanding with Prespsol works very well. It stinks but if fumes are an issue, sand with soapy water. Sanding with soapy water keeps the paper from clogging. Just be careful not to break into the wood. Prior to using the paper, leave the paper in the bucket overnight, it makes it more flexible.

Ken, for the final overall smoothing I always use water and 400-600 paper. But I didn't even think of wet sanding the bulk of the primer. I'm going to finish a couple of thick patches today and will try it with water. Actually it's fiberglass and silkspan I don't want to cut into. There's no bare wood anywhere on it. My shoulder is angry this morning so I'll be glad to get this behind me.

She's LOOKING SLICK !!

Rusty I can relate with "angry" body parts

Sanding is my LEAST liked job of building... tedious, easy to screw up, tedious, time consuming, mess making, and---- not my shoulder ---but ever increasing arthritic hands that ache and curl/lock making the task even more tedious with the frequent hand stretch breaks

Take your time, this F/Twister, you said was/is to be your flag ship, I have another Ring Master coming soon from Pat Johnston a 526 square inch version slated for my new Evo .36 CL engine

To prepare for that build I an in final pre paint stages of a Pat Johnston RM Gold kit (very light wood and design) as my practice and get it right build

I fully expect I may screw up the finish on the Gold Kit RM as I retrain my self to use silk n dope

The RM 526 will be "My old skool finished Flagship"

Ron Cribbs has the Pat Johnston RM 576 bigger yet version but on the road too often and long so has not started it

OK rambling a bit, I am looking forward to your finishing progress as I may build a F Twister next season or two and have been taking notes as you and ken go back and forth with techniques and problem solving

Okay guys, she's now detail-sanded and had a good Windex bath all over. I used a pad with 800 grit to smooth all the sharp edges and buff it overall. There is a whitish streak that ooks like I might have sanded into the dope a little in one streak along the side under the turtle deck if that's what you call it. but not into the fiberglass. And I can't feel it with the spot on my thumb where I have feeling, so it is what it is. It's gonna be white tonight. Right before I paint, I'll spray the floor inside the painting curtain and give it another light Windex job.
Rusty

Now I can take a break. It looks pretty good, but I still used more paint than I intended to cover the dark spots of primer. I forgot to weigh it after sanding the primer off. I was just curious as to how much weight it was. I hope this white isn't too heavy, I hear white is heavier than colors. Probably for the reason I mentioned, hard to cover dark areas. I had hoped for flat white, but they didn't have it.

But it covered evenly and didn't show any spots of fingerprints or oil. I was very careful, cleaning it thoroughly with Windex and not touching it with my fingers after that. I'll place an order with the Brodak boys to bring me home a pint each of clear dope and thinner. I expect hat will be lighter than Lustrekote. And I will weigh it tomorrow. It was 21.7 oz. before I sanded the primer off. The tail is the only place I really worry about too much weight.


The fillets look so much better IRL than they do in a photo.


In a couple of weeks, I'll get back to it, mask and paint the trim colors and make decals and put this thing together.
So for now, that's a wrap!
Rusty


I've been a little rough on my red wingtip. Maybe it'll clean up. The blue one looks about like that too.



Well there's a photogenic fillet Lol

Looks sharp!!!

I just got my first chance to look at it since last night, 18 hours ago, and all I can say is just, Wow! It's rock hard in such a short time. It lays over the whole plane much more evenly than I imagined I'd sprayed it. It looks better dry than it did wet.

My rattlecan spray handle helped a lot. That's the best $6 bucks I've ever spent on painting equipment. I was worried about it being too thick, but if I work the light right, I can tell it's really thin. The only blem is where I touched it with a paper towel on the very front face of the nose where it'll be another color later anyway. No other runs, sags or built up spots anywhere else. I kept it rotating the whole time I painted, like a pig on a spit, so that might have helped too. This Duplicolor paint is a completely different animal from Rustoleum. I can't press a fingerprint into it or ding it with a fingernail. Can you tell I'm impressed...
Rattlecan Rusty

If your blemish has  a second color going on it all you do is wet sand the blemish before the second color. It will completely disappear.

Jim

JPvelo wrote:If your blemish has  a second color going on it all you do is wet sand the blemish before the second color. It will completely disappear.

Jim

Right, in fact I think I'll wet sand the whole area thinner where the other color goes. What grit do you like for wet sanding, 600, or finer? I have 1000, but that's probably too fine. What was your impression of the DC enamel, did it sound like my description of the lacquer, or did it remind you more of Rustoleum?

I wish I'd remembered to weigh it while it was sanded before painting, but it looks light, if that's even possible. I really don't care much about weight as long as the tail isn't too heavy. I might paint the elevators tonight since they're ready, but packing for the beach is my top priority. That and mowing the lawn/dandelions/clover.
Rusty


Earlier, I said:

RknRusty wrote:...Right before I paint, I'll spray the floor inside the painting curtain...

Just to be clear, I meant with water to keep the dust down.

There was a typo above in yesterday's primer weight. My notes said 21.7 oz. rather than the 26.7 oz. that I miss-wrote. That was a pretty bad typo.

Now in paint it weighs 19.9 oz. Sounds pretty good.