*Unofficial* FT Sea Duck

rrc1962

New member
Now that's a cool paint job. How are you all finishing and painting these ducks to make them hold up in the water? This is my next built. Quick build kit showed up yesterday.
 

thenated0g

Drinker of coffee, Maker of things
Mentor
Now that's a cool paint job. How are you all finishing and painting these ducks to make them hold up in the water? This is my next built. Quick build kit showed up yesterday.

Sand it all over first. The places my masking tape pulled tape off was where i didnt sand. I am using Krylon for plastics paint.

In reading up on the sea duck a head of time i saw that a few guys say to reinforce the nose, so i put one layer of 3/4oz fiberglass and some epoxy finishing resin on the bottom that goes about 1/2 an inch up the sides before painting. After painting i put 3 coats of Minwax Helmsmen Poly on the very bottom, mainly to protect the paint while its on the grouns/grass.

shopping

IMG_20170911_213046.jpg IMG_20170911_213110.jpg

Ground maiden went well, just some trimming:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZKIFdMnzFf/?taken-by=thenated0g

Water Maiden, sorry for wide angle:
 

thenated0g

Drinker of coffee, Maker of things
Mentor
rrc1962 A few tips here if you haven't seen. Have fun building your Duck.

https://www.flitetest.com/articles/sea-duck-school

Nice article. I read it after finishing mine. For the hatch i reinforced it with hot glue like a aileron and also where it meets the plane with a couple bumps to keep it in place. My one complaint about this plane is how hard it is to get batteries in and out. As far as heat problems i havent had any issues. Im using a large 5200mah 3s pack so its not going to be over amping it and heating up. Personally i disagree about vinyl being better than paint. Vinyl will not go into the paper at all its just a surface coating whereas paint is going to go into every crack and seep into holes and paper where its sanded creating a mechanical bond. Maybe on the bottom to help it with scrapes but its not going to be water tight without a ton of overlapping and in my opinion getting vinyl down to looks nice without any wrinkles and bumps is going to be a lot harder and time intensive than painting for a new person.
 

Winglet

Well-known member
I think I am going to agree with you thenated0g regarding vinyl not being the best finish for the airplane. My friend's Vinyl coverd SD has had some problems related to glue not adhearing well to vinyl since I wrote the article. Worst problem is where the engine nacelles butt into the outboard wings. Glue won't stick resulting in very floppy outboard wing panels. Major redo was required. Yikes! I'll probably go in and revise the article. Yep, think it is find on the bottom.
 
Last edited:

sprzout

Knower of useless information
Mentor
This all reminds me that I need to finish painting my Sea Duck...I actually won Model of the Month last month with it at my club's meeting, even though it was unpainted...

I've got a Duster I'm painting that's made out of DTF foam, non water-resistant, and I'm trying a different painting technique than the Minwax that everyone's been doing - I've hit it with Rustoleum 2X primer, and I'm going to follow up with Rustoleum White for plastic, then airbrush on a pumpkin orange striping to make it look like Dusty Crophopper. So far, the primer has not caused any lifting of paper from the foam, but if it holds up, I'll be using this to lay down the yellow, red, and light brown on my Sea Duck!
 

Winglet

Well-known member
Well, I'm now working on my second Sea Duck taking into consideration all the things I learned on the first. It is going to be painted in Rustoleum 2x like the first one. The big difference is...I'm building most of it from my favorite material, Ross Foamboard.

I'm really not completely happy with the new brown water resistant foamboard. I've found that it isn't all that water resistant. I did some testing of Ross vs the FT Brown Board and found them to be about the same. I actually hot glued together little boxes and filled them with water for the test. The biggest reason I'm going with the Ross Board is the white color. It paints extremely well with Rustoleum 2x and requires NO PRIMER. That brown stuff is just dang hard to paint and have it come out well. I will be using vinyl on the belly of the boat hull. Will keep you all posted on the results.
 

