Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

[Andy Boylett]

Thanks Mike,
What is confusing us is that if you go to Amber Composites they only seem to stock two fillers and they are both powders for mixing in with a resin.
I found this one...... http://www.resins-online.com/products-resin-support-products/products-latex.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=514&category_id=34&vmcchk=1
Any suggetsions?
Regards, Andy

[Mike Booth]

Sorry if I wasnt clear before. I use Axson now, although Amber comp used to sell two pack filler in a tin.
My experience with cataloy res mix fillers is 'MESSY'.
Pattern makers filler from AXson is what you want.

Andy Ive just had a proper look at your link and it takes you to a John Burn product in a tin with red catalyst.
Thats just as good and £21 is going to keep you going for yonks.

[Andy Boylett]

Many thanks Mike, I'll give that one a go.
Cheers, Andy

[Andy Boylett]

Hi Mike, a large tin of Burnco Smooth just arrived and I have had a go with it. Lovely stuff. It is just like a thinner, smoother version of P38......and much easier to sand!
Cheers, Andy

[Phil Clark]

How does this stuff compare to P-38 once painted.......is it quite porous, or does it give a nice blemish free surface?

Also, what is the weight like?

Phil

[Mike Booth]

It comes up the same Phil,nut shell and ready to take paint after the right wet and dry bar your normal acrylic stopper. Nothing in this world is perfect.

[Andy Boylett]

After advice re spraying I got Sam to insulate my workshop. It is now fully polythene tented, with scrap carpet floor, and a fan heater plus convector heater!!!

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[Andy Boylett]

For the first time in 2 weeks the temp was above zero this morning. So, I got out early and put the fan heater and convector heater on. I thought 1kw plus 2kw will be ok with the power supply to the shed. If it goes over 13amps the fuse should blow as the supply is simply plugged into a 13amp plug socket inside the house. However,I didn't count on the plug socket melting! It was an old one and the switch melted and then stopped working. The whole lot was red hot and 'melty'!!!

[Andy Boylett]

Well I have to say that thanks to the tips on spraying in the cold, I have managed to spay all the white on all parts of the plane. I discovered that a nice finish can be achieved if the paint (and thinner) is kept in the house in a nice warm place prior to use. If I didn't do this then I had to thin down to 70:30 to get a good spray - quite an area of wooden wall inside my shed has now been sprayed whilst testing! If it stays warm for the next few days I might be able to get the red done and then get bakc to assembly.

[Andy Boylett]

I wish I had chosen a simpler design for my first go at spraying! This was tricky. After painting part of my workshop wall and making a mess........

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Then finally my Spacewalker was born...........

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[Andy Boylett]

I have fnished the fus paintwork now. I have to say that following Phil Clarkes post much earlier in this thread re how to paint with masking has worked really well.
When I sprayed the white first I did it to just past where the red started so that there was overlap but not too much extra paint put on. I didn't bother masking for the white.
For the red pattern I have maske dusing 3mm fineline tape and used cardboard templates for the curves. There are no less than 7 different radii used in this pattern so I drew scale shapes in autocad and printed them to card. I have followed the cardboard carefully with the 3mm fineline. I then found that a good way of making sure those curves stay stuckk is to run 5mm fineline tape around the curve on top of the 3mm to hold it down better. It is then easier to use masking tape to cover the rest of the white.
Once everything is masked I have then used an Iwata spray gun with a 0.6mm needle and a circular spray pattern to spray white on all of the fineline edges, sealing the edge down. I have then used a 0.9mm neddle spraygun with a fan spray to apply the red. Then to finish, all the tape is carefully peeled off before the paint has gone hard.

So far I have just one small tiny bit of red got under the tape - where the 2 fus halves join!

Getting ready to paint the underside...

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Fus done....

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[Dave Parry]

Looking pretty impressive their Andy, well done, glad to see it getting finished.

[DAVE JOHNSON]

Andy--looking impressive ,would be good on display next month at Bradford for everyone to see--- can hold you a spot??

[Andy Boylett]

Thanks for the encouragment guys.
Yes Dave, I will aim to get it ready for Bradford (well most of it!). Please keep me a spot.
Cheers, Andy

[DAVE JOHNSON]

OK Andy,great,spot reserved for you---DAVE

[Andy Boylett]

The problem with the pattern on this plane is that the long pointy stripes go right across the whole thing. So the wing has to painted in one piece. I manmaged to paint the centre wing section on its own (when it was attached to the fus) by extrapolating the stripe with 2 large steel rulers. You can see the result here, with the pattern needing extending across the wings.......

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I also fitted the 4 ailerions as the pattern goes across them. They are now complete and installed.

It takes a lot of hours to mask that size of area for painting. I am not able to do that as I can't stand up for long enough so I have managed to get Sam working on it today. With his help we masked the complete wing with the 'star' pattern...........

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Then painted it...........

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Then uncovered the complete underside of the wing..............

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[Phil Clark]

Coming on well Andy......is there a black pin stripe along the edge of the red?

Phil

[Andy Boylett]

Cheers Phil. No black stripe, just red on white. On the photo with it all taped up ready to paint the 'black' line is 3mm fineline car pinstripe tape. It is dark blue!

[robbieskipton]

Hi Andy its coming along well. Have you painted it red and white due to personal preference as the design you have used is well known, Full size Serenity builds I have seen (Halfpenny Green airport) using this design are Red and a Yellow/ Cream. Its nice all the same, just wondering why, as you have gone to a lot of trouble to get a scale model, then paint it with a different colour scheme.

[Andy Boylett]

Hi Robbie,
I have spoken with Serenity about the model. They provided me the full size cad drawings so I could scale them down. There are 4 colour schemes - the most well known is the yellow/red you mention. There is also a blue/white version with completely different pattern. Both patterns have been done in 2 colour schemes. The plane was originally an Austrailian outback homemade beast. Serenity in the USA bought the rights and they now supply the kit. They said people do whatever colour scheme they like nowadays. I have chosen the red/white becasue I have found from flying smaller versions that the yellow/red at a distance becomes a silhouette.
Cheers