--Up to this point I'm pretty pleased with the direction of this build. There is still a lot to do and some surprises along the way so, STAY TUNED -H
It was just one of those things that I had to have. Making these out of filler was possible but they are brittle and always crack or break so I opted to use card stock and fill around them. I cut some small triangles and CA'd them on followed by a coat of glazing putty--
---this is after the first sanding--
---one more coat of filler and sanded and primed---
-I also took time to repair the crack at the base of the tail, A little CA and some sanding and I was good to go--
--The trailing edge fairings are not perfect but they are a good representation and I'll go with it! Most of the pre-paint prep is done with only a couple of details left. I still need to mount the ventral fin and that was on the schedule for today but it seems I've managed to misplace it so I'll have to get some ply and re-cut a new one.I also need to mount the lug, but I'm giving some thought about that location which will be ahead of the kit location.Ah well, more later --H
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I am rethinking the color scheme. It will be Japanese, They had several experimental schemes so I can play around a bit with it and maybe use some artistic embellishment. Later--H
-but I'll change some things up along the way since there were variations on this theme. I kept it simple and used Rusto's 2x grey and dark grey as a starting point. The plan is to lay a coat of light grey followed by a coat of dark and then moist sand the blend areas. This is a bit time consuming but can give you great results if done correctly. First I sprayed a coat of Light grey and right off the bat I had a problem. As I was spraying , the can began to spit and dry spray--I was already committed --so I cleared the nozzle-- and continued. I could hear the difference in the sound of the spray and had to clear the nozzle several times. SO FAR NOT IMPRESSED WITH 2X RUSTO !!! I did manage to get a wet coat over the dry areas and melt them down a bit--this might come back and bite me later. I came right behind and sprayed the dark grey--no problems with it. This was done outside in 90+ temps , so I applied the paint quickly and put down 2 coats of each color. I'll let this dry for a day or so and then begin to moist sand the blend lines. I did mask off the canopy area and the nose tip. This is where we are at. In a couple days I'll start the sanding and post pics. --
- I'll sand this with 400 to 600 grit and touch up along the way. This should give me a good surface to apply decals to and later clear coat---In a few days it should be where I want it--if not--just re-do------H
Moist sanding is simply a matter of using less water. In either case you must to have the wood sealed with paint or primer. In wet sanding , the surface is constantly given fresh water to wash it off. With moist sanding, you initially wet the surface and sand using only the moisture at hand until you begin to get a clay like build up. The sanded material acts like sandpaper as well. It takes some getting used to. When you get a little build up, wipe it of with a damp cloth and continue. The advantage in our case is your not putting the cardboard and wood under running water which might run into the bt or somewhere you should not get wet. You can target smaller areas if needed.
---more later-H
----moving forward, I'll post a little less so you can see the differences in progress a bit more plainly. Stay tuned--same Hornet time, same Hornet channel !!!---H
--still a lot of work to go but we're getting close. I'm not going to go to huge extremes to make it perfect since these things get banged up.---H
Next I cut the foam into a square cross section ( on the next one I'll trim it to an octagon to make sanding easier. )-
. Now it's just a matter of putting it on a drill and sanding it to shape (YEA RIGHT!). Honestly the process was pretty easy but I worked slowly making sure not to take off too much material. This was done with 100 and 150 grit wrapped around a sanding block. I ended up with this-
this was coated with a thin layer of sheet rock mud and the wing tip cut outs made--
---turns out it was about 3/4 inch longer than needed so I just re-sanded the nose to shape--
---so far so good ---more later---H
--After a couple of primes and sanding I put down a coat of paint and after that had set I added the fins. They were epoxied on. They were made from a very hard card stock I picked up at work. It's used to separate magnetic strips and is finished on one side--very good to use for really thin aerodynamic surfaces. There were a couple of different fin designs used on the tip tanks. One had a larger inboard fin, on the other they were symmetrical.I opted for the second. Still some sanding and priming to go but it looks like I'm on the right track--
-- While it seem we are nearing the finish line , we're still a long, long, way off. Stay tuned---H
--the rear dot on the spine represents the presumed CP , the front dot is the needed CG at one cal. The kit would have this value at about 2.5 inches ahead of it's current position. With the re-design, the CP,CG locations changed. The tip tanks are neutral as far as the CP is concerned but, at an ounce each they do shift the CG towards the rear. Given the length of the nose, I should need about an ounce to make up the difference. -H
Yes or something very close to that
