900 series t28 build, gonna need help

[krob]

So this will be my second attempt at making a Guillows rubber band model fly and fourth attempt overall. I'm determined to get a good flier. When I was a kid, I'd stare at Guillows kits for ever at the lhs dreaming of making one fly rubber or rc, till my dad would drag me out of there. Well my first attempt as an adult was the 900 series P51 rubber powered. I guess technically it flew, but it was erratic and short. Second attempt was 500 series FW190 as an electric free flight. The motor I took out of one on my kid's toys wasn't quite strong enough, so it was basically a powered glider. Third attempt is a 900 series typhoon as a rc conversion. I haven't tried to fly this one yet, for I am waiting on a back ordered part. My guess is, if it does fly, it'll be a rocket ship I can't control. AUW is almost 10 oz., and from what I have gathered since, models of that size need to be less than 4 oz. to have any chance of being a good rc flier.
All of those models where before I spent time reading all the wonderful information on this site and rcgroups. Now I'm armed with a wealth of information all you veterans have been so kind to take time to post. Any advise would be much appreciated especially any experience with this particular kit.
Things I'm doing to the kit so far are sanding all the balsa sheets down; especially any material that goes aft of the wing. Also putting in lighting holes and enlarging holes where ever I can. It looks like I can easily eliminate one of the wing ribs because one is doubled up for the landing gear, and I won't be putting in a landing gear. I'm going to order some Japanese Tissue for this one, and I'm not going to paint, just seal with Krylon.
Wondering if any one has any input on gorilla glues. I figured I give them a try because they seemed cheaper, except upon closer inspection there super glue bottle only came half full (more like half empty). I was attracted to it though because it's plasticized. I was hoping it would impart some strength with little on no weight penalty. The other gorilla glue I picked up is their precision glue pen which is a polyurethane glue. It should expand while drying. I was thinking this would fill joints on poor cuts and make for a nice sanded finish.
Two negatives I've seen so far on this kit, are the canopy comes in two halves. That's going to be hard to glue those together and make look good. The other is the model didn't come with decals just a piece of paper with the insignia on it. Not sure what to do there. Input would much appreciated here. Although I'm more concerned with a good flier than scale looks on this one. I might just forgo decals.
I'm looking forward to the challenge. I enjoy it because it goes against my intuition which is to overbuild everything for strength. I just need to reverse my intuition, and mantra the lighter it is the less strong it needs to be.

[krob]

I'm almost ready to start covering. I just need to get my esaki tissue in the mail. I've covered a couple models before, the first ones looked horrible, but I'm improving for sure. It seems the couple I've done, I have done it a little diffent each time. From what I've gathered from this site and the way I have done it in the past, I'm planning on trying it a little different this time also. Wouldn't mind some input if this sequence sounds ok. My goal is light weight not scale looks, since I want this one to be a good flyer.
All parts are all ready sanded. Next I'm thinking of two coats of elmer's/water 50/50. sanding in between coats to seal and smooth the frame. Then dry attaching the tissue with the 50/50 elmers. Shrinking The tissue with water then sealing with krylon or butyrate dope thinned 50/50 with thinner. I've heard butyrate dope can warp a light structure. Anyone have experience with this.
I'm not planning on painting this one just going for white and orenge tissue like a navy trainer.

[krob]

http://i836.photobucket.com/albums/zz284/onekrob/017.jpg

That's my tank of typhoon in the background, and hopefully my soon to be lighter than air t28

[flash52]

I use a glue stick when attaching tissue. You can reposition the tissue to remove most of the wrinkles before you even shrink. When you are satisfied rub the tissue down insuring good wood contact. A damp finger with water or alcohol will usually seal down any loose areas. A lot of the indoor flying guys don't shrink at all. Their planes are built too light and shrinking will cause warping. Be careful using Esaki on the thin tail surfaces of the 900 series kits. It shrinks a lot and will bend your tail feathers. The only time I had problems with dope was after applying it on already shrunk tissue covered weak flying surfaces.

[krob]

should I stick with domestic tissue on the tail feathers? Could I shrink domestic tissue and avoid warpage on the light structures. Maybe I won't use dope at all on the model and shrink with water/alchol and seal with krylon. Thanks for the info!
Oh ya does anyone use acrylics on the plastic parts. The few models I've done I've used enamels on the plastics. I was hoping to stick with all acrylics. I like the easy cleanup, and easy mixing of colors.

[krob]

I just used domestic tissue for the tail fin. I printed the insignia onto the tissue in my printer. For flying models I'm not going to paint, I'm going to do that alot more often. The few models I've built; I've never really liked the water decals. I made some stars and stripes on my computer for the wings and fusalge too. I was a little bummed because you can see the indentification lettering on the formers under the tissue. I Should have thought of that one, but this is going to be the first one I don't paint.

[krob]

I'm covering the t28 in Navy trainer colors and rudder is orange, but it looks really yellow in the picture.

