Scale 50cc Scratch Build From My Own Design Revisited

I've been thinking that I mentioned the flashlight trick for finding pinholes in last night's post, but if someone doesn't follow the glassing and painting thread they wouldn't know what I'm talking about. So, here is a copy of that post.

Just thought I'd share a little helpful tip. Anyone that has either glassed an airplane, or painted fiberglass parts has run into the dreaded pinhole. For years now at work I've been using a very simple technique for finding them.

Take a bright beam style flashlight and shine it across the surface of your "unsanded" primer at a shallow angle. The light will make the pinholes stick out like a sore thumb. I like to circle them in pencil "very" lightly so I can hit them with a little filler and no more pinhole.

The second photo is a close-up shot of a group of them that shows you how well the light makes them show up. They look massive in the photo, but in reality other than the one to the left they were very tiny. Using this method you can usually kill them all in one shot and not keep finding them as you go.

The flashlight I was using was not the best, but it was good enough for the picture. The one I usually use is WAY brighter.

Larry B said:

Looking great! Your up to the part I enjoy the most, painting. That thing sure has some nice curves to it, it would make a great subject for an all glass fuse (hint....hint)
Larry B

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That's what started this airplane in the first place. I drew an airplane I wanted to do in fiberglass and toned it down to build this one from wood.

This was my original design. The idea would be to mold the wing inboard of the gear to the fuse like a Byron Corsair, and attach the gear to the end of the wing stub. The gear would be tough to make shock absorbing, strong and reliable, but I still stare at it all the time trying to figure out a good way to do it. I love an engineering challenge.

I went back through some old files and found a front view.

Last night I sanded the hatch and the wheel pants. The wheel pants are ready, but the hatch needs a few spots reprimed. This afternoon I installed my aluminum louvers in the pipe hatch. I cut one louver off of each part to make it look like one continuous louver instead of two separate pieces.

Nice job! That'll look great when painted (looks great unpainted too )

I've got everything pretty much ready to paint. I'm need to reprime the hatch and after that do the final sanding on it and the cowl and it will all be ready. I could of had it ready already, but I've been in a crappy mood after work lately. The last thing I need is for it to tick me off and sail parts across the room. I'm planning to work on it some tonight.

I have been spending some time on TurboCad working on a few ideas for future projects.

Jetpainter said:

I've got everything pretty much ready to paint. I'm need to reprime the hatch and after that do the final sanding on it and the cowl and it will all be ready. I could of had it ready already, but I've been in a crappy mood after work lately. The last thing I need is for it to tick me off and sail parts across the room. I'm planning to work on it some tonight.

I have been spending some time on TurboCad working on a few ideas for future projects.

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What new ideas are you thinking about. I was lucky enough to get AutoCAD installed on my machine just the other day from a friend. I missed not having it since I retired. Have not done anything on it but hope to in the future.

Snoopy1 said:

What new ideas are you thinking about. I was lucky enough to get AutoCAD installed on my machine just the other day from a friend. I missed not having it since I retired. Have not done anything on it but hope to in the future.

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Well my mind wanders, well that's an understatement.

Over the past months I've messed with ideas for a 90" P-40B, a 80" Culp Special, a 80 Tipo (Classic Pattern Plane) and two other 50cc pattern airplanes. I'm really wanting to do a fiberglass fuselage, so I think a 50cc Pattern airplane would be a good subject to mold since it's a pretty simple shape. I'd love to do a 50cc Tipo, but retracts on a 50cc sized one would be spendy, heavy and troublesome. And fuselage mounted gear on a classic ballistic style pattern airplane is just criminal.

The leader at this point is a 50cc size pattern airplane based on a Krill Spark Evo I. Ive got most of the pre plug design work done for that using a DLE55RA. The rear exhaust fits well with the tuned pipe in the fuse


But, like I said my mind wanders, so I may change it many times before any project starts.

Jetpainter said:

Well my mind wanders, well that's an understatement.

Over the past months I've messed with ideas for a 90" P-40B, a 80" Culp Special, a 80 Tipo (Classic Pattern Plane) and two other 50cc pattern airplanes. I'm really wanting to do a fiberglass fuselage, so I think a 50cc Pattern airplane would be a good subject to mold since it's a pretty simple shape. I'd love to do a 50cc Tipo, but retracts on a 50cc sized one would be spendy, heavy and troublesome. And fuselage mounted gear on a classic ballistic style pattern airplane is just criminal.

The leader at this point is a 50cc size pattern airplane based on a Krill Spark Evo I. Ive got most of the pre plug design work done for that using a DLE55RA. The rear exhaust fits well with the tuned pipe in the fuse

View attachment 84779 View attachment 84780
But, like I said my mind wanders, so I may change it many times before any project starts.

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Very impressed! That would be an awesome project!!

Jetpainter said:

Well my mind wanders, well that's an understatement.

Over the past months I've messed with ideas for a 90" P-40B, a 80" Culp Special, a 80 Tipo (Classic Pattern Plane) and two other 50cc pattern airplanes. I'm really wanting to do a fiberglass fuselage, so I think a 50cc Pattern airplane would be a good subject to mold since it's a pretty simple shape. I'd love to do a 50cc Tipo, but retracts on a 50cc sized one would be spendy, heavy and troublesome. And fuselage mounted gear on a classic ballistic style pattern airplane is just criminal.

The leader at this point is a 50cc size pattern airplane based on a Krill Spark Evo I. Ive got most of the pre plug design work done for that using a DLE55RA. The rear exhaust fits well with the tuned pipe in the fuse

View attachment 84779 View attachment 84780
But, like I said my mind wanders, so I may change it many times before any project starts.

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Note quite as fancy as what you are planning but I wanted to fly a pattern plane again but same as you a larger gas size. Looked into retracts but could not find what I was looking for except for a set of retracts from BVM the jet guy. The price was out of my league so I went for standard gear on the fuse, easy to transport and put the wings on with the plane standing on its wheels. It's my own design and I built it a number of years ago with 3w-42 in it. Have not flowen it jet and I do not why. It was a lot of work it took me 3 years to build.