Feb.24th, 2002
I finally have some color on the heli. I got the second primer coat on the heli and everything looked pretty good on the fuselage. I tacked it down with a rag damp with thinner to clear up any oils and to give it a general cleaning prior to painting. After that, I hit the whole body with a tack rag to make sure everything was clean and ready for the paint.
The picture above shows the base color coat. The paint is Cheveron Perfect Paint Polyurethane. I am spraying it with a Central Pneumatics automotive type touch up gun. It's a really nice paint gun. A big difference over my dual action airbrush. I am really pleased with the quality of the paint, how well it sprays and the fast drying time. Also worth mentioning, this paint is fuelproof through 15% nitro.
After I sprayed on the base coat I noticed sveral pinholes in the nose section, they were barely visible in the primer coat and I thought they would fill in on the color coats WRONG, actually, they got worse... so now I've manually filled in the pinholes that I can see with glazing putty and have saned it back down. I will shoot another coat of color after I hit the spots that were touched up.
The main fuselage is clean as far as pinholes and other problems, I just have to wet sand it with some 600 grit and shoot a wet final coat to get the smooth glossy shine in the final coat. I'll give the paint about 3 days to setup and then I'll tape off the red lightning bolts and shoot the red. I figure two hours of masking and two minutes of painting, oh well. Finally, I'll shoot the blue on the tail boom after the red has cred a few days too.
The photo above shows the scale exhaust position, I'm struggling with the proper tubing to use to vent my exhaust out the scale system. I am heading to the hardware store and see what they have to offer. I have some clear vinyl tubing but I don't think it will handle the heat. I'm planning on looking at some high-temp black automotive tubing like a heater hose and maybe some copper couplers to link it to the smaller stock exhaust. That is a 2.5" plastic funnel in there the middle has been carved out with a dremel. I plan to enlarge my 1/2" pipe out to about 1.25" in diameter to prevent any back pressure problems. So far the Vario rivets look great. I think they willl be just right when I get the final coat of paint and clear on the heli.
I've completed a searchlight for the bottom of the heli and I'm working on wiring the landing skids for the scale running lights. I've drilled holes in the top of the skids right behind the front gear struts. I will run my wires inside the strut fairing and straight down into the skid and it runs to the front opening where I will install the running lights. I have a red one for the left skid and a green one for the right skid. I have a flashing red stobe on the tail and the under belly. I have a white running light on top and a recessed landing spot light in the nose. AHould look great in the evening.
I am so ready to get this thing in the air. I've been working on it about 7 weeks now off and on and I'm getting anxious. I have to put that aside because now more than ever things are more critical. I've worked too hard on this to get sloppy near the end. I figure a few weeks and it will be ready, realisticlly, maybe a month is more accurate.