+1 what Mike said. First time trying Micro-Set & Micro-Sol on my A-10 and was truly amazed at how easy the decals conformed to irregular contours. They looked painted on once I was done. Well worth the money, even went out and got another bottle of both just to make sure I never run out.

Jim

Originally Posted by 4stripes

I had one aileron servo fail. Just stopped working and had to replace it. I used a Turnigy 9018mg servo as that was handy. Smaller but plenty strong enough.
Always do a control check on your models before flight as you never know when a servo will quit.

How many flights did that take?? I wonder when we should start replacing servos pre-emptively.

I would estimate a couple dozen. I wouldn’t bother changing any that work normally. I think it is just the odd bad egg. Made on a Monday morning or Friday afternoon perhaps?

Originally Posted by sothpaw

How many flights did that take?? I wonder when we should start replacing servos pre-emptively.

I don't think there's an easy answer to that. I've got roughly 65 flights on my stock Freewing F-4 and have had zero issues with any of the stock servos thus far. I had a completely stock FMS Pilatus PC-21 that I got over 500 flights on it before I donated it to one of the kid's at the field that loves to fly. He's got well over a few dozen flights on it now and it's had zero issues with any of it's servos thus far.

I used to fly Habu 2's quite a bit and some went many flights without any servo issues, while others did. One of my Habu 2's only got 150 flights on it when one of the aileron servos went south.

So it really depends, lots of factors to consider (size of a/c/stress level of specific control surfaces, style of flying, weather elements that the a/c is operating in, manufacturer, etc.).

Over the years I've experienced many stock servo failures. But so far, I've not experienced any servo failures with HiTec and Futaba servos. And I've been using Futaba servos since the very early 80s. Seriously, Futaba servos have outlasted all of the a/c I've flown them in.

It's funny but I can't count how many times I see pilots with a/c that have servo glitches going on. When you see servos glitching/twitching on their own, it's time to change the servo. I've never once experienced this. What I have experienced is a froze servo and/or servos that change their neutral points on their own. That's when I've had to change out the stock units.

But for piece of mind and performance, on all my serious a/c, I remove the stock servos and replace with HiTec and/or Futaba.

Dumb question here - after putting on the windscreen decal with the yellow line around it my window is cloudy while it looks like everyone else's is clear. Are you supposed to remove the center piece after putting the decal on and just leave the yellow strip?

Just for reference my kit has all water slide decals. I would have to go around it carefully cutting it and peal the middle of the decal off.

Originally Posted by Rc_heli_flier

Dumb question here - after putting on the windscreen decal with the yellow line around it my window is cloudy while it looks like everyone else's is clear. Are you supposed to remove the center piece after putting the decal on and just leave the yellow strip?

Just for reference my kit has all water slide decals. I would have to go around it carefully cutting it and peal the middle of the decal off.

Yes. The yellow windshield decal is like just a frame around the circumference of the front windshield. If you pull off both sides the only decal remaining is just the frame. No cutting it out is required.

Here’s a few pix of how I have the mouth decal on my A-10. It could have been lower just a bit, but I got tired of fighting it so I mounted it up a bit. As you can see, I have the top of the mouth a lot higher up on the nose than if I was having it run through those round bumps like it is on the full size A-10. I’m happy with it though. Nothings perfect.

Originally Posted by Kougar Mark II

Yes. The yellow windshield decal is like just a frame around the circumference of the front windshield. If you pull off both sides the only decal remaining is just the frame. No cutting it out is required.

No, mine is a water slide decal, I do not have the decals with the plastic film over them like in the motion video. All of the sheets in the new kits are water slide.

Originally Posted by Kougar Mark II

Here’s a few pix of how I have the mouth decal on my A-10. It could have been lower just a bit, but I got tired of fighting it so I mounted it up a bit. As you can see, I have the top of the mouth a lot higher up on the nose than if I was having it run through those round bumps like it is on the full size A-10. I’m happy with it though. Nothings perfect.

Thanks Kougar. I'm going to hopefully tackle the nose this weekend, so we'll see how it goes! I'm working on the tail sections right now. I tried using the Micro Sol on the decals for the top of the fins but they just would not soften enough to go down around the curves, so I ended up painting the top of the fins blue and then just cutting out the lighting bolt decals and affixing them.

Back to the window yellow stripe decal. Since my kit, and I assume all of the other newer kits, contain all water slide decals now, the decal is one big piece now instead of having the thin yellow outline affixed to a top plastic layer that can be removed once the line is in place (at least that's how I assume it was). Because of that the newer decal has a now somewhat opaque center to it and as such blurs the window slightly. I'm trying to figure out what everyone else is doing now to keep the window clear. See the picture for what mine looks like with the decal installed. I could try to score around the line and peal the center section off or remove it completely and try to find some thin tape to make the yellow line with, or paint one on. Can anyone with the newer kit let me know what they are doing for this please?

