Warbird Information Exchange

more pics.....

i'm addicted to all things in "the way of the string"

Well, I know it's been a while since my last post, so here's a little something to tide y'all over for a while (if there's anyone still interested, that is).

Recently, I was trying to figure out the best way to address some cracking in the paint on the wings on Time Bandit and sought the advice of the expert painters at AvSource West, a local aircraft paint facility here at Midland (MAF). To make a long story short, they essentially looked at it and said they'd completely refinish the wing for us as a sponsorship! That was awesome, but then we got to wondering how the fuselage would look with it having it's same old look, but with a fancy new finish on the wings. Sooooo, they also offered to repaint the fuselage as well. Yay! Elmo, at AvSource West was kind enough to knock out the fuselage for me first, so that I could get back to work on it to install the instrument panel, wiring, engine (don't ask), and whatnot. In the process, we decided to make a few slight changes in color and design to make sure it's not just seen as "the old Spud Runner."

Here's a few shots of how it went...........
















And with the wing stuck back on, just for fun.......








So, now the fuselage is back in the main hangar here at the CAF and I'm back to work on it. Hopefully, the wing will be done in a week or so. The plan is to fly it as soon as it's ready. Stay tuned.

Gary

Nice model you've got there Gary!

Serious though, excellent work!

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It's looking really good, Gary! Whose idea was the checkered tail? I do like it.

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Neal Nurmi

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Gary, congrats on the paint sponsorship. Looking good!

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Looks awesome Gary.

Who's Strikemaster is that? Is it the one that had the accident several months ago?

Well, the idea started with me saying to Elmo, "I know it's probably too much to ask, but man, that rudder would look cool with some checkerboard on it." He replied with, "Yeah, but it would look cooler if the vertical fin had it on there too!" So, to be polite (which my bosses here at work are struggling to teach me), I called Gary Davis, since he actually owns the airplane, to see what his thoughts were on it. He was very enthusiastic about the idea and told us to press on. Soooo, it was more of a combined effort to come up with some subtle changes to the paint scheme, but it was AvSource West who did all of the "real" work.




Dunno the owner's name, but I think he also owns (or owned) the Provost that wrecked a few months back...which isn't the airplane here.

Gary

That's bitchin Gary! They did a great job.

Gary that's a sweet looking paint job, well done and good ideal for the tail...

Lynn

you could make your own for a fraction of the cost....

you basically take some foam sheeting like 3mm depron and apply a few layers of wetted up carbon fabric of your favourite weight and then allow to cure between two sheets of glass with a fair bit of weight applied to the top to make it nice and flat and squeeze the excess epoxy out, ( this also works nice for making your own carbon sheet for the instrument panel minus the foam of course .)
this would work real nice for the formers and the floor panels and be quite cost effective...

if your really keen you could then draw up the parts you need in a 2d cad program and take your loverly home made composite boards to a place that does water or laser cutting for a loverly finish!








zak

Ugh...composite work (shudders in anticipation of all the itching and splinters involved).


Gary

Hey Itchy. Anything new?

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Don't forget to live....

Stand by for a "real" update. I'm sort of stuck at home right now. Hoping to be out at the hangar tomorrow and will give y'all a progress report then.

Gary

Well, I reckon since I haven't given much of an update lately, I'll continue that trend with this one. Not just a whole lot has happened since the last update, but here's a few of the high points...

As we all know by now, it's difficult for me to leave anything alone. So, after looking at the new checkerboard paint scheme on the tail for a few hours, I couldn't stand to just leave the fairings around the tail yellow. Sooooo, I masked them off to "complete" the checkerboard design and Elmo has already painted the red squares needed. I'll post a picture of the completed fairings when I get them back from Elmo at AvSource West......






In the mean time, Elmo has been hard at work on refinishing the wings for Time Bandit. It turns out this is a bigger chore than we'd expected. The old filler that they used on the wings way back when, has cracked and is coming loose from the wood. So, Elmo is having to scrape all of the old filler off and start from scratch. The progress is coming along well though, as the filler seems to be fairly easy to remove. I'm hoping to have the completed wing towards the end of this week (fingers crossed). Here are a couple of shots of the old finish being worked on......






I've also been working on wiring the airplane and have nearly all of it completed. The new instrument panel that I built is all but finished and I'm just waiting for the wing to arrive before final installation of some of the wiring. I don't have a current picture of the panel, but will take one for y'all soon. Another thing that's holding me up on finishing the wiring, is the arrival of my engine. However, it was shipped to me last week and I should be receiving it just any day now! YAY!!! I'll definitely keep y'all posted there.

I was unable to be very productive the last couple of days due to a little mishap I had on Friday. I was stepping off the forklift here at work and my left foot slid in some loose gravel. As my ankle twisted around, I heard what sounded like Mark McGuire hitting a home run...POP! As the pain ran up my leg, I said something like, "Ouch," or "Owwie," or something like that. After losing the argument with Mark, Rita, & Randy, here at work, I was taken to the Emergency Room for x-rays and such. Ends up it was no big deal and I've only slightly torn a little ligament in my left ankle. So, I've been hobbling around a little bit, but am otherwise okay. This is IN NO WAY going to affect my racing!!! I'm just too dang hard-headed for that.

So there's the latest. I'll be sure to post updates as the engine and wings get here. Thanks for y'all's interest in this little project.

Gary

Gary, do you realize how hard your making it for the model builders to copy the airplane with all those different colored checkerboards? Geez.

Looks great!

Hope the ankle is better.