AutomatedPilot

New member
Hey guys and girls,
I don't know if anyone saw the article on the main site by winglet about the SeaDuck experience, but he did a fantastic job on his build and I really enjoyed that he 3D printed the cowlings to go around the engine. It changes the look of the plane by miles! If any of you are interested in printing some for yours I have just uploaded my first draft of files to thingiverse and they can be found here :
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2576803
Soon I will have some more versions out with different details and styles and possibly other planes!
Are there any styles with exhausts or panels anyone would like to see??
Thanks!
AP
 

JDill

Member
Well, I'm now working on my second Sea Duck taking into consideration all the things I learned on the first. It is going to be painted in Rustoleum 2x like the first one. The big difference is...I'm building most of it from my favorite material, Ross Foamboard.

Ross had become my favorite foamboard too but others have reported that Walmart is no longer selling it. I checked at the stores that I've purchased it and found that to be true. I can't buy it anymore :(:(:(
 

thenated0g

Drinker of coffee, Maker of things
Mentor
The next time i get a kit from flitetest i am going to try sanding the pieces before i remove them from the sheets. The only places paint came off of my duck was in the corners where i didnt get it sanded as it was too tight or hot glue was right there and i couldnt sand. Other than that i love the water proof stuff. Having said that, i never had any issues with the white and water as long as i painted my planes first.
 

miraspen

Member
how do you think this would work on the seaduck. should i run 7x3 or 7x4 with the 3s im a little confused. i will use a 30a esc, then eventually go to a 3 blade prop. im wanting to use this setup on both the ft seaduck and the pby catalina that localfiend has(if i can find out how to see the pics).
Model: 2212-6
Motor size: Ф28*26mm
Shaft size: Ф3.175*37mm
Weight: 50g
KV(rpm/v): 2200
Max Power: 342W
Battery: 2-3Li-Po
Test Prop: 7x3/7x4
Ri(M Ω): 0.033

......Works great on the seaduck using 6x4.5 3 blade props. This setup seams faster than the c pack i had in at first. just a bit. props look a little small, but no way your gonna be splashing any water with these.
 
Last edited:

miraspen

Member
This is an excellent flying plane. in the cartoon it had this crazy move it could do that would allow it to pull up vertically i really dont remember to much more been ages since i seen that show. But, it behaves like it has that lol! It can pull up crazy sharp. One thing i wanted to put out there. !!AND TO THE !!FLITETEST!! CREW I HOPE YOU SEE THIS!! What if for the the wing and the little bear out the back. if you scaled everything just right plane to wing. wouldnt you be able to to put one of them gyro stabilizers on the wing. Tow it behind the plane. and recreate the cartoon?
 

rtn9105

New member
I picked up one of these kits at my LHS and it's my first FT kit. I have a couple questions about the glue and glue gun. Can anyone tell me how many watts the glue gun needs to be to make a solid glue joint on the water proof foam board without melting the foam and does any glue stick work ok?
 

Winglet

Well-known member
Ross Foam Board

Ross had become my favorite foamboard too but others have reported that Walmart is no longer selling it. I checked at the stores that I've purchased it and found that to be true. I can't buy it anymore :(:(:(

Looks like it is still available at Walmart.com. Recently went from .89 a sheet to $3.10. I will buy it anyway. Best board out there for FT models.
 

JWExperience

New member
I purchased this speed build along with the cub to build first since I have not built a foam plane before. My question is how well the sea duck would fly on the b power pack if anyone has done it? I askbecause Ive found a good price for four b motors and if I could buy all the same, it would be nice if a motor goes down on either plane to be able to swap them. I was debating on getting the c power pack for both if the sea duck would be under powered, I don't want that. I would rather deal with the cub being over powered and slightly heavy since it's more of a slow flyer anyways.
 

Winglet

Well-known member
My Sea Duck uses the recommended C pack. It flies nicely on 3 cells but is in no way overpowered. I think I would stay with the C Pack.
 

JWExperience

New member
My Sea Duck uses the recommended C pack. It flies nicely on 3 cells but is in no way overpowered. I think I would stay with the C Pack.

Thanks for the reply, I ordered the c pack. I didn't want to risk it being underpowered, there looked like a pretty good drop in thrust to the b pack when running both on 3s. I'll try to cub on a c motor prob for now so I can keep parts interchangeable.