Friday 17 June 2016

Slightly revised paint design

After discussing the design with Murray I've made a few small tweaks.

As Murray says "Just because something looks good in 2D doesn't mean it will look good in 3D".

The main problem area was the tail. The solution was to move the black and silver down so it doesn't touch the tail/fuse junction. This is to eliminate any weird looking areas where colours start and stop. The opposite was the case with the wing junction where the black goes completely over the top and bottom as it did before, so no problems there.

I've also sorted out the rego artwork and masks are being made up for those now.

Murray will shoot the orange first then the black - the orange is slightly transparent so cannot be put over the black without some show-through.

The orange is quite a tricky paint to apply as it will be in 3 parts. A flat base (of orange) then the pearl, then a clear coat. The pearl must be done in 'one go' with all parts in the correct place for it to look right.

Today I visited Pete and got the aileron fairings. They are just stuck on with double sided tape.

I also got a chance to see his cold air inlet mod. He says that for all that effort he has not noticed any difference in performance. Also as there is no alternate air selectable then flight through freezing rain is not a good idea.

Hopefully next week I will have some photos to share of an orange Twister.

Revised paint design for the fuselage.


Pete's Twisters are in plain white now while they look for a new sponsor.

Aileron trim tab. Need to make some of these up.

Aileron pushrod fairings are a close fit.


NACA cold air intake.

Doesn't make any discernible difference according to Pete.

View inside the NACA duct.

Aileron fairings. Will need the edges tidying up and fitting at the back.

Some placards.


Monday 13 June 2016

Visit to the painters

I drove up to see Murray today and drop off the gear leg fairings.

It also gave me an opportunity to see how things were progressing and discuss some finer details.

I did a bit of work to the long range fuel tank and hope to make much more progress with that this week.

I'll be visiting Murray again next week to 'sign off' the shape of the flowing line down the fuselage side before he shoots the orange.

Oil Cooler scoop looking sweet.


Cowling awaiting a rub down and more primer

Wings are almost there.

Looking pretty flawless in primer

Other bits in primer with a few spots of filler here and there.

Nice garden ornament Murray! Hawker Hunter nose section.

Fuse looking much nicer now with the top joining line rounded off.

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Painting progress

I got a few photos from Murray today.

The wheel spats look mint!

Blue stuff is 'guide coat' on the primer I believe.


Yellow stuff is filler - and I thought I did a pretty good job already on this area - seems not!


Wheel spats looking pretty damn sexy.

Thursday 2 June 2016

Week 251 - Gear leg fairings and Paperwork

Hours to date: 2585.5

I finally got around to fixing up the gear leg fairings.

As you will see below they were wafer thin at the leg to fairing junction, so I put 2 layers of glass on the outside to strengthen them up and allow a little more material to be taken off on the inside (to allow for the paint thickness on the gear leg later).

I also fixed up the gaps in the front edges by building up multiple layers of glass underneath and then sanding down the top surface until the same thickness was achieved overall. I hope I've got this right as I am sort of working blind as the rest of the aircraft is away - although I did measure the gaps before it left.

The proper way to fix these gaps would have been to do a lay up directly onto the fuselage base with the fairing on top. This would ensure a correct profile to the fuse base.

The other thing I've been doing and am still doing is paperwork!

Lots of it as you can see below. I applied for a 'Completion Pack' from the LAA and they sent a wad of paper and forms to fill in.

I should be visiting both Pete and Murray next week as Pete has said he will make up some aileron pushrod fairings for me next week (fingers crossed!). When those are done I will take them and the gear leg fairings up to Murray.

I spoke to Murray yesterday and he had put primer on all the control surfaces and the wings and is just about ready to do the same with the fuselage. After that gets flattened off and a gloss coat goes on he will see all the little imperfections and more work will be needed before the top coats. He did say he thought I'd made a "cracking job" of the kit so that was nice to hear.

I've got some more resin on order so when that arrives I will start back on the long range fuel tank.

Hopefully more to post about next week.

Wafer thin gear leg fairing - even has some holes in it it's so thin after making it fit the gear leg.

Adding layers of glass to the front corners to fix the gaps.

All done. 2 layers of glass added to the top areas, then filler to smooth everything out.

Multiple layers of glass sanded down from the top to end up with the same thickness as the rest of the part.

Paperwork trail from the LAA

Making my way through it slowly...