[krob]

I've been experimenting a lot with printing graphics out on my computer to domestic paper, but it turns out I haven't been experimenting enough. I was practicing on domestic tissue before I went for it on Japanese tissue. I thought I had it dialed. As you could see in this photo there is a little streaking on the elevator from the ink. It seems on domestic tissue the higher up I printed the graphic and the less of it there was the better it came out (like the lettering on the rudder). The stars and stripes graphic at the bottom of the picture is on domestic tissue and came out perfect. The stars and stripes at the top of the picture (on the wing, fabric isn't shrunk yet) is printed on Japanese tissue, and you can see it streaked a little. Just like the control surface lines of the elevator. Well when I went to shrink these, the blue in the stars and stripes bleed like crazy with water and again with krylon (I'll have a picture of the aftermath up soon). I also had problems of permanent marker bleeding on Japanese tissue, when krylon was applied. It seems black ink (hp ink), and permanent marker on domestic tissue is all good for water and krylon. Black ink on Japanese tissue seems to work out ok, if you can get it to print out okay, but it smudges a lot in the printer compared to domestic tissue. Blue printer ink will bleed no matter what paper it's on from no matter what it gets wet from. The moral of my story is (if it makes for a confusing read) I only had good results from black computer ink and permanent marker on domestic tissue while printing, shrinking, and sealing. Everything else produced poor to horrible results.

[krob]

As you can see this looks horrible. It was my worst result. Since my goal is to get a good flyer, I'm just going to keep going ahead. If I get some succesful flights, then maybe I'll fix it or paint over it. I'm going to attempt a few more graphics for this plane in the name of experimentation. At least I'm happy with the covering job so far. After reading all the great info on this site, this cover job is turning out way better than my first couple attempts.
I might try the Stars and Stripes again on the side of the model. I think if I apply the tissue wet and really soak it strong on top of a paper towel I might be able to bleed the blue out. The graphic won't be as crisp, but at least it won't look like the one above.
Anyone have any experience printing graphics? Any tips, tricks. or lessons would be hugely appreciated?

[mustangman]

So this will be my second attempt at making a Guillows rubber band model fly and fourth attempt overall. I'm determined to get a good flier. When I was a kid, I'd stare at Guillows kits for ever at the lhs dreaming of making one fly rubber or rc, till my dad would drag me out of there. Well my first attempt as an adult was the 900 series P51 rubber powered. I guess technically it flew, but it was erratic and short. Second attempt was 500 series FW190 as an electric free flight. The motor I took out of one on my kid's toys wasn't quite strong enough, so it was basically a powered glider. Third attempt is a 900 series typhoon as a rc conversion. I haven't tried to fly this one yet, for I am waiting on a back ordered part. My guess is, if it does fly, it'll be a rocket ship I can't control. AUW is almost 10 oz., and from what I have gathered since, models of that size need to be less than 4 oz. to have any chance of being a good rc flier.
All of those models where before I spent time reading all the wonderful information on this site and rcgroups. Now I'm armed with a wealth of information all you veterans have been so kind to take time to post. Any advise would be much appreciated especially any experience with this particular kit.
Things I'm doing to the kit so far are sanding all the balsa sheets down; especially any material that goes aft of the wing. Also putting in lighting holes and enlarging holes where ever I can. It looks like I can easily eliminate one of the wing ribs because one is doubled up for the landing gear, and I won't be putting in a landing gear. I'm going to order some Japanese Tissue for this one, and I'm not going to paint, just seal with Krylon.
Wondering if any one has any input on gorilla glues. I figured I give them a try because they seemed cheaper, except upon closer inspection there super glue bottle only came half full (more like half empty). I was attracted to it though because it's plasticized. I was hoping it would impart some strength with little on no weight penalty. The other gorilla glue I picked up is their precision glue pen which is a polyurethane glue. It should expand while drying. I was thinking this would fill joints on poor cuts and make for a nice sanded finish.
Two negatives I've seen so far on this kit, are the canopy comes in two halves. That's going to be hard to glue those together and make look good. The other is the model didn't come with decals just a piece of paper with the insignia on it. Not sure what to do there. Input would much appreciated here. Although I'm more concerned with a good flier than scale looks on this one. I might just forgo decals.
I'm looking forward to the challenge. I enjoy it because it goes against my intuition which is to overbuild everything for strength. I just need to reverse my intuition, and mantra the lighter it is the less strong it needs to be.

Iam new to printing on tissue I have a epson cx 5000 with dura bright ink.how do you load the tissue into the printer and what program do i use to make the decals or camo? Mark

[Scott]

You did a nice job on the building.Sorry to see you had that
bleeding on the insignia.

[krob]

I have a hp 1315 printer that runs on those hp cartridges that are for sale everywhere. I usually cut the tissue a little smaller than the printer paper and then tape it to the printer paper all around the edges. I try not to pull too tight, but I don't want it loose either. Domestic tissue usually worked unless I tried to print too much or to far down on the sheet. All attempts with Japanese tissue had at least some smearing no matter what. Then krylon and water would make the blue bleed. Krylon also made permanent marker bleed on any tissue. Krylon and water seem to be okay for black printer ink, and I think the red in the stars and stripes was okay too.

[krob]

I used permanent marker for the NAVY insignia. To keep the krylon from making it bleed I went over just the lettering with wbpu then sprayed the rest with krylon after the wbpu was dry. The fuselage ways 7.2 grams covered and sealed. I still have to paint the plastic parts, but I'm guessing my auw will be around 23 grams.

[Scott]

That "NAVY" lettering looks great.

[krob]

Thanks, but I kind of cheated by taking the picture a little pulled back. Permanent marker doesn't really leave behind a sold color. From a little ways away it looks good, but if you get close you can see the irregularities. That's why I wish I could get the printer thing dialed: because when it works, it's so crisp and solid. I figure If every model looks better than the last then I'm happy. My first model only looked good from a long way away (Good from far, but far from good). Each one looks better the closer you get. At some point I'll get a model like the veterans on this forum where the planes look great on the super close up shots.