Well, I am doing it. I jumped in with both feet on this project with the following abilities: I can fly an Apprentice pretty good. I have flown a Phoenix Cessna 182 with the receiver from an Apprentice in it with no problems as well. I have never worked with foamboard. I have never worked with fiberglass.
So, I started off by doing a tiled poster print of the plans, taped them together, and then cut out the individual pieces. I then traced the pieces onto the peeled Adams posterboard and used my Olfa rotary cutter for most of the cutting. It worked like a charm.
Today I began the fiberglassing with a lot of apprehension. I purchased the epoxy resin and fiberglass from your recommended sources and the service from both was great. I used GreatPlanes 1 oz cups to measure 3 ounces of the "A" part with the 1 ounce of the "B"part (though they are not labeled A and B) as per instructions.
I mixed the two in a 9 ounce clear plastic cup that I have 200 of from some purchase years ago that have been sitting on the top shelf of our pantry. They work great for this.
I wasn't sure how much to mix and had no idea how to pour out the "correct" amount. Having 20-25 minutes of pot life and not trusting my pouring techniques I used the popsicle stirring stick I had mixed the epoxy with and drizzled what I thought was necessary on the parts I had laid out which was basically everything except the wings and the two skid plates. Boy did, I overestimate. It turns out that 2 to 2 1/2 ounces would have been plenty for the parts I did. If I had had the flat space to work on, I had the time and could easily have done the two skid plates as well.
Here are some pictures of my work so far.
I am building a 6 foot workbench but in the meantime I have an old card table with a piece of plywood on top. This is the first side of my first ever fiberglass job.
These are the parts in waiting for tomorrow.
This is how much epoxy mixture I had left over as it hardened. There is probably an ounce or an ounce and a half in there.
I hope to have all of the fiberglassing finished by Thursday and start hot gluing it all together (another thing I have never done).
Thanks for giving me the incentive to try something new. Maybe you
can teach an old dog new tricks.