Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

When the Unexpected rears its Head

I bought this model at a swap meet many years ago. It was called "A Super Giant Big Stick." It was kitted by a Canadian company and was in excess of $300. The paint cost another $100. The motor was $350. All the electronics, receiver, servos (6), switch another couple of hundred. The guy who built it almost to completion, sold it to me for $300. It was the best buy I ever got at a swap meet. Now this model has been hanging from the ceiling until my friend, Ron, shamed me into completing it. Actually there wasn't much to do as most had already been done. What I had to do was paint it.

Painting required that I learn a skill I'd never acquired before and there was a huge learning curve necessary to overcome. Eventually I did and the results have surpassed my greatest expectations... that was until I got to painting the ailerons and flaps. There are four (4) of these control surfaces and they are exactly the same size and shape. The problem I faced was getting the paint lines to match up.

Let me describe the problem in a bit more detail. The Control Surfaces (CS) go behind the wings and like I said above there are 4 of these. The wing they go behind is about one third red, one third white and one third red again. At the root and at the tip the wing is red and in the center it has a white strip.

Attaching the CS to the wing are Robart hinges which look like plastic dowels with a hinge in the center. Holes are drilled in the CS and the trailing edge of the wing. Even though the original builder went to pains to make them exactly the same, they are not exactly the same. On the trailing edge of the wing the CS can only go on one way because even the slightest variation can cause the hinge to bind. The original builder meticulously fitted each surface to the one they had to be mated to.

So here I come along and paint each CS red on one side and white on the other and guess what? Nothing aligns worth a dittle-doo. To remediate the matter I have to spray paint another coat of white and red and this means masking and papering all over again. It is a big job and every step of the way I'm muttering expletives directed against myself for being so stupid the first time around.

This is one gorgeous airplane and even though it involved some extra work the result is worth the persistence and hard work.