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CCRCS past President and AMA member

I have a couple of weeks off from work so I have been able to get some work done on the Decathlon. I have gotten the tail end ready for mounting the stabilizers, however I figured I would cover them before installing them. On the recommendation of Ted and Frank from Ted's Hobby Shop, I tried a fabric covering called Worldtex. It is made in England and wow it is great stuff so far. It is applied with different temperatures on the iron and the finished product is really good looking. It shrinks real well with the heat gun and does not appear to sag any. I am planning on painting the trim on using latex paint. Worldtex claims it is paint able so only time will tell on that.	I  got an engine for it and have built the needed shims for the fire wall to mount the motor mount. I will be using an O.S. 160 with a Pitts Style muffler. I will be installing the fuel tank soon and sheeting the front top deck.
I also got an interior kit for the plane. It comes with a dash board and a couple of seats, which I have built. They came out nicely, however the rest of the cockpit is going to need work, as the seats do not hide all the holes in the formers. I have some pictures of the real interior, so I will see what I can do. I am also going to have to go to the toy store to find a pilot figure as the seats are quite big and only a full figure pilot will work.	The up side to having knee surgery is you get some time off work, which has allowed me to get more done on the Decathlon. I have now mounted the engine, an OS 160, the fuel tank, the fuel lines, the throttle push rod and gotten the front deck sheeted. All pretty basic construction and installation, just a bit bigger.
As I mentioned, I am covering the plane with a fabric covering called Worldtex.  One of the claims from Worldtex is that is paint able.  I covered the stabilizer and elevators and figured now was as good a time as ever to give painting a try. It has been a long while since I have done any painting and once I dug out all my air brush and CO2 tanks, I was ready. I have read a number of articles and forum threads about using latex paint. I decided to give it a try. I went to the Home Depot with my scale documentation in hand and had them color match my blue. The one down side that I have already discovered using latex paint is the smallest amount that you can buy is a quart, which is going to leave me with a lot of 3/4 full paint cans.	I laid out my design and then embarked on a 4 hour job off taping of all the patterns. I used the blue masking tape that is designed for delicate surfaces. I started with the standard blue masking tape, however discovered that when it was removed it was pulling up my edges. The delicate did not do this and was easy to remove. I decided to use my Badger air brush that is designed for color application, not fine work. I have a Badger 250 for my fine work. I needed to thin the paint about 10 per cent with tap water and set my regulator to 30 PSI.  I was impressed with how well the paint sprayed.
I did discover that the first stars that I taped had the edges lifting just a smidge when I sprayed and I did get some  bleed, however is not really noticable until you look for it and not noticable at all from a distance. When I do the rest of the painting, I need to remember to go back and reseat all the edges that I have taped first. On the edges that I had just finished prior to painting, the lines are crisp and sharp. Very time consuming, but I think worth the effort. You tell me..	.Back to project page page 4