Construction (Page 3)

Canopy Hatch

       

The hatch section is basically just built up from long sections of balsa blocks. The blocks are over sized, and then carved down to create the rounded shape of the fuse. The canopy is then trimmed and fitted onto the hatch.

Before gluing the canopy to the hatch section, I decided to give the canopy a slight tint. I basically mixed up some rit dye with very hot water. I then filled an old garbage can with the solution and dunked the canopy until I got the amount of tint I was looking for. I then sprayed on a little grey paint in the canopy area, and glued on the tinted canopy. A little wood filler was used to clean up any voids, and then in the final step, I glassed the canopy section with some 3/4 oz. cloth so that I can eventually paint the hatch.

Finally assembly before covering and paint:

       

The Yak is now mostly built and sanded. The switch holes have been cut out, the canopy is glassed, and I did a final assembly to make sure that everything looks ok. Here are a few pics of the Yak before taking it all apart, sanding, and covering.

Covering:
After playing around with a few colour scheme ideas, I decided to stick to a basic scheme that I've used on a few airplanes in the past. The reason is that I see it well in the sky, and it looks good to me. It will basically be the same as my Extra 330, with a few minor changes.
Here are a few pics of the fuse after covering:

     

Here are a few pics of the wings:

Here is a pic of the stab:

Painting:
Like in the past, when it comes to painting model airplanes, automotive paints are the best. They are brilliant in colour and extremely resilient to abuse we put our models through. The only draw back to using automotive paints is that they are very expensive, and can be very toxic to use. The whole process is no different that painting a car. You need to first prep the service, and fix any imperfections with body filler, prime, mask, paint your base coats, and then finally clear coat. Here are a few pics of the process:

In these pictures you can see all the prepping and priming prior to adding paint.
       

Here is a pic of the masking process, and how the paint scheme is masked.

Some pics once the colours are on, and the clear coat is drying.
  

Final Assembly:
Now that all the parts are painted, the final stages are to re-assemble the airplane, and to install all the radio equipment, exhaust, motor, etc.
One of the challenges I had, was installing the throttle servo, as the position of the throttle arm on the motor, and the location of the servo, were in awkward positions that did not line up. In order for me to overcome this problem, I had to make a bell crank system to align the throttle. Here is a pic:

Here are a few pics of the radio installation. I opted to use a Powerbox unit, to regulate all the power to the servos. The beauty of this unit is that it has many useful features included. This unit acts as a power bus system, a voltage regulator for the power sources, and can also act as a matchbox system for all the servos. A very useful tool, when setting up an airplane. Here a few pics of the set up.
     

Now that all the components are installed, here are a few pics of the Yak fully assembled. I'm just waiting on some decals, before the final completion. The total weight is 37.5 lbs.
       

Finally my graphics came in. Here are some pics of it totally done.
       

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