2018 A bloody mess - a rebuild that went wrong
 1 May 2017 Onwards. I want to paint another model but I don't want to build one. So I get the old 2006 Fanfare back from Richard Field. First job is to move the engine back. It's a RO jett 51 and longer and heavier than the original ST46. |
 2 May 2017 Onwards. New engine plates installed. Engine will use Dub Jett's integrated spinner, A lot of work is needed to shift the cowl back, including four new 2-56 cowl attachment screws. |
 3 May 2017 Onwards. Repairs for the new engine mounting plate need to be filled in with balsa plugs and a bit of epoxy/microballoon mix. |
 4 May 2017 Onwards. Here, the wing is completely stripped back. The original tissue is removed and replaced with Polyspan synthetic tissue. |
 5 May 2017 Onwards. At this stage, it's had two coats of thinned dope brushed on and one coat sprayed. I'll spray on another coat of thinned dope and then give it three more coats of dope/talc sprayed on. It's now October 2017 and progress is slow. But, that's the idea. |
 6 December 2017 I'm going back to clear over base again with the base color of white. |
 7 December 2017 The cockpit is a Suzuki motorcycle dark silver. The "anti-glare" strip will be the complementary Suzuki colour, a metallic almost black. These two colours went together on a Suzuki GSXR 1000 that a friend of mine owned. |
 8 January 2018 Fin stencil applied. |
 9 January 2018 The Dragon is ready to be sprayed gold |
 10 February 2018 The Gold is on and it is ready to spray the metallic purple. I buy a bunch of disposible syringes with which to withdraw the paint from the can. |
 11 February 2018 I don't realise that the syringe comes prelubricated with silicon. Silicon and paint don't mix and it is a mess. This is major mistake 1 of 4. I sand most of the purple off and respray it. |
 12 February 2018 That goes sort of OK. I then spray on the Ferrari Red base colour. Major mistake 2 of 4: the red "bleeds" into the white as I clean it with turps and prepsol. I spray more white over the red stains. |
 13 March 2018 Removing the masking is usually a thrilling moment as I reveal what I have created. Usually thrilling. Major mistake 3 of 4: I see for the first time that the graphic is out of alignment with the trailing edge, it sweeps upwards by 4mm. This is a deal breaker. This is when I contemplate kicking the dog (if we owned a dog). |
 14 March 2018 I realise that I can't recover from this mistake which leads to major mistake 4 of 4: I decide to use a 10 year old 2K clear and mix it with an unknown hardener and unknown thinners. |
 15 March 2018 The clear takes days to harden and it dries wrinkly, rotten and wretched. Minor mistakes: the white paint lifts in spots when I remove the fine line tape (this never, hardly ever, happens to me) and some purple stains bleed onto the gold. |
 16 March 2018 All in all, this is a deeply unsatisfactory waste of time. The shame of it is that I think the design and the colour selection is among the best I've done. |
 17 March 2018 So what's next? The next step is to remove the motor and store the carcase in to the roof. I'm thinking of digging out the plan for this plane , making another and finishing it exactly the same but different. THE END Return to the home page |