You can cut it with a knife even on paper or after applying it to the windshield, gently along the contour ....

Originally Posted by Rc_heli_flier

Back to the window yellow stripe decal. Since my kit, and I assume all of the other newer kits, contain all water slide decals now, the decal is one big piece now instead of having the thin yellow outline affixed to a top plastic layer that can be removed once the line is in place (at least that's how I assume it was). Because of that the newer decal has a now somewhat opaque center to it and as such blurs the window slightly. I'm trying to figure out what everyone else is doing now to keep the window clear. See the picture for what mine looks like with the decal installed. I could try to score around the line and peal the center section off or remove it completely and try to find some thin tape to make the yellow line with, or paint one on. Can anyone with the newer kit let me know what they are doing for this please?

I'm sure a fw guys lke myself are readig this and thnking somethng's not right. You say the blue stab "water slide" won't conform to the surface. This is weird as water slides will confom to the sharpest of edges with or without setting solution. I'm sorry, but without a new "version" in front of me to convince me, I have to ask if your sure about your decals? I mean, why would they design an mproved V2 decal that is detrimental to the appearance of the canopy when they had somthing that already worked?
I really do apologise for the implication because if someone asked me if I'm sure I'm not misidentifying a water slide with a vinyl decal, I would feel a little insulted , but it just doesn't make sense. A water slide will not lift at the edges, particularly with microsol. This suggests to me that it is not a water slide, therefore other decals will also not be water slide. As I'm typing this,I'm thinking one is sticy on the back and mounted to thick carrier film and the other is gossamer thin, you can't confuse them.
Why would they change it?

By the way, compared to Tamiya, Revel etc water slides, FW decals are hardly affected by microset and the more aggressive microsol. You can soak them for hours in the .sol with little effect, this would almost dissolve some water slides. Only benefit from using it is that the decal will not lift with age.

Well, unless these are the worlds most difficult to remove peel and stick decals then they are water slide decals. You can't say on one hand that water slides would conform and on the other hand say that FW decals wouldn't.
Attached is a picture of two decals side by side that came off the same sheet as the window decal. I've been building models most of my life and flying rc since 1976 - I'm telling you these are all water slide decals now. I picked and picked around the edge of the blue decal and it is not coming off unless it's dipped in water, which makes the window decal a water slide decal as well.
You said FW wouldn't put decals in their kits that wouldn't work as before, but they made the blue decals as in the picture below and they certainly would not conform to the fin. Here is a link farther back in the thread where one guy slid them down because he couldn't get them around the fin:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...postcount=5717

All Manufactures make mistakes from time to time. My first FW jet was an Avanti, and right out of the box it had a bad flap servo that motionrc finally replaced.

This guy confirmed they are all water slide now:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...ostcount=12433

Without having a recent kit in your hands you can't tell those of us that do that we are wrong. I know what a dry transfer decal looks like. Do the ones in the picture here look like dry transfer decals? No they do not. So, that brings me back to my original question, to anyone that has a recent kit, how to address the window decal now?

Not looking to pick a fight with anyone, but I know what these are.

Ok ok people do make mistakes so I had to ask and clarify as what you have is not what I bought when it was released. I was simply surprised that a thin water slide could not fold around the edge of the vert stab without lifting. My vinyl stab markings do lift and had to be glued down to bend over the edges.
Your response is what mine would be and I sincerely apoogise.

Originally Posted by Alphonso

Ok ok people do make mistakes so I had to ask and clarify as what you have is not what I bought when it was released. I was simply surprised that a thin water slide could not fold around the edge of the vert stab without lifting. My vinyl stab markings do lift and had to be glued down to bend over the edges.
Your response is what mine would be and I sincerely apoogise.

It's not a problem, no big deal. For the decal on the vertical stab it just would not go all the way around the edge no matter what I did or how much Micro Sol I tried. I even put cuts into it so it would fold down better, but in the end it was far easier to paint the entire tip of the fin and then just cut the lighting bolts close and apply them. The differences between the colors is practically invisible. I had read down through most posts on this thread, and there are a lot, and I came across a lot of good info, and also the color paint that matches the blue on those decals here:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...postcount=5635

That user has been very helpful, and his version of the A-10 looks fantastic. I'm going to be weathering mine in a similar fashion, but if anyone has any useful hints or tip for me or anyone please let us know. I'm going to be curious to hear the answer on the window decal. May have to write to motionrc and see what they say.