this is my 2nd plane

[Angie332]

No Wildpig, I don't have her sister. He ordered me a GeeBee R1 racer, Pitfire MK1, WW2Zero, Piper J4-E Coupe & the B-25 Mitchell.. Maybe my hubby will buy me more models when I finish these:-)
As far as a roommate I'd be all for it for the help on these models

[Angie332]

My camera is my phone.. I am sorry the pictures are so big. I guess I need to find a way to shrink them. Already gotta compress them to post them. I guess this phone takes better pictures than I thought.
This hellcat is only my second model I have done. I daw someone covered theres with just a couple of pieces of paper & I thought dummy my that I'd try it the next model I probably won't be doing that again. As far as the grain on the paper Ireally ccouldn't tell which way it was going. It looked like it was going all directions. Not ad easy yo see like fabrics..

[Angie332]

Don't you two need a boarder at your house? [/quote]
Told hubby he got jealous.. LoL
Good for him to be green for a bit

[zoomie]

As far as the grain on the paper Ireally ccouldn't tell which way it was going. It looked like it was going all directions. Not ad easy yo see like fabrics..

Not all tissue has a grain, a lot of gift wrap and craft tissue is totally grainless.

You can tell by finding a corner of the tissue and slightly tearing one of the edges a little ways from the corner, then do the same thing with the opposite edge. You'll have two small rips in your tissue, each going in opposite directions. If the tissue has a grain, you'll see paper fibers running in one direction only.


zoomie

[Angie332]

Thank you Zoomie I'll try that:-)

[Angie332]

Yeah!! My 17 yr old daughter is building balsa with me. She's off to a good start. She is building a Messerschmitt Bf-109

20140630_205510.jpg

[Billy Mc]

It's great to see young people getting into hobbies.

[davidchoate]

I,ve done a few 500 109's, and just make sure the stringer notches are aligned and you will have the fuselage shape clean and straight. Be sure she doesnt glue on any formers upside down. easy mistake to do on that plane. I have also (on that particular model) had problems fitting the wing neatly into the fuselage. It takes a bit of sanding to get it perfect. I know it's hard for youngins to have patience, but as long as she's having fun, and learning about History, I guess its all good.

[Angie332]

Buggers She's not one for patience.. I have basically put my model aside to help her, so thank you for the heads up. We thought cause it had beginner on it that it would have been a easy one. I have found that it is a bit confusing for her. She is gone for 3 days to visit with her grandpa( my dad) so I will get a chance to finish up my hellcat. If I can figure out how to mask the canopy off for paint. So far I am stumped on that. Haha!! Much easier for me to free hand like I did the p40.. haha then theres the landing gear. I am going to make those removable I saw you gotta soak the rubber band in some kind of oily substance. What do you use davidchoate? I saw some people use armerall the car cleaning stuff..Will that do?

[davidchoate]

I sometimes use super thin pinstriping they sill at Hobby Town to put the detail on my canopies,and painting them I still am working on, but gettin beter..Good brushes are a must. I learned that from david ducket. If U buy cheap brushes, you will get cheap results, and the good brushes last long time if u care for them.

[zoomie]

Buggers She's not one for patience..

Most kids aren't patient. Fact is, most aren't interested in building models but flying them is way cool !

We thought cause it had beginner on it that it would have been a easy one. I have found that it is a bit confusing for her.

I wouldn't suggest any of the 500 series for anyone who has never built a stick & tissue model before. A few years back, kittyfritters on this forum had a list of the best Guillows models to start with and work up to the harder ones. The 4000 series is specially made for anyone just getting started and the Flyboy model is said (by kf) to be the best flyer of all the Guillows models made. You might want to do a search for the post.

If I can figure out how to mask the canopy off for paint. So far I am stumped on that.

Try painting the canopy frames and stick 'em on. Paint some plain paper with the fuselage color you're using, then use a straightedge, ruler and sharp X-acto knife or razor blade to cut out strips from the painted paper to stick over the frame areas. Plain old Elmer's Glue-All white glue works good, wouldn't hurt to rough up the frame areas on your canopy a little with some fine sandpaper first.

I saw you gotta soak the rubber band in some kind of oily substance. saw some people use armerall the car cleaning stuff..Will that do?

Don't use anything oily, it'll damage the motor. Yeah, ArmorAll protectant works great. Pour a little in a Ziplock bag, put your motor in and swish it around for a few seconds. Take it out to drip-dry for a minute or so, then install it in your model.


zoomie

[Mitch]

Hi All,

I am home for a few days...

About masking. You can just use plain old masking tape. The blue stuff works a bit better. You can also buy better ( and more expensive) tape at a hobby store.
I just use blue masking tape. Press it down. Carefully cut away with xacto knife the areas you want to paint.

Here is another option... Cut thin strips of your colored paper. Rub a glue stick on that and apply to canopy. That way the color matches!

Mitch

[zoomie]

Great hints, Mitch...thanks for posting .

Only thing I'd add is whatever tape you buy, be sure it's a quality name brand. I bought some cheap no-name masking tape on sale at a hardware store long ago and tried it for making painted canopy frame strips. After some flying sessions with the model being outside in alternating hot and cold weather, the tape lost it's stickiness and I had to re-stick the loose frames with thinned white glue every time it flew . It probably would've worked okay as a temporary mask for covering the "glass" areas and spraying the frames.

Haven't tried it yet but read somewhere that Scotch Magic Tape works great for the methods discussed here.

Only caution about glue sticks is don't let them start to dry out, keep 'em damp. Likely not hard to do if you live in coastal Washington state .


zoomie

[davidchoate]

sometimes you can feel the grain of the tissue; In other words, if you gently pull it between your thumb, and middle finger, it is smooth one way ( with the grain), and rougher against the grain, but some tissues really dont got a grain. and honestly, I never noticed a huge difference,but some DO have a front and back. And that will look messed up if done wrong. Front shiny, back duller.

[zoomie]

That's good info, David, thanks.

Japanese tissue (Esaki) definitely has a grain direction and when stretched tight, shrunk and doped it adds a lot of stiffness and strength to a model frame. This is fine for frameworks that are built sturdy enough to handle the tension, smaller and more lightly built models often warp unless the Esaki is pre-shrunk on a flat frame before it's applied to the model.

I think every Guillows kit I've seen came with domestic tissue. The framework of most Guillows models is designed to be strong and rugged to take some abuse, and I don't think Esaki would add much to the strength factor. You could try it, though.

One thing that baffles me: have always heard that if tissue has a grain, cover wings with the grain running spanwise, or wingtip-to-wingtip. Recently saw a build in a different forum by a very experienced modeler who no longer covers that way, now he covers chordwise , claims it covers better. So go figure.

Totally bumfuzzled ,


zoomie