no, it's easy. I need to make a video. But the wifey is back in the islands w/ the good camera. I might just use my droid. Practice on an old wing tip and see how nice it conforms. Just as it's looking like you have to start over, burnish it w/ the aluminum rod & iron it down with the white vinyl eraser. Just in that minute spent all the wrinkels go away and the edges have streached metal around the curves. It's a blast making this stuff look like the real thing. Then the fine grit rubbing compound, cleaner wax (rally paste wax in the flat round can), then the no grit guitar wax (turtle wax express shine in the green spray bottle).

I'm thinking of doing the foil down the center and the LE&TE w/ monocoat, so no burnishing or streaching, just the eraser treatment. The best ever foil I have found is the brand "Bazic", but no longer available. Nashua is the next best thing, but takes a little more polishing, stay away from the walmart brand, and others due to the pattern that is on the surface.

Mounted the wing and installed the 4ea 1/4 -20 wing bolts. That was satisfying Came up w/ a plan on routing the 8 gauge cables. News flash .._.. ...._ .._ _ ..._ It going to weigh 7 pounds

Have a good one,
Doug

7 pounds.... That's a light weight. It has plenty of wing and even more lift with the goofy wing section. Don't sweat the weight to much. I think mine was in the 8 pound range but don't really remember for sure. It will not be a speed demon in he air so don't expect to much there. For a skinny airframe it is not at all fast.

ken

I'm going w/ 5 cells LiPo, w/ a 14x7 motocalc says 72 mph top speed. Currently the CG was shown in tha included picture as 4" from the LE. I'm at 6" w/ a 5 cell 4000mah LiPo, & no prop. I'll be using a 5 cell 5000Mah, so hopefully it will be pretty close.

Yep, with this wide of a wing it will be a good stunt plane as it was designed. It will sure look good with that big wing.

Been closing up the cockpit for now, will go more scale in this area after the maiden. I used 1/16th balsa to cover the cockpit for & painted it flat black. It will however have a scanned copy of the instrument panel as included in the assembly guide written by Maxey Hester, He says "use the panel below" for scale detail. It has hand drawn writing in it!

Next will be more work on the wing to prep it for covering. Sanding, some blistering from the old sheeting will receive 4 anchors into the foam and CA;ed at the surface, and sanded. The ailerons also need to be mounted & control rod connected. Check the travel & size the horn which will be mounted below the covering like the tail feathers.

That's all for tonight. Been a busy week at the salt mine, the wife gets back late next week, so I have some more time to "escape reality" & build.

Best,

Doug

The foil, 3M foil duct tape currently has the least of scratches purchased from Lowes. Home Depot carrys Nashua brand that has many grooves that won't polish out. The pictures here are of non-polished foil. There is a funny deal with this stuff, it conforms to any & all imperfections on the surface. As long as your surface defects (glue seams) are of some typical airplane patterns, you're set. They will actually make the aluminum finish look more realistic & scale. God Save the Queen!

The polishing steps will be as follows:

Heavy cut polishing compound
Fine cut polishing compound
"Rally" type cleaner/polish in a can
Turtle Wax "Express Shine"- green spray bottle. No grit, really cool stuff, guitar polish like.

Polishing will be done in place. The foil is layed over the monocoat at the edges.

I'll be doing the cowling next, then do a quick polish on the foil installed and there will be a couple of pictures I'll post before the afternoon is over. It took me about 2 hours to do all this foil work, It's actually very easy especially for those of you that can't stand monocoat which is me, but my work with the Monocoat looks not too bad, but I can hate it, right?

Can you say "external antenna"?

Doug

Finally have the fuse covering done. Well almost, there may be some yellow trim stripes between the foil & the Dk Blue Monocoat. I promise some better pics worth drooling over. The Insignia blue is hard to see looking black.

Next will be the final canopy fitting, the screw holes are already CA'ed, the canopy is already pilot drilled, now all I have to do is find them.......

