Fournier RF-4

[EarlyBird]

Thanks FF it's all good practise and one day it will be perfect. ?

[EarlyBird]

Blue on 'Both Sides Now'. Rings a bell ?

 

 

Joni Mitchel?

 

The second side only took one and a half hours, I must be learning.

 

Cheers

[EarlyBird]

First dry fit of the control surfaces.

 

 

Some minor adjustments required, which is why I dry fit first. ?

 

Some minor work is also required on the fuselage, before I start covering later today, I hope. ?

 

Cheers

[EarlyBird]

Started covering the fuselage.

 

 

Made a bit of a mess trimming the edges, due to a not very sharp blade. This will be covered up when I cover the sides.

 

I think I am joining the 'looks good at fifty feet club' ?

No worries it will fly and I will have fun.

 

Cheers

[Fun Flyer]

2 minutes ago, EarlyBird said:

Started covering the fuselage.

Made a bit of a mess trimming the edges, due to a not very sharp blade. This will be covered up when I cover the sides.

I think I am joining the 'looks good at fifty feet club' ?

No worries it will fly and I will have fun.

I have found that the best cutter for film is the blade removed from one of the very cheap disposable razors.  Throw it away as soon as it starts to snag.

The having fun bit is the most important. 

[EarlyBird]

1 minute ago, Fun Flyer said:

I have found that the best cutter for film is the blade removed from one of the very cheap disposable razors.  Throw it away as soon as it starts to snag.

The having fun bit is the most important. 

How do you remove the blade?

Yes it was starting to snag and I should have thrown it away.

Having fun is what it's all about.

[Fun Flyer]

I just break it open with a small screwdriver.  

[EarlyBird]

That worked!

 

 

and wow what a thin flexible blade.

 

I have a few of these, given to me by Emirates when they lost my luggage, I kept them as I thought they would be useful one day. Twenty years later I was right. ?

 

Cheers

[Fun Flyer]

2 minutes ago, EarlyBird said:

That worked!

and wow what a thin flexible blade.

 

Believe me, you won't feel a thing when it cuts your finger.

 

 

[Peter Miller]

I buy the old Blue Gillette blades on EBay. I use them for my Zip Razor plane but they are also excellent for trimming film and they are stiffer than those disposable razor blades

 

I remember when Gillette stopped making the blue blades. The eye surgeons complained bitterly as they used them for cataract operations (You are OLD father Peter)

[Graham Davies 3]

I bought some razor blades from an Ebay seller to use in my razor plane. And of course they don't fit, so I have, er plenty for covering jobs!

[EarlyBird]

Started the side by marking out and using masking tape to give a line to work to. 

Fairing covered as the first step.

 

 

I found out that concave shapes are not the easiest, it looks good enough for me.

 

Cheers

[Peter Miller]

On Concave shapes You can work from one side to the other or start in the middle

[EarlyBird]

That's interesting Peter because I started at one end and worked across slowly heating and holding it down as I went. I used a heat gun set on 100 C to take out the stubborn wrinkles and any remaining I use a soldering iron at 200 C, quick and careful strokes are used or the covering melts.  

 

On to the side, placing the covering up to the masking tape and sticking this edge down first then slowly working away from this edge.

 

 

I also covered up the mess I made on the bottom. ?

 

Cheers

 

 

[Ron Gray]

A useful tool for those tight, concave curves, Clover mini iron . You can get additional tips, narrow flat and ball shapes. It takes a while to heat up but good once it’s there.

[EarlyBird]

Blue completed on one side.

 

 

 

?

Cheers

[Ron Gray]

Nice.

[RottenRow]

EarlyBird, that is looking great, I would never have believed that this is your first time covering a model in heatshrink film. Brilliant!

 

Ron - thanks for pointing out the Clover Mini Iron. For a number of years I have been using a 25 watt soldering iron with a small spade-shaped sole plate tip not unlike the Clover tip, perhaps a bit smaller. Connected straight to the mains it was too hot but I wired it into a domestic lamp dimmer and can regulate the temperature pretty well. It is good for awkward access areas. The Clover looks interesting and has some useful tips available, I may get one.

 

This talk of covering awkward and curved areas has reminded me of a demonstration given many years ago at one of our club nights by Ian Peacock (who was also an expert airbrusher). His party piece was to cover the whole of a 100W light bulb with one piece of solarfilm and get no wrinkles. A few of us then had a go... no-one could do it.

 

I look forward to seeing the completed Fournier. I have the slightly smaller Peter Rake version (shown in the photos) which has given 30 plus minute flights on a 1500mAh 3s. Over the warm tarmac at the Nationals at Barkston Heath a couple of years ago it stayed up for an hour and only landed because by then it was too dark to see properly! I also still have the O-four-9ier that I built when the plan was originally published, though the Fibafilm covering has decided to part company with the airframe in many places. It was powered by a Cox .049 Texaco (as was Peter's original); made for interesting flights when it was almost out of sight and the engine run seemed to be never ending. Nowadays you would need to fit an engine cut... not sure how on an .049 with integral fuel tank. Those were the (noisy) days!

 

Brian.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

I love watching these fly, performing graceful aerobatics. ?

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

On 10/03/2021 at 12:37, Graham Davies 3 said:

I bought some razor blades from an Ebay seller to use in my razor plane. And of course they don't fit, so I have, er plenty for covering jobs!

