Thanks for the compliment Larry.

Gene,

Nice job. Good to see someone take an arf and make it look different. Excellent paint work.

Rick

Thank you Rick. Larry, I still do use my Kraft radio from time to time. It has been sent back to Radio South & gone thru, so its still reliable. I collect & refurbish old radios as another part of this hobby. ...Gene

Larry, i weighed it& the ready to fly weight is 6 lbs 7 oz. I dont have a before weight to compair it to, but i'm sure i added weight. But i think the 55 will pull it around ok. Heck, the old style wheels weigh double the weight of the foam wheels that were included alone!...Gene

Originally Posted by gene6029

the next step for me is to apply a mixture of Elmers white glue cut 50% with water to the entire model & let it dry for a day.

What is the reason for the 50% elmer's water mixture? Is this to fill in any imperfections vs using balsa filler?

I was gifted a used .60 V-mar stick that was unwanted but plenty of life in it, converted it to electric and now I'm considering a recover to it though due to the tail being glued on I'm a bit apprehensive of recovering AUW of mine converted is 7 lbs.

Your stick is beautiful.

dedStik,Thank you for your comment about my Stik. The mixture of 50% Elmers wood glue & water is a precurser when i apply Monokote. Been doing it that way for years. It gives me a beautifull surface to work with once sanded out. My original intention was to recover it with Monokote, but changed my mind at the last moment & decided to go with the Sig Koverall instead. The LHS didnt have enough of the yellow Monokote & i didnt want to wait another week to get it, so i took the rout i did because its what i had on hand. In this instance i could have skipped the Elmers mixture & never noticed it......Gene

Gene, your stick looks great, I like how it turned out.

I have a question about the 50-50 elmers glue to water mixture. Does monokote stick to it, like it would to bare balsa wood? I'm thinking about giving it a try, it looks like a great idea.

thanks, Joe

Joe, yes Monokote sticks to the Elmers glue very well. It does take a slightly different approach to applying & shrinking the Monokote though. I try and iron down an edge, then pull the Monokote as tight as i can towards another edge, then go back inbetween with a hot air gun & press it down with a soft cloth or mitt. Once it adhears to the Elmers its not to friendly stretching over it. But you can get glass smooth finishes with a minimal weight gain . Most importantly, after the Elmers dries, sand everything with 400-600 & vacume off the dust before attempting to cover.This model(Tower Kaos)was oil soaked & worn out, but i used the Elmers glue over everything & re-covered it with Monokote & extended its life ....Gene

PS , it may take more than one coat of the Elmers 50-50 with drying and sanding in between on some areas to get the wood nice and smooth.

Gene, congratulations¡¡¡, your stik is beautiful, I plan to cover my first airplane with silk.
I saw all the process, years ago but I only saw didn't make it, so I'm afraid to do some wrong, and twist the wings (Because I saw it).

Thanks for the nice words albertomi. I ended up putting on its first flight at the Glory Days vintage event we have here in NC. Heres a picture of me with it at that event & a few of the other models i took along to fly also.........Gene

Good pictures,

Outstanding job Gene! Same reason I love ARFs. In many cases it DOES make sense to buy a covered ARF and then recover it. I do it all the time. I can buy an ARF, bring it home, and have a balsa model ready to cover the next day.

Kurt

Gene,

For this composites builder, this thread is gold.

My dad was a balsa-basher and he loved timber models covered in fabric. I wish I'd paid more attention cos I'm restoring my dad's 1/4 scale sailplane and the process you've illustrated has boosted my confidence in recovering it with fabric.

Just brilliant

David

If you're interested, I'm blogging the resto HERE