Tuesday, April 13, 2010

eXtreme Kaos

My design, the eXtreme Kaos is coming along well. I finished painting it yesterday. I have added decals and will explain how I did that later. The white paint is Coverite's Century 21 and the Insignia Blue is Lusterkote by Top Flite. Both paints are excellent! They dry to the touch in about ten minutes and are supposed to be fuelproof, up to 15% nitro, after 24 hours. Both paints are easily sandable. I used Pactra pin striping and put a very thin gold stripe to separate the blue from the white on the fuselage. I put four stripes on the right side of the horizontal stabilizer. 

Decals

Testors makes decal material. I have found it at hobby shops. After creating the decal design on your computer, simply print the design onto the decal material. Then cut the shape out, spray with a clear coat. After it is dry, soak the decal for a minute or so, then slide the decal in place. I have had pretty good luck with these decals but the sheets of material are small. I wanted to be able to print a decal large enough for the wing of the eXtreme Kaos so I had to come up with something different. I called some printing shops and they all want to do a minimum run of 200 or so pieces. I finally decided to try 8 1/2 x 11 clear labels. I printed the design with a laser printer. This seemed to work well but the labels are not completely clear. They are more like Scotch tape, kind of a milky look. I used an X-Acto knife and cut as close to the lettering as possible. This helped eliminate the milky tape look. I have no idea if they will be fuelproof or not so I am going to spray a clear coat over them. Decals really give your airplane a professional look. If you have any good tips on making decals, let me know!
The eXtreme Kaos is coming along nicely. I need to install the radio, fuel tank, carve one wing tip, install one more wing dowel, bottom wing sheeting and then cover the wing. I kept the wing on the eXtreme Kaos shorter than the Utter Chaos and increased the size of the ailerons to increase the roll rate. I am hoping to make the maiden flight within a couple of weeks.






























































Saturday, April 03, 2010

Building! Come on, Let's Get Started!

As I start writing a page for my RC website about building, I will include photos of tools that I use, how to locate them for purchase and how to use them. I will also include tips and tricks that make building a radio controlled aircraft much easier. As with most things, tools greatly simplify tasks at hand! 

My web page on building will be an ongoing endeavor, therefore, I will post only a few things here on my blog. It makes more since to put the information on my website so that it can be referred to occasionally by the viewer to see new tips, tricks and photographs. 

There are other excellent websites that deal with the issue of building radio controlled aircraft but where mine will differ is that I am going to get into the aircraft design phase. Hopefully, this will be a great source of information for those of you that have wanted to create your own design or to those who want to design and build a scale model of an actual aircraft.

Allow me to brainstorm for a moment. Here are the sub-pages I am thinking about adding to my "Design and Build" web page:
  1. Preliminary Design - Deciding on what plane to design, sizing of the airplane. Airfoil selection, wing planforms, wingspan, washout, angle of incidence, sizing of control surfaces (volume coefficients). Software for designing your aircraft. (This isn't as complicated as it seems. Anyone with a calculator can appear to be a genius!).
  2. Types of Model Aircraft Construction - Typical balsa built up airframe. Fiberglass - working with the material, making parts and molds. Vacuum forming. Foam cutting (hot wire).
  3. Tools 
  4. Adhesives
As I get into this, I am sure I will add many more items of interest. The "Design and Build" web page will continue to grow over time. 
For now, go to my DESIGN AND BUILD web page and let's get started! 

Be sure to check back often to see any additions. It is my goal to get some of you to build your first RC plane or at least to take an interest in building an RC plane.

Now, I would like to ask a favor of you. If you think my "Design and Build" page is worth the time and effort and something you would be interested in, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

Thanks and Happy Designing, Building and Flying!