Taking alot of breaks to keep the interest high on this end.

Coming up the wing. Already sprayed it w/ a clear urethane, next will be w/ some "Zinser" heavy solids primer in a rattle can & a whole lot of sanding. Even the camels will be hiding from this sand storm

Have a great week "yall

Doug

The wing is getting the foil treatment. Decided aginst the primer thinking that it may impare the PSA on the foil from sticking. On a sheeted wing, monocoat would make it stronger, however this foil should do the same if not better. I'm making this point mainly due to the idea I had of doing a monocoat finish 1st, then the foil on top. The PSA on this foil is extreamly sticky, and actually the main reason for failure during the applacation process. If it hangs up on anything, the piece is normally ruined due to excessive wrinkles. Minor wrinkels smooth out with use of the eraser and/or aluminum burnishing rod which is used primairly for curving and conforming the foil edges. So with a final sanding w/ 220 sandaper the wing is smooth. The sheeting seams look worse than they are. The foil tells all following every little divit that filler, a few coats of urathane & sanding many times did not hide. The blister got repaired with 4 holes, foam safe CA & some bamboo skewers cut flush & sanded of course.

I may get the right top finished tonight.

RF reception will be assured with external antennae. The Assan receiver that will be used has 2 each 8" long coax antennae, so a far field test will prove if the initial placement will work.

Doug

Thank you Mr. Moderator for your assistance in moving this thread to the "Scale Electric Plane" forum. I am honored to be among the many scale build logs!

Hello fellow fly'ers. I hope to receive your honest and creative feedback regarding my over half way complete old Sig Zlin Akrobat kit that was rescued from the trash can. I will be glad to discuss any of my teckniques such as threading soft & hardwood using pipe dope crayon and an electric drill/driver and/or my foiling that uses simple foil duct tape with nice results.

I moved this thread from the very friendly "Builders" forum mainly due to lack of activity in replies. I want to help other folks and also am looking for pointers as I am always ready for more learning. I did (do) have one gent who actually owned one of these kits and flew it. He (KEN) has been a significant mentor in the building of this plane. I hope he will contuine to drop in, and hope the rest of you will too!

More wing covering tonight, can't wait. It's going fast now. My 5000Mah 5s/30c LiPo is supposed to be in the mailbox when I get home, but that's USPS, and I just know thay really enjoy having me visit their post office as often as I can....

More soon

hey Doug!

It looks like an airplane you're building there

Looking good. The maiden should be a short, hopefully, time away.

Then ya done went and moved the thread on me. No issue, You can run, but you can't hide

Ha HA!

Yea, I was going to pm you & thought I'd see if all this traffic would steer my way, well.......
Thought there may be a little more action here on the Scale forum. You know, makes me wonder why I haven't hung out here during this one. But I must say that having your input has made this build much, much more focused in the final outcome. Thank you again Sir! & looking forward to the follow-though w/ the maiden. Don't want to get too excited about that just yet. Still have that wing to finish up, but it's very close. All the electrics are completed. Possibly a Taxi this weekend. Now I'm getting nervious...

Doug

What ever happens....happens. Take your time and get it right. Just because "I" want you to get it in the air yesterday, doesn't mean you have to satisfy me. Go your own speed and make it happen on your own terms. Had you started here I would have never seen the thread. I just don't come here foe some reason. Guess it's cause I don' do scale even though I have a precision scale on the table. I'll get back to it when it turns cold. I kind of lost interest in it for the moment.

I've been a bit side tracked. I discovered DLG (discus launch gliders). I've been hanging out in that forum trying to learn enough to purchase a new entry level ship or a good used one. Darn!!! some of them are pushing $1000. Some used ones are still in the $400 range. I found a new, kind of old school ARF for around $150. will need 3 or 4 micro servos, RX and battery to complete.

OK back to the Zlin. It looks like you are doing a fine job on her. I wish I could bee there on the maiden!!!

Ken

Thanks Ken.

