I Think Some Here Are Full Of Beans...

Thank you.

Looking good there new222 I have yet to join the Bean Club , Its nice to find things you kinda forget you had going on some time back ,maybe after watching some fly will inspire me more . getback

Ok. Just a little update. I applied the silkspan around the edges last week. This Saturday, I went shopping and bought a couple of paint brushes to try out with polyester bristles. I went to the small city and could not find anything of size in good quality, so the dollar store had to suffice. One brush was bad, but the second was much better. Anyways, I applied 3 coats of thinned 50:50 to the whole airframe. I let dry a couple of hours and sanded with 400. I can still see a bit of grain through the dope on the fuselage and tail, but I think I will live with it as this will be a beater and will most definitely have seen better days. But, I may also use a corn starch/dope mix so I know how to use it in the future, if not, I will let it sit a few days then hit it with a light coat of primer followed by the color spray can paint and topped with a coat of clear after that dries a few days also. Anyways, here are a couple of pictures.

Just after covering. Wingtip issues. I had just applied the final piece of covering then realized I had forgotten to put weight in the wingtip, so I cut it off and installed my weight. This is why the first bay in from the outboard tip is darker.



Had a couple little issues with two wingtips with wrinkles while covering. After the initial application followed by drying time, I tried misting it to see if I could get rid of the wrinkles with no luck. As this will be a regular flier I will just leave it as it is, this time. It should not hurt anything.



Here are 2 shots after the complete doping and sanding with 400 grit.

Hey , That looks really good

Yeah, it does look good. those little rankles won't hurt anything.
Rusty

What dope are you using? If they really bother you, apply more dope to that bay and if possible apply in the sun. It will go away at least more than what I see. Hitting it with a heat gun carefully will also pull more of those wrinkles out by shooting the heat over it and slowly working it directly onto that area. You really need to fan the heat gun. Obviously use caution as this can burn a hole in it but it will come out. After the color applying additional coats of clear over the model will also assist in pulling those stubborn wrinkles out. In addition over time as the dope shrinks, they will even become less and less obvious. It's not going to hurt to apply more dope to the airframe. Be careful sanding the airframe as this can cause more damage than good unless you have a lot of dope on the wing. The high edges of the ribs sticking up are the first to get sanded. A good practice is to radius the tops of your ribs prior to building the wing with fine sandpaper. Dope the tops of the ribs prior to covering and further sand them and don't allow any sharp corners. Sight unseen your cutting through the silkspan and when the dope further tightens up, splits develop along the sides of the ribs and where the center sheeting terminates in the open bays. While 3 coats is the typical sport finish, 1/2A and the lightweight silkspan can be very problematic as it's very susceptible to punctures from grass or a glow plug clip that goes through the wing when it pops off accidentally. That being said, the more dope you put on it, the more supple it becomes. Many skip the clear top coats but this is really what makes the finish more fuel proof and plasticizes the finish. Unfortunately, for those not experienced in applying it can also drag the color finish and make a bleeding mess. It can be brushed but it takes experience as it requires the dope to be thinned properly and the application needs to have a very soft brush brushing from one side to the other keeping a wet edge at all times. In other words the clear needs to be puddled on and brushed quickly in one direction and brushed off of all surfaces and not brushing into any edges.

I have mentioned this many times in regards to tip weight, If you have the 1/4 oz stick on weights used for tire balancing, you can remove the adhesive backing. You then hammer the weight paper thin. This weight will become the size of a quarter if you hit it enough. Trim it up slightly with a pair of scissors and it can be folded and hammered again. You don't need the full 7 grams of weight and the weight can be trimmed to weigh in at about 4-5 grams. Once glue in it will add additional weight anyhow. If you have a Dubro slot cutting tool for pin hinges, you can cut a slot in the outboard wingtip edge and glue the paper thin weight into the tip with epoxy or thick CA. This would've eliminated the need for you to cut back into your wingtip.

Hi there. Just a little update. The wingtip in question has shown a bit of progress after doping and sanding on Saturday. I went in and looked at it again, and it seems to have tightened a bit more. Maybe my dope is doing its job after all? Anyways, just an update picture. So for now, I will let the plane sit for a few days now before topcoating.

@ Ken Cook - The dope I am now using is Randolph Butyrate, Non-Tautening Clear. I used the remainder of my Sig Supercoat Butyrate on doping the airframe before applying the silkspan. As for weight, thank you for the tip. I had taken a .50 caliber muzzleloading bullet and had at it with a hammer and did as you described. I will also heed your tips for the wing ribs on my next build, thank you.

Also thanks to all for the help, replies, and comments.

The tautening dope will gradually do its 'thing'! Your little Bean will be flying in no time so long as you get gas... I mean fuel.

Full of beans.. I worry all the time about the comments I make in OP's threads.. It always comes from the heart with me though.. I see it more as brainstorming with them. I hope they see it that way.

The "Bean" trend here has got me wanting to either build one myself.. or a similar 1/2A bee-powered stunter with a built-up wing. I saved Ken's tissue/dope advice to my finishing-folder. Great stuff..

Very psyched that you dug this model out to finish it's build. I have more than a few control-line models that were started and never finished. Some are hand-me-downs. All are framed-wing designs.

Glad that the tip wrinkles are coming out. I'm still learning about taughtening vs. non-taughtening dope finishes.. thinning.. spraying vs. brushing etc. Lacquer is beautiful when it's buffed-out. Comparing lacquer to enamel is like comparing analog audio to digital audio, if you're into music recording. Both are great.. but old school done right just has a deep richness that's tough to duplicate.

I am learning a lot this past couple of weeks with this thing and mainly with using dope. I like all of the comments, hints, tips and tricks offered by anyone as I feel this is the best way to learn. From my mistakes... I agree that this dope stuff is a big learning curve and also goes along with lots of reading and questions.

Just another little update. I had mixed up a small batch of 50:50 thinned dope and roughly a teaspoon of corn starch and applied a coat on the complete airframe. Followed by another good coat of this mixture on the wing ribs where they touch the silkspan. I am now going to wait a few days before sanding this complete for the last time, again.

New, if I may ask why did you use corn starch ? I have read were people use talc powder (non perfume) mixed to make a sand able primer , I was told corn starch and water mix (thick) will help with fuel soaked balsa areas . getback

getback wrote:New, if I may ask why did you use corn starch ? I have read were people use talc powder (non perfume) mixed to make a sand able primer , I was told corn starch and water mix (thick) will help with fuel soaked balsa areas . getback  

I had used the corn starch as a filler after reading about it a bunch online, mainly on a different control line site. There were a few suggestions for filler materials and I just happen to have this on hand. I was going to try the talc, but have only the scented stuff readily available. If this doesn't work out, I will try that next.

getback wrote:New, if I may ask why did you use corn starch ? I have read were people use talc powder (non perfume) mixed to make a sand able primer , I was told corn starch and water mix (thick) will help with fuel soaked balsa areas . getback  

People have already used baby powder, which is perfumed corn starch in many cases. Corn starch works pretty good. I haven't used actual powdered stone talc to compare to directly though. Others (on stunthanger) have reported similar results, as well as zinc stearate, which I have no experience with either.

Phil

Well Thanks ; You learnt me something I have not heard this , have not tried either . But as I keep getting broker I may be into it soon lol. getback