n00bs Gonna Build a Carden

[Vic3D]

Maybe we could cook up some suggestions for the wings. Are you trying to keep the wing's coverin scale-like, or maybe a little more creative?

[Vic3D]

Just an idea. This would show up great in the sky.

[gareth.ky]

Ok here are some of my ideas:

• I'm not going to oversell my covering skills. I want to keep it pretty simple so its easy to do.
• Nothing with too many fine stripes, they just disappear in the sky anyway.
• Keep the blue to a minimum. Its pretty dark and overpowering.

Here are some ideas I'm kicking around:

[Vic3D]

Another one.

[why_fly_high]

	Quote: Originally Posted by gareth.ky
	Ok here are some of my ideas: I'm not going to oversell my covering skills. I want to keep it pretty simple so its easy to do. Nothing with too many fine stripes, they just disappear in the sky anyway. Keep the blue to a minimum. Its pretty dark and overpowering. Here are some ideas I'm kicking around:

Bottom left is the only one that does anyhting for me. Pick one and get back to work!

Dan

[FlyguyXII]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Vic3D
	Just an idea. This would show up great in the sky.

I like the bottom on this one and the bottom left one that you came up with

[gareth.ky]

I'm digging it. Its original as far as I can tell. Elements of other things but nothing quite like it:

[mark786]

I agree that is the best of the bunch. But don't forget the bottom.
Mark

[gareth.ky]

	Quote: Originally Posted by mark786
	I agree that is the best of the bunch. But don't forget the bottom. Mark

Yea its a winner, done deal.

Something simple and quick on the bottom. I like Patty's new scheme where 1/2 the airplane is one color. I'm thinking of doing something on just 1 wing.

[chucku]

Cool, so its decided

[gareth.ky]

I did some tests last night with each of the colors applied over each other. The result is that nothing can be applied over the Blue without the blue showing through. Red can be applied over Yellow without a problem. Yellow over Red doesn't work well either.

Instead of trying to make things complicated I'll just do all the Red parts on the wings as overlays. So the wings will get covered in 2 pieces, and then the red will go on top. I can do that part first and then design a pattern for the red parts in CAD and go down to Kinkos and run if off on the wide format printer. Then make templates from that and cut the red parts out.

[gareth.ky]

Any good throttle servo recommendations? I sold the ones that came with my DX7 so I need one. Don't care about brand. LHS sells Futaba and JR so I can get those locally.

I know covering and finishing are some of the scary bits for people. I have done some of it before with Solite and with monokote waaaaay back when I built the Spectra. If you think Monokote is bad just try Solite. I want to try Ultracote, maybe on the next project.

There are a couple of good videos by the English dude that works for SolarFilm in the UK. He's got a bunch of useful tips and stuff. Videos are linked at the bottom of the page. Video quality is poor but the advice is good. The trick where he uses masking tape to tear the covering in a straight line is money.

[Vic3D]

	Quote: Originally Posted by gareth.ky
	Any good throttle servo recommendations? I sold the ones that came with my DX7 so I need one. Don't care about brand. LHS sells Futaba and JR so I can get those locally. I know covering and finishing are some of the scary bits for people. I have done some of it before with Solite and with monokote waaaaay back when I built the Spectra. If you think Monokote is bad just try Solite. I want to try Ultracote, maybe on the next project. There are a couple of good videos by the English dude that works for SolarFilm in the UK. He's got a bunch of useful tips and stuff. Videos are linked at the bottom of the page. Video quality is poor but the advice is good. The trick where he uses masking tape to tear the covering in a straight line is money.

If you don't mind the price, a Futaba 9254 on the throttle would be KILLER. Basically any Futaba servo from 9251-9254 will do great. I think they're all under .12 seconds.

I like a Hitec 5965 on the throttle myself.

[eagle1]

Hey gareth, I just finished reading this thread, sounds like you went through some droma on the beveling, I built a GP 33% extra 330L that has bevels the same way, I had glued everything to the surfaces, marked a center line on both halves then use the GP plainer workes like a champ, finished it all off with a long t-bar sander, the plane looks great, you cannot expect a better build for your first "giant" as to date I pretty much gave up on building and now just an installer, I now build Compy's saves time but takes moe money, good luck on the finished product and I look forward on the maiden flight and report on how well this plane flies, I went to a local IMAC a couple of weekends ago and 95% of the guys were flying Cardens, again great looking build and informative having said that..GET BACK TO WORK...lol
I meant aeroworks, not cardens, there was a few daltons there also

[gareth.ky]

Those Comp ARF's look great. To me their lines look more scale than the kits or ARF's on the market. The IMAC event I was at there was 1 Carden and like 6 Compy's. At this point I could probably afford one too with all the money I put into the build! Its is not cheaper to build than buy an ARF.

On with the work:

I spend Saturday doing the final prep on the wings and stabs. The stabs were only getting 45 degrees of throw so I upped that to 55 degrees. I also did a bunch of sanding so the bevels meet at full deflection and seal the gap. The ailerons probably have 40 degrees of throw available now. A good trick for doing this final work is to put a piece of tape over the crown of the bevel so you don't sand it down by accident. then you can sand without being so careful. Still takes a while to go slowly and do a lot of checks. Walt says this takes him about a day and from my experience that's about right.

I took some measurement's of the wings and stabs to make up the templates for the wing design. I took the PDF to Kinkos and had them run off a full size version on their large format printer.

Sunday was all stabs all day. Seems like it takes like an hour to lay 1 square foot of this stuff. The bubbles were really giving me problems until I started really stretching the covering. I'm running about 280 on the iron. I'm pulling on it like I want to rip it. When I started doing that it started to go smoother and faster.