It looks good in that chrome covering. Nice work applying it.
Chris....

WoW! Looking great Sesshovlaru,

I've heard that stuff is difficult to worlk with but it looks like you did a great job....it looks much better I think....so how many orders can you fill?
Cheers

Really like what you're doing with the Swift Sessholvlaru! BTW, if you have an airbrush, Alclad makes some great paints to give a nice chrome finish to the cowling, too.

So here's where I'm at. I've learned a few things recovering this plane but the only one worth mentioning is that chrome Monokote is total garbage. It barely shrinks so when you run into compound curves like on the fuse you just can't pull it tight enough before you iron it down. So you end up with wrinkles. If you heat this crap too much it will semi-shrink more but it also fogs up at the same instant and it doesn't go away.

There are only a couple of areas where mine fogged but I am still pretty tempted to rip all of the covering off and re-do it with chrome Ultracote. I will never buy chrome Monokote again.

As you can see I haven't quite gotten to the canopy yet. I'll use chrome trim tape on it.

I painted my cowl with Spaz Stix chrome which requires a perfectly smooth black base coat. I didn't spend a whole lot of time wet sanding the black so the chrome reflects this. I'm not too worried about it though as the secondary color will cover much of it.

The last two pics are the tip and tail light fixtures I added.

Sessholvlaru, can you advise how you got the canopy paint off, it looks really clean. Any pictures of how you did the lights?

Oh and while I'm here I'll b*tch about the included retracts too. For whatever reason they give you 90 degree units when it actually needs 85 degree units so the gear looks goofy when it's down.

You can't shim them as the wheel collar already touches the covering on the top of the wing when they are retracted.

I haven't tried opening them up but maybe they can be modified?

Originally Posted by flyinucrazy

Sessholvlaru, can you advise how you got the canopy paint off, it looks really clean. Any pictures of how you did the lights?

The black portion is the only paint on the canopy. The red and white portions are just vinyl decals; they peel right off.

I didn't take any pictures of how I did it but all it is is small 3/4-inch lengths of aluminum tubing that I cut into the tips and rudder. The wires are snaked through the wing and I drilled a hole through the rudder length-wise to run those wires.

It looks like a masterful job to me.....very nice work.
ce

Has anyone had more than a few flights, and, if so, how does it handle?

Thanks (I have an H-1, and it can only be described as a POC).

Originally Posted by capteasy

It looks like a masterful job to me.....very nice work.
ce

Thank you for your compliment.

I did the canopy chrome this morning, only took about an hour. I am actually fairly pleased with how it came out. The gray blobs are filler to fix the B-stock defect.

Now the exciting part; adding some color. I'm going with this scheme because I think it will stand out better than the chrome and black one I posted earlier. That and the chrome and black Swift has different wing tips than the Maxford model

Added some color. Cowl's next.

It's look ing very good.
What did you use to repair the damage on the B Model cowl.
Dick

Originally Posted by capteasy

It's look ing very good.
What did you use to repair the damage on the B Model cowl.
Dick

Thank you. It's just plastic model filler from the LHS.

I've had quite the (hilarious) adventure covering the Swift.

I had already re-done the top of one of the wings where the Monokote wouldn't shrink and "fogged".

Then, as I had posted earlier, there were a couple of spots where the chrome Monokote "fogged" on my fuselage. I thought I could live with it but it kept bothering me. The pic is of the fogged areas; the white areas are not reflections, they are where the Monokote did whatever it is that it did.

So I ripped all of the covering off. While it was naked again I also decided to sheet the turtle deck with 1/64 ply. As you will see in my pics to come I think the improvement to the plane's appearance is worth the effort.

Soooooo I decided to go out and buy a roll of chrome Ultracote. My thinking was that maybe it would be close enough of a match to the Monokote to get away with. I covered just the bottom portion of the fuse and while the Ultracote is much easier to work with it also develops that foggy appearance...much more easily than the Monokote. And I'm talking barely shrinking it on low heat. It is also clearly more dull than Monokote.

Soooooooooo I ripped that off and re-covered the fuse again with Monokote. With all this trial and error the covering is now immaculate!