Willy Nilles Tiger 250 Build

[JimAmosN8CAH]

I love the idea of a smaller Tiger. I've had an unflown yet completed Tiger 40 that still unflown for a couple of years now.

I'm curious about your reported rough surfaces on the Polyspan though. I've also used polyspan on control line models, and some other smaller RC projects. Usually Polyspan has a smooth shiny side and a rough side. If you have the rough side out, it can be hard to fill. Otherwise, I've not had that much trouble filling it. You do need to sand off the nibs after the first coat, but that usually just takes some very light sanding with 320 sandpaper. I don't remember needing more than 2-3 coats for to get to the point where you could apply color though. It's great that your using a sprayer though. One problem I always had with WPU was putting to much on.

Also, You mentioned not covering the solid areas with polyspan. Usually it's easier to finish the Polsypan covered solid areas than trying to fill the raw balsa. Another option here would be to use an earlier product such as silkspan or japanese tissue over those areas. This was also common practice for control line flyers - who usually really know how to put on a nice finish. But, I don't think either of those things would work well WPU due to their natural fibers.

 

[speedbirdted]

I'm curious about your reported rough surfaces on the Polyspan though. I've also used polyspan on control line models, and some other smaller RC projects. Usually Polyspan has a smooth shiny side and a rough side. If you have the rough side out, it can be hard to fill. Otherwise, I've not had that much trouble filling it. You do need to sand off the nibs after the first coat, but that usually just takes some very light sanding with 320 sandpaper. I don't remember needing more than 2-3 coats for to get to the point where you could apply color though. It's great that your using a sprayer though. One problem I always had with WPU was putting to much on.

The roughness of it really surprised me too. I made sure to put the rough side in. It took four coats of Polycrilic to fill the weave completely, but I did spray the coats very lightly because Polycrilic tends to get real runny when sprayed on a bit too heavily, much more so than other stuff. I sanded lightly in between each coat with 600 grit paper.

I think I may have been deceived slightly by the Polycrilic somehow as it actually came out very smooth when I put some primer on, as shown later.

Also, You mentioned not covering the solid areas with polyspan. Usually it's easier to finish the Polsypan covered solid areas than trying to fill the raw balsa. Another option here would be to use an earlier product such as silkspan or japanese tissue over those areas. This was also common practice for control line flyers - who usually really know how to put on a nice finish. But, I don't think either of those things would work well WPU due to their natural fibers.

In retrospect, yeah, that probably would have been a better idea. The weight savings from not covering the solid balsa areas is negligible because polyspan weighs pretty much nothing. Next time I use it I'll definitely just do that instead.

In other words I have bad news and good news. Bad news is I got covid. Good news is I am now not allowed to leave my house for the next week or so. That leaves me basically nothing to do other than build airplanes and occasionally do homework. Time to get back to work on this...

Final airframe sanding has been completed so it's time to spray some primer to reveal areas that may be in need of some further sanding that I missed. Looks pretty smooth on the fuselage but there are a couple areas on the wing that need some more attention. I'm not too worried though as I think the latex paint I'm going to use will cover up the odd pinhole here and there well enough. It is rubber after all. I will also paint the cockpit interior and install the pilot and canopy prior to painting.

I also have to think of a paint scheme. I haven't painted an airplane in literal years at this point so my knack for making good paint schemes has deteriorated significantly. I'm also wondering if I should perhaps wait until after this gets a maiden flight to paint it. I've seen that practice used by many other modelers.

 

[Willy Nillies]

Hey Ted,
You ok?
Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

 

[Ligbaer]

Hey Ted,
You ok?
Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

did i miss something or are you asking about the build

 

[speedbirdted]

Hey Ted,
You ok?
Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

Nope, died. Sent this post from beyond the grave.

Covid stood no chance against me. I'm doing just fine now but not doing much building or flying because A&P training has me far too busy.

I have been pondering some ideas for color schemes here and there though. This is the one I think I'll do, maybe with some slight color variation. Maybe I went a bit crazy with the checkers, though I doubt I'll actually make them that small. I don't have to individually apply every single one so I could in theory go pretty crazy with it. The fuselage looks asymmetrical; the left side is the bottom of the wing and tail, right side is the top... hopefully this will be enough to help orientation.

Reg number is a random placeholder at the moment, just to show how it'd look. I'll have to come up with something clever...

 

[Willy Nillies]

Ha! Well, it's good to hear that there are airplanes after death.

Very Cool color scheme! Hope you can get it done in time for Balsa 250!

Doug went through A+P school back in the early 90s.... he knows how much time that takes in just 4 short semesters!

Sincerely
Doug and Becky

 

[Off-topic jes]

Wow this looks nice!

 

[TooJung2Die]

Reg number is a random placeholder at the moment, just to show how it'd look. I'll have to come up with something clever...

Omicron variant is known as B.1.1.529. There's some numbers for ya to ponder. 😉 Get well.