Starlight - Sparrow Gallery

Decals added.
The decal are not water slide which is a shame. The nose cone decal bunches slightly on the curved surface, where a waterslide would bend better.

Post copied to gallery with permission

I just finished this Sparrow model. It's not trimmed to fly yet, but I'm pretty happy with its look.

The paint is Rustoleum metallic nickel, and the decals are from a sheet designed for 1/72 aircraft. The cockpit windows are cut from a piece of trim Monokote. I know this little guy is too heavy to be a great glider (primer and paint), but I don't think I'll ever want to keep it in the air that long. For now it's going up on my son's mobile.

Nice.
Mr. Bob

Excellent work guys! I specially like DB's aircraft theme.

The Sparrow is easy and quick to build with only 7 parts to put together. I guess that if one uses CA it can be built within 20 minutes... Finishing took a little longer. Two coats of primer, each one sanded down almost to the balsa. A light spread of Elmer's FnF, also sanded to cover what the primer did not. The nose cone got the CA treatment: two coats, each one sanded with 320 then 400 grit paper. Used Krylon gloss white and pumpkin orange. The orange took some masking work but the final result was worth it.

I turned my Sparrow into a Racing Sparrow. Inspired on a recently found picture of racing planes, I went off making red and orange decals. The white stripes were cut from a white decal sheet. The contour of the stripes were printed on the back of the sheet and cut with a sharp hobby knife.

After decals dried I gave it two coats of Future. I do know that weight is the worst enemy of gliders but will see how this goes. Still not trimmed as of today.

Enjoy the pictures.

- rpr

rosko_racer said:

The white stripes were cut from a white decal sheet. The contour of the stripes were printed on the back of the sheet and cut with a sharp hobby knife.

I do know that weight is the worst enemy of gliders but will see how this goes. Enjoy the pictures.
- rpr

Click to expand...

Yeah, I know weight is the worst enemy, but it looks real sharp!
Worse case, it'll still glide, but you'll get it back.
I used to paint my gliders like the catalog pictures but now use markers.

I like how you used the white decal sheet to make the curved white stripes over the orange.
Very clever. Now I want to get one of these!

rosko_racer said:

Excellent work guys! I specially like DB's aircraft theme.

The Sparrow is easy and quick to build with only 7 parts to put together. I guess that if one uses CA it can be built within 20 minutes... Finishing took a little longer. Two coats of primer, each one sanded down almost to the balsa. A light spread of Elmer's FnF, also sanded to cover what the primer did not. The nose cone got the CA treatment: two coats, each one sanded with 320 then 400 grit paper. Used Krylon gloss white and pumpkin orange. The orange took some masking work but the final result was worth it.

I turned my Sparrow into a Racing Sparrow. Inspired on a recently found picture of racing planes, I went off making red and orange decals. The white stripes were cut from a white decal sheet. The contour of the stripes were printed on the back of the sheet and cut with a sharp hobby knife.

After decals dried I gave it two coats of Future. I do know that weight is the worst enemy of gliders but will see how this goes. Still not trimmed as of today.

Enjoy the pictures.

- rpr

Click to expand...

That is absolutely stunning. Well Done!