Speed 400 Cloudster
Project
We got up this morning to almost an inch of snow,
a temperature of 30 degrees which seemed like 22 degrees with the 25 mph
wind blowing. By the way, this our first day of spring here in north Texas.
Brrrrrr! After going to Church, Sue and I went to breakfast and then
returned home.
Since the Cloudster is 0.87 ounces short of
meeting the 16 ounce minimun weight for the Speed 400 event, I decided to
give the doped silk a coat of clear satin Klass Kote to achieve that ultra
smooth finish. I spent this afternoon coming up with paint fixtures in
preapation for air brushing one thin coat of clear satin Klass Kote on the
fuselage, cowl, and vertical tail. To support the fuselage, a painting
mandral composed of a 5/8" wooden dowel with a piece of 1/8" plywood on the
end that was screwed to the firewall as shown below. The cowl was screwed to
the end of a 3/4" wooden dowel to support it. Both the fin and rudder were
suspended on 1/16" wooden dowels with a combination of 2-56 threaded rod and
hinge halves that were a fixed to the ends as shown below. These fixtures
provide places to hold while each component is air brushed. The
temperature is supposed to be back up into the 70's by Tuesday, so my plan
is to do the air brushing sometime Tuesday afternoon, depending on
temperature.
On a different note, I saw a picture of Albert
Pardue's outstanding Eugene III competition rubber model on the SAMTalk
Forum yesterday, which is shown below. I noticed that this models has a
beautifully installed windshield.
Thinking ahead on the Cloudster, I called Albert
yesterday and had an informative phone conversation with him on windshield
material (windscreen to some)
and the adhesive to bond them on with. I want to pass along what he
recommended.
Albert gets his windshield
material (kind of like Mylar, but
called something different) at the Hobby Lobby Arts and
Craft store. It comes in three thickness'. He said the thinnest material was
too flimsy for windshield and recommended one of the other two thickness'.
He uses a glue product called "Welbond-More Than Great Glue". He
gets it at Lowes or Home Depot hardware stores. He says it dries clear and
works very well.
I called our local Hobby Lobby Arts and Craft
store a little while ago, but they are not open on Sundays so I will get out
tomorrow and see if I can pick up the windshield material and
glue........................Tandy