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FINISHING
Final Sanding
Fill any scuffs and dings with balsa filler or by
"expansion." See the Expert Tip below. After the filler has
dried, use progressively finer grades of sandpaper to even
and smooth all the edges, seams and surfaces. A great way
to sand the curved fuselage is to use a strip of sandpaper
approximately 1" [25.4mm] wide, grabbing both ends of the
sandpaper and working it side-to-side like polishing a shoe.
Remove all the balsa dust from the model with compressed
air, a tack cloth or a vacuum with a brush.
Many surface blemishes on a framed model are caused
by bumps and balsa chips on the work surface. This type
of "ding" is best repaired by applying a drop or two of tap
water to the blemish, then running a hot sealing iron over
the spot to expand the wood fibers. After the surface has
dried, sand the expanded area smooth.
Balance the Airplane Laterally
SPECIAL NOTE: Do not confuse this procedure with
"checking the C.G." or "balancing the airplane fore and
aft."That very important step will be covered later in the
manual.
Now that you have the basic airframe completed, this is a
good time to balance the airplane laterally (side-to-side).
Here is how to do it.
1. Temporarily attach the wing, servos, receiver and motor to
the fuselage.
2. With the wing level, lift the model by the propeller shaft
and the bottom of the rudder (this may require two people).
Do this several times.
3. If one wing tip consistently drops when you lift the plane,
it means that side is heavy. Balance the airplane by gluing
weight to the inside of the other wing tip. Note: An airplane
that has been laterally balanced will track better in loops and
other maneuvers.
Cover the Model with MonoKote
The Ryan STA EP does not require much painting to obtain
the scheme shown on the box, as most of the finish is done
with Top Flite MonoKote covering. The only painting required
is the cowl, windscreen, headrest and wheel pants.
The technique we will describe here is how the model
pictured on the box was finished. Remove the motor, landing
gear, cowl and control horns.
Cover the model with Top Flite MonoKote film, using the
sequence that follows. The use of a Top Flite MonoKote Hot
Sock
™
on your covering iron will prevent scratching the
MonoKote film.
Before you cover the fuselage, first apply 1/4" wide strips of
white MonoKote film in the corners where the stab and fin
meet the fuselage. Proceed to cover the stab with pre-cut
pieces that meet in the corners and overlap the 1/4" strips.
Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to cut the
covering on the stab after it has been applied except
around the leading and trailing edges and the tips.
Modelers who do this may cut through the covering and into
the stab. This will weaken the structure to a point where it
may fail during flight.
COVERING AN OPEN STRUCTURE WITH MORE
THAN ONE COLOR OF MONOKOTE FILM
A problem some modelers have when covering with more
than one color of film is that air bubbles can become
trapped between the two pieces of film. This becomes a
big problem when covering over an open structure.The
procedure that was used to cover the Ryan uses a
template made from paper for the white and red covering.
The white template was drawn approximately 1/4"
[6.4mm] larger than needed. A piece of white MonoKote
film was laid on a piece of glass that was lightly wetted
with a glass cleaner such as Windex
wrapped with a paper towel was used to remove the glass
cleaner from under the covering film. The white film
should now be flat on the glass. Tape the template, for the
white film, on top of the film. Use the template as a guide
to cut the film.
Follow the same procedure to cut out the red film.
39
®
Film
™
. A squeegee
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