Willy Nillies "Eaglet 250" Beta Kit Build and Flight

[Turbojoe]

Be careful with the temps. Hot and fast works for me but if I remember right Nelson recommends MUCH lower temps. Go cooler until you feel comfortable.

For really complex or tight curves you still have to make slits but it all blends in so well after heating that you can't tell. Wingtips are a breeze if you leave enough overhang to grab and pull as you tack it down. If you do get a fold over it will smooth out with more heat and pressure. I just love working with this stuff. I totally enjoy covering. Too bad I suck so bad at coming up with any kind of creative schemes.

Fancy colors: Hmmm. I have 2 rolls of the blackberry that is more of a Pepto Bismol pink. I used that on my Mountain Models EVA Bipe that I tried to copy the Chip Hyde T.O.C. plane from back in the 80's. I also have 1/2 roll of red metallic that looks way beyond cool. I wish I had 6 more rolls of it. The rest is mainly white, red, black, blue, yellow etc. I also have 4 rolls of transparent and I don't know why since I don't use a lot of transparent film. I must have gotten them in a kit purchase deal. If I ever fall into a deal I can afford for a Sophisticated Lady kit I'll use the transparent film on it. Gliders and transparent covering seem to go hand in hand.

Joe

 

[Turbojoe]

If you have the "fancy" red I'm assuming it's the red metallic. The picture doesn't do the covering justice as it sparkles like crazy in the sunlight and doesn't seem quite as transparent as in the picture. This particular plane is one of only two prototypes of the "Lucky Ace 150" cut by Brian at Mountain Models. I know the other one was destroyed in a crash years ago leaving mine to be a Sole Survivor. I haven't flown her in years. I just found her in the back room behind a bunch of other planes and she's still fully outfitted needing only a battery to fly. If it wasn't for those stupid FAA rules I'd probably take her out for a spin but she's WAY beyond the ridiculous 250 gram edict.

Joe

 

[TooJung2Die]

The picture doesn't do the covering justice as it sparkles like crazy in the sunlight and doesn't seem quite as transparent as in the picture.

Bling-a-ding-ding! That Lucky Ace 150 looks beautiful. You didn't mention any problems with the metallic SolarFilm so you helped me make a decision. I have the same film in metallic green. It's translucent so it will look good on the wing. Opaque white and metallic green. Thanks!

Jon

 

[Turbojoe]

The green looks a lot like my metallic red. You'll LOVE it! Aside from the kinda sorta transparency it goes on Soooooo easy and works around every curve even easier than normal SolarFilm. That's why I'd like to have a ton of rolls of the metallic colors.

Your build is gonna look amazing!

Joe

 

[TooJung2Die]

Joe, I see what you are talking about. After covering many airplanes using doculam I got good at it. It can be tricky. Using SolarFilm is SO EASY. It wraps around curves like rubber. I think I could cover a cue ball with this stuff. I marked my iron to low 90C, medium 100C and high 110C. I haven't used the high setting yet. Here it is wrapping a wingtip using low heat. It is perfectly smooth and it hasn't even been shrunk.

I got the tips done first and put down the first wing panel of metallic green. The leading edge will be white.

Yeah, I know I'm supposed to start on the bottom side first. I don't have enough for do-overs so it is what it is. I used to hate covering because I sucked at it. Not with SolarFilm.

Jon

 

[TooJung2Die]

It's covered. It took five days. I'm slow. When I don't like the result I'll peel it off and do it over. I learned a few important things about SolarFilm. The pigment is part of the adhesive. The colored adhesive oozes out and gets all over your iron when sealing around the edges. If you don't clean your iron often you end up spreading sticky colored adhesive on the film. I stopped using a sock on the iron because the colored adhesive was sticking to the cloth. It's really hard to clean off the sock.

Make sure you have at least 1/8" overlap when making a film to film seam. More is better. I didn't have enough overlap where the green film attaches to the white wing tip. When I shrank the green film the seam slipped and the green came off the white. I wasn't even near the seam with the iron. There is no such thing as unshrinking film so it had to come off. A do-over. I barely had enough green to finish.

SolarFilm sticks to balsa better than it sticks to itself. When the green film was peeled off using a heat gun and iron it left patches of green stuck to the balsa. SolarFilm adhesive is very hard to get off. Scraping and sanding is the only thing that gets the adhesive off. Since the same color was going back on where it was removed it didn't matter.

Lettering and graphics coming up next.

Jon

 

[Turbojoe]

The sparkly green looks great!

I would have covered the wingtips last. I always overlap and seal the main color at least 1/8" down on the outer rib. THEN I cover the tips. Almost no chance of the main color pulling free then.

I've stripped a few of my SolarFilm covered planes to change color schemes. What doesn't pull off clean I just set my heat gun to kill and cook it off. It'll usually roll right off nice and clean just as the wood starts to change color a bit and just before it bursts into flames. It's gotta be HOT! I stripped and recovered one of my MM Tyro 150's and that's a pretty big plane. I don't think I spent more than 10 minutes sanding stuck covering colors. Heat makes it stick. Excess heat makes it fall right off. LOL.

Looking forward to the finished bird.

Joe

 

[TooJung2Die]

The sparkly green looks great!

I can't wait to see it outside in the sun. It's just transparent enough to make out the balsa structure underneath.

I would have covered the wingtips last.

Normally I would too. I made the mistake of reading all the instructions that came with the SolarFilm (who reads instructions?). First sentence says, "Plan your covering so that the small difficult areas (complex shapes, inside corners etc.) are covered first." To me wingtips fall into that category so I gave it a shot. I'm always willing to try out new ideas. It worked out fine in the end. I allowed for a bit more overlap, applied heat only to the open film and stayed away from the seam. I managed to avoid having to strip the entire wing and start from the beginning. If I was covering the wing with doculam I would cover half the wing including the tips with one piece of film and not have any seams.

