FTFF 2015 Scratch Build: Sikorsky S-39

[willsonman]

Had fun painting and detailing tonight... Progress shots.

Wheels are done. Basic red acrylic paint


Detailing the dummy motor out. This is the back. Nothing too special. Tried to smear a little black for oil and soot from the exhaust. Again, being a "sponsored" aircraft it would be in fairly good condition. Paints are: Grey primer (matte), stainless steel Testors enamel (brush application), and black acrylic.


Ok, so this is the front. I specifically wanted to show this because here you can see that the cooling fins are not very prominent. The next shot sort of shows the effect...


Results of dry brushing. I'm a very bad photographer so the picture does not really show it unless you zoom in.


So, dry brushing. Its done with a shaded powder of some kind or another. You can use various shades of charcoal from an art store... Me? I use graphite, from a pencil. I broke out the electric pencil sharpener, an old pencil, and a scrap of 400 grit sand paper and made my own powder. Grabbed a paint brush that was thoroughly dry, and went to town. Stroking against the grain of the cooling fins gives the look I was after. With them would just make it darker. So after you dry brush you have to seal it to the finish using a clear coat. Its really that easy. Took, like 5 minutes... with sharpening the pencil numerous times.

 

[Tench745]

I'd have done a wash instead of powder. I use acrylic paint (colors of your choice), water, and a little bit of future floor wax to help it flow for my washes. Maybe a dry-brushing to bring out highlights later, depending on how it looked. Turning out very nice. I love watching your builds Willsonman.

 

[willsonman]

Hanks Tench! Never tried that method... maybe one day I will.

 

[willsonman]

So, I am fortunate that when I am caught up on my work I can use that as justification to take a day off. So I puttered around today on and off of the Sikorsky. The long and short of it is that the fuselage is curing out with yellow paint. No pictures... yet. Once the paint is cured and I apply the vinyl I will snap some pictures and post them. I will say that there are about 1500 rivets on the fuselage alone. I sat out on my back deck and put rivets on to my heart's desire. It was actually quite therapeutic for me.

I also painted the struts on the landing gear the same red. I left the solder joints bare because... well they look awesome and bling them up a bit.

 

[willsonman]

Fuselage is DONE. Enjoy the eye candy.

 

[wilmracer]

That looks SWEET! Detailing really sets everything off nicely. Can't wait to see it flying in full colors

 

[Joker 53150]

That looks very nice, and also kind of duck-like!

 

[AkimboGlueGuns]

Beautiful!

 

[willsonman]

Thanks guys! Much more work to do yet on the wing portion. I am sooooo tempted to put it all back together and take her out for another flight. With the landing gear reinforced I am sure I would suffer no damage but I really want to get her done before I fly her again. Remember, I still have to construct the nacelle and button down the dummy motor.

 

[AkimboGlueGuns]

It's a shame you have no where to fly her off the water. If you ever have to make a trip to Wisconsin, we have plenty of lakes

 

[earthsciteach]

I still say we crash the Sponholz's backyard for Oshkosh 2016! Bring it along, Joshua!

 

[SP0NZ]

I still say we crash the Sponholz's backyard for Oshkosh 2016! Bring it along, Joshua!

Bring it. I tell my wife I had no idea. Plausibly deniability...she doesn't read these forums.

 

[SP0NZ]

Joshua,

That is looking really amazing. You definitely got some mad build skills. :applause:

 

[willsonman]

LOL, thanks Dan and Keegan! Not sure about a road trip to WI. Pittsburgh has never been nice to my planes in my travels so I would have to go WAY out of the way.

Just got back from two sorties on the Texan. Ready to do some possible work this weekend, time permitting.

 

[willsonman]

Just a couple of pictures of progress. I got the fuselage and pontoons re-attached and painted the struts red. I have a club meeting tomorrow that I will probably break down and bring this to ... and fly. I can't resist. With replacing the struts on my Texan I was left with 4 additional collets that I used to secure the bottom of the landing gear. I did have to use the dremel to buff them to look nicer but I'm happy with the result and not having to solder on washers permanently.

My son was helping me put it all together and we were re-evaluating the dummy motor situation. HE decided that we needed to open up the front of the dummy motor for better cooling of the motor. I was happy to take his advice. While it is situated about 3/8" further aft of where it ought to be it is a good compromise between looks and cooling efficiency. I'll break out the testors paint and blend the front of the bell so the green is not as prominent from the motor.

 

[AkimboGlueGuns]

The engine Looks awesome on the plane!

 

[willsonman]

Thanks Keegan!

Thinking on this last night and at lunch today... I think I'm going to go with my tissue covering for the tail planes. It will be sufficient for painting and prevent the minor hangar rash expected for it. I think I will also use some strips of solartex to simulate the internal structure to give a little more detail back there. So, I'll cover the foam with tissue and poly then apply the strips with an iron, primer and paint. I am hoping through this process that the surfaces will also stiffen. The rudder throw was... interesting... in that it would delfect one way and not really the other. I will add a couple of additional struts to help with this also. I will also try to reinforce the exit of the control rod for the rudder. It too seemed to flex a little under use. I'm not too concerned about the wrinkling of the tissue while using WBPU as I would like a little texture to add some character.

Once the wing has been glassed and the tail treatments done I will focus on the engine fairing (nacelle, whatever). I'm not sure if the molded plastic piece I have will work for it but I will not really be able to tell until the surface is prepped. The hard plastic will dig into the foam in no time at all. If it is just wrong then I will carve it out of foam. I think the fuselage demonstrates how easy that is to do

 

[Joker 53150]

Bring it. I tell my wife I had no idea. Plausibly deniability...she doesn't read these forums.

Save me a camp site. Although if weather gets bad I'm driving-distance away!

 

[willsonman]

Had a GREAT time at the club meeting last night. I did get one flight in and the dummy radial had ZERO issues. Motor came down cool even on the hot and humid evening. Now, I did land rather hard, on purpose, to give a test to the new landing gear mounts. All I have to say is that the ply plates held perfectly. They eye screws... not so much. The top ones took the brunt of the force as expected but one bent straight up. The other one snapped. So a quick look at McMaster-Carr and new eyelets are on-order.

The previous size of the steel used for the eye screws was 5/64". I went up to 5/32", so it is twice as thick in terms of the steel used. The trade off was that I had to go to a larger diameter in the eye, from 1/8" to 3/16. I may have to use some brass tubing over the steel landing gear strut to fill the void. Overall, I am VERY glad I did this test. No damage to the fuselage AT ALL and it gives a great example of how this method just plain works for those wanting to build with foam.

To reiterate, steel broke before ply and foam did.

 

[willsonman]

Nothing done this weekend other than replacing the upper mount for the landing gear. Much more stout now and had to take he our for another flight to test it out