I bought some David's blades to use in my David's razor plane. And of course they don't fit. so I, er took my Dremel to them to modify them.  I bought some Gillette blades recently and they're perfect!

 

Peter, I guess you have a vintage razor plane like mine (from the 70s in my case).  I did acquire a later one with some odds and ends which takes the modern blades - although the blade clamp is plastic and has already cracked.

[EarlyBird]

 

8 hours ago, RottenRow said:

EarlyBird, that is looking great, I would never have believed that this is your first time covering a model in heatshrink film. Brilliant!

Hi Brian,

This was my first Peter Miller build.

My second.

When I started this RF-4 it was my sixth build but will now be my seventh covering.

 

The Swizzle Stick was a test to see what I could get away with regarding reduced preparation prior to covering, I was pleasantly surprised.

 

In this tally I have not included the three I built in the early nineties for my sons. Too long ago for me to remember but I have been reminded that for the Solarfilm I used my Wife's Iron and Hair Dryer. ?

 

My second recent build was a Jensen Das Ugly Stik for which I used my Mum's iron, which she donated to me as she thought it would come in handy (she was thinking about clothes not models, I have not tried it on clothes yet ?), and electric paint stripper which makes for a quick job, unless you melt the film, which is easily done as I found out.

 

Since then I have bought a proper covering iron and a rework station/heat gun. Both take longer but are easier to use.

 

I have now held my hands up and admitted that I am not that good. ?

 

Surprised myself with this though.

 

Thanks to everyone on the Forum I keep going and improving, hopefully. ?

 

Cheers

[Peter Miller]

8 hours ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said:

I bought some David's blades to use in my David's razor plane. And of course they don't fit. so I, er took my Dremel to them to modify them.  I bought some Gillette blades recently and they're perfect!

 

Peter, I guess you have a vintage razor plane like mine (from the 70s in my case).  I did acquire a later one with some odds and ends which takes the modern blades - although the blade clamp is plastic and has already cracked.

I first started using the ZIP planes in the early 60s when someone went on leave from Aden and brought several back for the other club members.  I still like mine but it has distorted a bit.

 

I bought a David plane a little while ago but have not yet needed to buy spare blades for it.

[Peter Miller]

49 minutes ago, EarlyBird said:

 

Hi Brian,

This was my first Peter Miller build.

My second.

When I started this RF-4 it was my sixth build but will now be my seventh covering.

 

The Swizzle Stick was a test to see what I could get away with regarding reduced preparation prior to covering, I was pleasantly surprised.

 

In this tally I have not included the three I built in the early nineties for my sons. Too long ago for me to remember but I have been reminded that for the Solarfilm I used my Wife's Iron and Hair Dryer. ?

 

My second recent build was a Jensen Das Ugly Stik for which I used my Mum's iron, which she donated to me as she thought it would come in handy (she was thinking about clothes not models, I have not tried it on clothes yet ?), and electric paint stripper which makes for a quick job, unless you melt the film, which is easily done as I found out.

 

Since then I have bought a proper covering iron and a rework station/heat gun. Both take longer but are easier to use.

 

I have now held my hands up and admitted that I am not that good. ?

 

Surprised myself with this though.

 

Thanks to everyone on the Forum I keep going and improving, hopefully. ?

 

Cheers

My heat gun packed up some years ago but I bought one from Homebase. Set on the low heat and used with caution it works well.

 

Derek Hardman never recommended heat guns when I talked to him but I still use it.  I tend to shrink about three rib bays and then turn the wing over and heat the opposite bays and soon towards the tip.

[RottenRow]

58 minutes ago, EarlyBird said:

I have now held my hands up and admitted that I am not that good. 

 

Hi EarlyBird,

 

Not that good?? It's all looking great! Sorry, I misinterpreted your posts of earlier this month where I somehow got the impression that this was the first time you had covered in film. That was at the point where you were just starting on the covering.

 

I think many of us started off using domestic irons... that after all was what was shown on the instruction leaflet that came in the Solarfilm packet. As you no doubt found, their weight made them difficult to control on smaller areas and (from my experience) they often left marks on the basls that showed on the covered model. Good enough for the first attempts though on a trainer that probably would need a few regular repairs anyway.

 

Pretty early on I bought one of the proper covering irons and still use the same one today. It's branded 'Thunder Tiger' but I've seen the same one with other names on. All metal except for the varnished wooden handle. It's been almost faultless. Only 'almost' because although it is mainly of metal construction, it only has a flat, two core cable so no earth. I once received a shock off of the metal parts and opening it up revealed some fraying strands of wire that were touching the inside of the metal body. I sorted that out and all has been well since.

 

I totally agree with you that the forum is a great encouragement when you are building, thanks for taking the time (and the photos) to let us all know how things are progressing.

 

The only problem with the forum is that, following a thread such as this, I get to think "I'll build one of those next", then the same happens on the next thread I look at... and I've already got a mental and physical model queue that is longer than the world's supply of balsa would support. ?

 

Carry on the great work.

 

Brian.

 

[Peter Miller]

A little tip that you may find useful

On one side of the iron towards the tip I filed the shoe to a sharp corner and polished the file marks away.

This allows one to really get into sharp corners and iron right into that corner