Gillard
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2009
- Messages
- 1,973
- Reaction score
- 4
Part of my winter project was to do a series of upscales of the classic Estes mosquito.
This is my biggest one so far, completely scratch, non standard body tube, custom rings, lathe turned nose cone.
First thing i did was to get the body tube, this was a standard postal tube that was 3.4 inch in diameter. The body tube length needs to be 12.5 inches long.
I did not choose this tube, but happened across it as a UKAYRoC (british TARC) team that I am mentoring wanted to glass a BT, so I had them practice on a spare poster tube I had. They did such a good job on the practice tube that I thought i'd use it!
The whole tube was glassed, and then had the weave on the cloth filled using polyester filler, this was then sanded smooth, which took about an hour, but gave a smooth and strong finish. After that a 12.5 inch section was cut out.
Another section was also cut to make the shoulder on the nose cone.
This is my biggest one so far, completely scratch, non standard body tube, custom rings, lathe turned nose cone.
First thing i did was to get the body tube, this was a standard postal tube that was 3.4 inch in diameter. The body tube length needs to be 12.5 inches long.
I did not choose this tube, but happened across it as a UKAYRoC (british TARC) team that I am mentoring wanted to glass a BT, so I had them practice on a spare poster tube I had. They did such a good job on the practice tube that I thought i'd use it!
The whole tube was glassed, and then had the weave on the cloth filled using polyester filler, this was then sanded smooth, which took about an hour, but gave a smooth and strong finish. After that a 12.5 inch section was cut out.
Another section was also cut to make the shoulder on the nose cone.
Last edited: