Hello Fellow FliteTest Family

[NikoRC]

Hello all,

I'm Niko,a 25-35 year old who spends all of his time outside of work flying or thinking of what to build next, I am hooked! I've been flying fixed wing for about half a season now but just recently got into the FliteTest kits and a little scratch building. As someone new to fixed wing, coming from a background in multirotors (which I knew of FliteTest because of) I love the ease and friendliness of being able to build a plane out of foam board and not feel bad, mostly just laugh if I do something dumb and it crashes.

I do have some questions though to ask you all,

-Is painting foam board more simple than I'm thinking it out to be? I have both brown foamboard and maker foam kits and I have yet to paint anything because I am unsure of how to actually go about it despite watching the videos on YouTube. ( I have space I can spray outside- weather permitting in IL) Do you have suggestions on paints (brands) and time I actually need to spend on painting between coats and full cure?

-I have built 4 of the speedbuild kits and am getting good at it, but I can't help but fight that temptation to get the balsa simple cub or a master series warbird. When do I know it's okay to spend that kind of money on a speedbuild kit, or attempt from scratch?

- I do have my full AMA but prefer most of the time to be a park flyer, so I tend to mess around more with the mighty mini size of planes. I have built and flown the corsair, sparrow and Pietenpol ...any other suggestions? Looking to go deeper with channels and learning how to control more over bank and yank or only 3ch. ( I really want to start messing with flaps and ailerons- looking to challenge myself, even if it results in needing to glob on more glue and tape)

-I am open to attempting my first full scratch build on anything less than 1m / 1000mm ....I don't have space to keep building and storing at this point for anything but mighty mini size.


Thank you for your time reading this long winded post and thanks for having me, I look forward to talking to you all and if you're in the Chicagoland Suburbs, maybe flying with ya too.

 

[JasonK]

-Is painting foam board more simple than I'm thinking it out to be? I have both brown foamboard and maker foam kits and I have yet to paint anything because I am unsure of how to actually go about it despite watching the videos on YouTube. ( I have space I can spray outside- weather permitting in IL) Do you have suggestions on paints (brands) and time I actually need to spend on painting between coats and full cure?

I have both krylon and rustoleum (both primer+paint in one) and they work fine. Few things to remember - keep back (sometimes the propellent in spray cans can eat foam, keeping a good distance can prevent this... I haven't had any issues, but have see it happen to people in miniature terrain building) and do multiple light coats (something I am still working on getting good at). If you keep the coats light, you coat to coat times can be under 30 minutes, probably as low as 5.

- I do have my full AMA but prefer most of the time to be a park flyer, so I tend to mess around more with the mighty mini size of planes. I have built and flown the corsair, sparrow and Pietenpol ...any other suggestions? Looking to go deeper with channels and learning how to control more over bank and yank or only 3ch. ( I really want to start messing with flaps and ailerons- looking to challenge myself, even if it results in needing to glob on more glue and tape)

the Tiny trainer with the 4 channel wing can be setup with flapperons and what I learned to fly 4 channel on

-I am open to attempting my first full scratch build on anything less than 1m / 1000mm ....I don't have space to keep building and storing at this point for anything but mighty mini size.

at some point, just trying something out and seeing how it works is something to do... I ended up with a v-tail design that flies[flied] great (see my signature) for a build log.

 

[NikoRC]

Awesome! Thanks for the information!

I am currently waiting on my Tiny trainer to ship...think something got held up in my last order or USPS doesn't like actually scanning things haha.

I will grab some paint tomorrow on the way home from work and if weather allows this week, try out some painting. The only models I have painted have been lexan bodies from 1/10 scale rc cars and trucks. So hopefully some of that carries over with remembering finger discipline on light coats.


That is an awesome v-tail! Yeah, maybe just getting the ol imagination going could be a good thing with foam board.

 

[Merv]

Welcome to the forums. The TT is a great choice.