Need help with fuselage covering

Thanks, I will have to check it out.

Sig sells dope, but I usually buy mine from Aircraft Spruce and Specialty.

I know that the Aero Gloss is still available at some local hobby stores and is still the same nasty smelling stuff. You just have to keep trying. I picked up 2 bottles last year at what used to be a very good local shop. The shop only lasted for about 3 years as the location was terible. It was in an industrial park and was very hard to find. Took me a couple tries to find it. Went there when he was going out of business and one of our club members and I almost cleaned out our wallets. He admitted that he had made a bad call on the location. Didn't know where he was going to open a new one. He had lots of stick & tissue kits, covering materials and parts. He promised to call the guys in our club when he got a new location set up. Hope he follows through as he had a really nice shop there with good supplies of all types of models and supplies. 

Jim  

Nice looking bird.

Heres a stck and Ultracote model I just finished, a 72 inch Comet Clipper Mk II.

Monokote used to be the best, but something has changed about it and Ultracote is a much better material now.  There are lighter weight film coverings that would be better for the smaller models, such as Coverite Microlight and Ultracoat Light.  You apply these with heat, the adhesive is already there.

Picked up the 1/32 Hellcat of their's...along with enough 1/32 balsa sheet to cover it (won't be a flyer).  Planning on clear to seal the wood then paint.  Don't think I'll do much for a pit in it, but mightgo with a radial and prop from something else.

One of the shops here has the 'Cat and Mitchell, but just way to big for where I'm at, but keep having to jam hands in pockets to keep from buying either or both of them....

It seems no matter what the size, the landgear is going to be damaged when it lands.

Tanker - Builder

Hi ;

 I have just recently built the P.B.Y. That's a moster size . Flys terrible . Broke the wings off .Well she makes a BIG impressive static model !

 

The larger scale Guillows kits are not really intended to fly.  They are too heavy, due to too much scale detail.  Plus, the multi-engined ones do not allow enough length for a rubber motor, though the plans on most of them show how to mount an IC engine or electric motor.  The smaller scale Guillows kits are better flyers, but the Dumas kits are better yet.

Hi ;

 I have just recently built the P.B.Y. That's a moster size . Flys terrible . Broke the wings off .Well she makes a BIG impressive static model !

Yes it would be cool to build the big Guillows B-24 or PBY Catalina!

One thing that is great about this thread- it shows how many of us are still building stick and tissue flying models!  Even if we don't fly them.

I had forgotten about punch cards and tape and all that tiny confetti,.

UnwaryPaladin- thanks for the warning about stabilizer and rudder, I was thinking about substituting 1/16 square balsa with 1/16 square bass wood along with some gussets.

My 140 mile round trip to the hobby store was a bust, they had no dope nor did they where to get it, at least the guy didn't look at me as if I was trying to buy illicit drugs, so we will get some Testers clear matt and call it good.

So as not to waist a trip, I picked up a model of a O1 bird dog. The last time I worked on one of these was late 1966 in Nam. We would get a few fuselages, a couple of crates of winds and other crates with additional parts. I bet it's going to take longer to put the kit together than that real thing.

Thank you all for the great advice and if you think of anything else please post.

Just use a glue stick on the corners where the tissue will touch. 

A word of warning- the stabilizer and rudder on the 900 series are very prone to warping when you shrink the tissue. I would add a gusset at a few of the corners to strenghten them. Pin them down when right after applying tissue, while you're shrinking, and if you paint. Go easy on the water and paint, apply in stages if necessary. 

They design the tail very light for better flight, but the trade off is they are touchier to build. 

I was permanently 86'd from the Computer Lab at Poly. I was building a model of a building that required a lot of perforated "metal" sunscreens, so I had the idea of setting the card punch machine (Keypunch) to punch every hole in a deck of cards. 

Well it pretty much destroyed the machine and I never did get my cards.

I see they can be had on eBay, and no they are not cheap.

Since this is not a flying model, I can see no reason why you wouldn't take the approach of reskinning all of the easy to do surfaces with cardstock. Save the investment in dope, monocote and whatever for another project. It'd look a whole lot better.

WillysMB

On the Guillows site there is a nice thread on building and flying this kit. These are made to be simple flyers, not display pieces really. On the same site are a couple threads about impressive display builds using balsa in filling. Look for posts by heywoood.

 

I have found stiff but thin plastic coated cardstock makes a great covering for scale planes that you do not intend to fly. It holds its curvature just like thin metal, and is much easier to do than carving balsa block inserts.  And the plastic coating means it primes well.

The ideal cardboard is old IBM punch cards (remember those?).  When I discovered this fact, I bought or collected all I could find.  My supply is getting pretty sparse though.  They also are useful in detailing plastic models.  I have removed thick gun shields on model ships and other similar models and replaced them using the stuff.

Philo426- that would be great, thank you. I'll see if I can figure out how to pm you.

Mine has a full set of waterside decals.Since I have two of these kits,I will send you a set free of charge to help out if you wish.

philo426- I'm sorry, yes that's the kit, I'm sorry I thought I had confirmed it. This is an old kit. It doesn't have  decals, it has a sheet of paper that has printed blue and white stars and bars. Also there are no notches in any of the wing ribs for the wing spars. 

Same kit as in the photo I posted?

Thank you all for the inputs. I must say that things have gotten more complicated since the 1960's. I didn't get to work on the bird today, all day at the VA for checkups. Saturday I hope to get to the hobby shop.

Signed up on the Guillow's forum, but it seems that someone has to approve new people and email me something. In the mean time I can only look at the newer post and none of the pictures.

GMorrison- I have some .005 film that might work for covering the holes. It reacts to gel CA so it should bond to the wood.

 Again thank for all the great inputs and any more you might think of.

On the Guillows site there is a nice thread on building and flying this kit. These are made to be simple flyers, not display pieces really. On the same site are a couple threads about impressive display builds using balsa in filling. Look for posts by heywoood.

I like the Monokote,easy to work with and you can melt sections together if you have a light touch.

If you want it to fly, I would not use Monocoat- it is heavier than tissue. It is meant more for larger RC craft than that little Mustang.  For display, Monocoat is okay. In fact there is a polished aluminum color in those iron-on coverings.  Note, however, that iron-on coverings take a certain skill set that takes as long to learn as tissue covering.  With either, however, using smaller pieces helps.

If that's the same kit, I'd seriously cosider laminating a flat piece of sumpin' over those holes. A thin piece of cardboard folder material would probably work fine.

Yes not a fan of the flat sides,might be a misguided attempt to make the kits simpler to build.    

okay,go to postimage.org and sign up.from there you can upload your pics and share them.

philo426-you are exactly right, if you look at the fuselage you will see what I'm talking about. Thanks for the info on the props.

 Sure wish I could figure out how to post a picture, it would have saved a lot of typing. 

WillysMB- yes it's a Guillows kit . Thanks for the info on the balsa forum.