Flying for Fun
Mail brings information to the modeling press about new products directed at the readers' varied interests. Some of the product announcements are widely distributed to try for free "plugs," and are usually deferred to the "new products" sections of the magazines. However, some new products are of such interest, and of sufficient novelty, that they merit hands-on trials and subsequent reports. Through the years, new products such as FabriKote, Koverall, MonoKote, Ceconite R/C, Solartex, cyanoacrylate adhesives, Davis diesel conversions, etc. were subjects of modeling magazine articles, although some products do not work successfully in our hands and are never written about.
Flying for Fun
DECORATIONS: My four- and eight-year-old granddaughters decided that they and grandpa should decorate a birthday cake. The results were less than an artistic triumph, but to those little girls it was the most "beautifulest" cake ever. That delightful project leads into this month's topic: model aircraft trim and decoration. As with the cake, personal preferences and expression can lead to very interesting model airplane aesthetics. Occasionally the results can be less than pretty, but so what? Scale subjects are limited to what can be found to document color and markings; however, some of the following is applicable to Scale and non-scale. This month I'll look at air-dry finishes, and next month will be catalyzed materials and perhaps Mylars®.
Flying for Fun
And Furthermore: Last month I took a quick look at model aircraft finishing systems that lose part of their contents to reach a final form; they change from a liquid to a solid state by evaporating solvents. They dry, not set! In that discussion I mentioned the use of nitrate and butyrate dopes on paper or silk-covered models. A superb video by Larry Kruse that demonstrates lightweight covering and finishing techniques for models is available from Robin's View Productions (Box 68, Stokertown PA 18083). To paraphrase the old Tonight Show, "everything you could possibly want to know is contained in this sealed videocassette."
Super Bug
NOW HERE IS a model design with a true "blue-blooded" pedigree. Its great grandmother was Walt and Bill Good's pioneering and frequent Nationals RC winning Big Guff, which is now in the Smithsonian. Grandmother Rudder Bug, a 1948 Good design, was published in Model Airplane News in 1949. That year, no less than 11 of the 32 entries in Radio Control at the Olathe (KS) Nationals were Rudder Bugs. Our project's mother was the Royal Rudder Bug, a scaled-down Bug published in the February 1954 Flying Models and kitted by Berkeley Models that same year. This version differed most noticeably in its five-foot wingspan, compared to the original's six feet; replacement of the original undercambered airfoil with the ubiquitous Clark Y; and the use of a smaller radio system.
Flying for Fun
Another Oxymoron: In my March 1997 column, I took off on frequently used nonsensical terms. I'm adding "spray can epoxy" to that list! Hopefully my February 1998 column explained why such a product must be a figment of an ad writer's runaway imagination. Once the separate components of a catalyzed compound are mixed together, an irreversible chemical reaction is started, ending in a cured state, regardless of the container or the presence of an atmosphere. Therefore, a premixed epoxy paint - by definition - cannot be stored in an aerosol can, any more than two-part epoxy adhesives can be sold premixed! Premixed epoxy in a spray can is a chemical impossibility - or is it?
