Guillows TBF Avenger #509

[TexMechsRobot]

I'm not happy with the paint job at all. I didn't think to seal it with the matte Krylon before painting so the tissue sucked up the wet acrylic pretty good. It wrinkled up and then dried back out but the wrinkling left the paint pattern on some of the surfaces. It's very noticeable on the leading edge of the wing. Since I didn't really care about this model, I decided not to worry about the other markings since they'd just weight it down more. I'll still see how it flies when the ground dries out but for now, I'm going to call this one complete.

Unfortunately, I needed this project to take me to 22-Apr when I could begin the BoT glider project. It didn't last that long so now I'm needing something else to get me through the next 12 days. I may pop into my LHS and see if they have another one of Guillows laser kits to try. I was impressed with the build quality if not the wood and it was fun to put together.

 

[nhk750]

Spoken like a true addict! Pretty soon you wont have any room to walk around your house. Anyway, I think it looks great, cant wait to see it fly.

 

[YooperJon]

What did you use to put your Esaki tissue on with. The last time I use Esaki, I put it on wet. Used a glue stick on the frame and wet the Esaki tissue with 70% RUBBING ALCOHOL. It dried awfully fast but shrunk up nicely. Took a couple tries to get it right though.

 

[TexMechsRobot]

I've settled on applying the Esaki dry without preshrinking. I apply UHU glue stick to the wood and then apply the paper. Once it dries, I trim any excess and then keep covering. Once covered, I spray the whole thing down with 50% alcohol to tighten things up.

I've tried applying Esaki wet and it just hasn't worked for me. Maybe I just need more practice but I've gotten pretty good at my method so I'll probably stick with it. I usually get a couple of incurable wrinkles at the wing tips and any crazy curves on the fuselage but it typically comes out very smooth, very adhered, and very tight.

The more concentrated the alcohol, the faster it'll dry and the less shrinkage there will be. Pure water takes a while to dry but it shrinks a ton.

 

[YooperJon]

Tex,
When I was a kid I used to put silk-span on wet with water and attached it with Butyrate dope...it was a challenge, but I got good results. Alas, you can't get silk-span anymore which is why I'm using Esaki these days. On the Hip pocket aeronautics forum they were saying that "Doctor's" examining table paper is a good substitute for silk-span...do you know anything about this? Incidentally, I do have the same TBF kit you just built in my closet of "unbuilt kits".

 

[YooperJon]

Also, I used to live in B'Ham, WA.

 

[TexMechsRobot]

I haven't heard that and I definitely haven't tried it. The only way to know is to get some of the paper and experiment with it.