I just set my heat gun to kill and cook it off.

I'll remember your advice when I have to strip a whole section.

 

[Willy Nillies]

Looks Great Jon!

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

 

[Wildthing]

That green looks great, plane looks great also.

 

[Turbojoe]

I'll remember your advice when I have to strip a whole section.

I doubt you'll have to strip a plane anytime soon. Yours looks awesome. Makes me wish I had gotten more of the metal flake colors when they were available. I do have some blue metal flake that I'm kinda/sorta sure is SolarFlim. I really like your green and my red though. They really grab your eyes!

Joe

 

[Turbojoe]

Dang. I just looked and if I don't make ANY mistakes I may have just enough red metal flake SolarFilm left to do my Jr. Skylark. It wouldn't be anywhere true to original colors but hey, what're ya gonna do? Regardless of what I use on this build I'd still absolutely love to see a "primer" posted up on the use and painting of Doculam. I could use your knowledge to help me with so many unfinished projects that are fully built but only need to be covered and in the case of using Doculam just painted properly. No pressure, no pressure at all..........

Joe

 

[TooJung2Die]

A black and red metal flake Skylark will look great. Hope you have enough left. No do-overs allowed.
I'm not a document laminating film expert. I think I've used it on four airplanes. It was a long learning curve. A lot of film ended up in the trash. Maybe a thread where we can swap doculam experience here on FT would be useful to some.

 

[speedbirdted]

I have used doculam on two airplanes. I don't like it. At all. Neither of the two planes I used it on have their original doculam anymore either; one is in the landfill after fighting a telephone pole at 85mph and the other I ended up covering in Monokote. With some practice I could get better at using it, and the cheapness of it is nice too.

The guy that runs my LHS bought a massive amount of Solarfilm (like 2000+ rolls) when they went out of business and if you chat with him long enough he'll sell you some at a small markup. I've never personally played with it though. I mostly use Solartex on builds where I need to paint stuff, and solartex is better than Monokote in the regard that it doesn't have the annoying tendency to go slack over time.

I like this build so far. I might pick up one of these for myself sometime, and do some mods to fit it to my liking. I already have a few in mind...

 

[TooJung2Die]

I did the windows last night. I imported the template from the PDF to a Cricut vinyl cutter then cut it from matte black self stick vinyl. It is applied to the side of the airplane exactly as positioned in the template. The front windscreen is a rectangular piece of vinyl cut to fit.

Jon

 

[Willy Nillies]

I did the windows last night. I imported the template from the PDF to a Cricut vinyl cutter then cut it from matte black self stick vinyl. It is applied to the side of the airplane exactly as positioned in the template. The front windscreen is a rectangular piece of vinyl cut to fit.

View attachment 157242

Jon

Very Nice! You are sooooo close now!

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

 

[TooJung2Die]

Very Nice! You are sooooo close now!

NOOO! I don't want it to end too fast. I love building airplanes. Your Eaglet has been lots of fun.

Since we're on the topic of covering film I have to show off my new toy. I was given a Work Sharp sharpener as a gift. A really sharp blade is a must for trimming film. I've been sharpening hobby blades to super razor sharp by hand. You get that barber shop edge by using a strop. I thought I had it down but this tool takes sharp to a whole 'nother level. It comes with belts in various grits down to 6000 for the final hone. The 6000 makes a blade plenty sharp. Then I got a leather stropping belt for it. Before every cut I strop the blade on the belt. I may never have to buy another Xacto knife blade. This makes blades scary sharp. The edge shines like a mirror.

I never would've bought an electric sharpening tool for myself. It's easy and satisfying to put a really good edge on a blade by hand. After using this tool and sharpening every blade in the house and workshop I'm convinced this is better. Even my wife commented on how sharp her kitchen knives are now.

Jon

 

[Wildthing]

NOOO! I don't want it to end too fast. I love building airplanes. Your Eaglet has been lots of fun.

Since we're on the topic of covering film I have to show off my new toy. I was given a Work Sharp sharpener as a gift. A really sharp blade is a must for trimming film. I've been sharpening hobby blades to super razor sharp by hand. You get that barber shop edge by using a strop. I thought I had it down but this tool takes sharp to a whole 'nother level. It comes with belts in various grits down to 6000 for the final hone. That's plenty sharp. Then I got a leather stropping belt for it. Before every cut I strop the blade on the belt. I may never have to buy another Xacto knife blade. This makes blades scary sharp. The edge shines like a mirror.

View attachment 157247

I never would've bought a sharpening tool for myself. It's satisfying to put a really good edge on a blade by hand. After using this tool and sharpening every blade in the house and workshop I'm convinced this is better. Even my wife commented on how sharp her kitchen knives are now.

Jon

I have been using a strop for the last couple years (roughly) haven't changed the blade in my xacto knife since then except once when I used it as a pry bar and broke it.

 

[TooJung2Die]

Got more done today. Servos are in and push rods connected using short z-bends and heat shrink. After the push rod length is fine tuned a couple of drops of CA on the heat shrink will lock it in place.

Hinged the elevator and rudder. I use Tyvek for CA hinges.

Tail feathers are glued on. Hooked up the control horns and push rods.

Still have to install the ailerons and wheels. At this point with all the electronics on board including the battery she weighs 6.3 ounces.

Jon

 

[Turbojoe]

Great job on the graphics. I wish I had gone ahead and bought a Cricut back when I could afford it.....

Joe