DLGs are the best thing since sliced bread. I just am so impressed in how far into the air they go when thrown, makes one wonder why they weren't already as popular as they are today. The are well made, and yes the really nice carbon composite ones are big bucks. Maybe for me one day soon. I'd be interested in finding some info on them as I develop my taste for a no motor glider. I've been spoiled with Parkzone Radians for awhile now. They night fly well....

UFO's? in college station ( Original video) (6 min 30 sec)

Yea, it was me, even made the TV news. Do a search on youtube for "College Station ufo" & you'll see what I mean, bewhare that these kids use fowl language in this I phone footage. Flight date was 10-10-10 & that sold it.

Well....upon installing the ailerons I noticed that when the servo is actuated- both control rods go the same way. He he, that prior work that was already performed must of had the one of the bell cranks reversed. Oh well had to rip out the installed single servo & hopefully this weekend, tomorrow, get it re-installed on a wheel that will push them the same way giving the correct reverse action.

The wing is covered finally. Haven't touched it at all with the wifey returning from "the old country" except my dismal discovery last Saturday. I had a valvestem fail on Das German Motorkar. The place where I had the last 2 sets of tires installed failed to do what they charged me twice to do. Needless to say I left them a rotten review and supposivily will receive a complete refund check. OK, the check is 2 days late. So, I've been warring with the district manager and so then it was settled, or so it seems....

Need to polish up the wing, got some half priced on sale trim strips, Lt. blue vinyl. Yup, she's coming along nicely for the most part.

More this weekend as it +100° outside and this puppy is playing it cooooool ...inside.

Doug

I'm jealous Looks like you stirred up a hornets nest so to speak. Now just wait until the feds show up looking for little green men

SWEET!!!

Ken

Yup! For night flyers, it's like hitting the holy grail already...

Said that staying inside was the plan, well the yards are looking real nice and it's late Sunday & I'm posting what I'm up against. Have to admit that this the 1st time I have ever been challenged in this fasion. It's old work that the origional owner did, most likely one reason that he shelved the project, but there is hope. See the problem & the fix in the pictures.

The wing is on it's way to collecting hanger rash as I write, but sure is look'in good w/ the aluminum foil duct tape treatment. Still not polished yet mind you.

Now to mount the 2 metal gear mini servos. Lucky for me (and the plane) is that the old owner did do a smooth job in the aileron actuation hardware. Only one is reversed, and you can see why I could not use a single servo. The control rods don't enter the servo box (top center wing) at the same plane. Thought about putting one on the back of a wheel & one on the front, but not enough clearence on the back for my "ball link". I'll also be mounting them from behind as the origional access has already been sheeted & covered, so off I go to make a mounting plate, or something I can attach to something. Don't ya love scratch building, YA!!!

Doug

The rods were meant to go on opposite ides of the wheel or horn of the servo. That would effectively "reverse" one of the ailerons. Could you use an arm and clevises instead of the ball links?

Crap, you posted this two days ago. You're probably done with it by now.

Ken

Hey Ken,

With the Olympics and the heat, been distracted. Just trying to keep the landscape alive. Typical August weather. 4 more weeks 'till good flyin times again.

With a wheel the rods would go the same direction, which would give me the correct direction of throw at the ailerons. I did have them on a arm which gave them the same direction. The rods enter the servo area mid wing at different locations, so using the ball link allowed for some offset as the arm was in the middle as seen in my last picure. but to allow for the offset, I decieded to go ahead and use seperate servos, the ball links are still used mainly because the cup will "pop" onto the ball end as at this point access is very tight to say the least. I'll be work from the wrong of the servo, the rear & screwing in from the back.

In the included pic you can see that he servo on the left follows the offset entry of the control rod. I will have to notch both opposite corners of the cross members to allow the servos to alighn with their control rods. This will work fine w/ my Futaba 7C using ch4 mixed w/ ch5 or 7.

It's all coming together, but not without a fight!

So off to the hobby room I go.....