Thursday, January 13, 2011

I might as well fix it...

Since I will have to add new tissue to the damaged sections I decided to correct another issue with the wings which I was not happy with.

The two white sections on the top of the wings had been painted flat white and unfortunately underneath was a gloss red coat which created an undesired cracking effect. It was light but noticeable so I went ahead and removed the sections so that I can add new tissue and repaint it with a gloss white.


Sunday, January 9, 2011

Examining the Damage...

Well, after yesterdays nightmare event I examined in detail and started the process of determining the repairs that will be needed. I removed the damaged sections as can be seen in the photo below.


Saturday, January 8, 2011

Crash!!!

Tonight I wanted to pick up where I had left off several months ago and continue work on the tri-plane. While setting up the plane and getting some cardboard to commence spray painting some red I knocked over the plane it took a 3 foot nose dive and it crashed into the floor!!! My wife who was upstairs heard a few curses and came running down to see what happened. The only damage was to the top wing bit it was major. The struts broke and pierced the top tissue and the wing fell off. I glued it back on and will analyse tomorrow what tissue needs to be replaced (lets just say I'm not in the best of moods).

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Playing in the backyard...

Here I am outside in my backyard spraying the completed body of the DR-1 with Krylon to harden the tissue. I attached the rubber band used to make the propeller spin to a coat hanger to make it easier to spray.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Signature

The artist must sign his masterpiece…
Photo and signature is just below the machine guns.


Friday, June 18, 2010

Landing Strut

The landing strut proved to be very complicated to cover with tissue due to the landing strut sticking out of the fourth wing. All I can say is that a bit of patience and a lot of cutting did the trick in completing this section of the aircraft. Despite being a hard piece to work with the challenge made it fun sub assembly to work on.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Dope & Krylon

After a lot of research and testing several techniques, I came to the conclusion that the best method to cover the plane was to use a simple glue stick with tissue paper and spray it with fine particles of water then apply in a spray can Krylon clear finish. I tried the traditional technique of using what is called dope to cover the aircraft on a test piece and despite the good results the product earns its name for a reason. With strong fumes and less forgiving then the non-toxic glue stick and Krylon spray, the choice was not hard to make.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Landing Strut Assembly

Despite the DR-1 being called a tri-plane due to its three principal wings, it actually has fourth one hidden in the landing strut as can be seen here.