How Construction Affects the Finish
November 1955 Young Men • Hobbies • Aviation • Careers

November 1955 Young Men

• Hobbies • Aviation • Careers

November 1955 Young MenTable of Contents

These pages from vintage modeling magazines like Flying Aces, Air Trails, American Modeler, American Aircraft Modeler, Young Men, Flying Models, Model Airplane News, R/C Modeler, captured the era. All copyrights acknowledged.

Many thanks to website visitor Bob Balsie, who graciously offered to scan this article (with many more to come) from his collection of Young Men magazine. The front page tag line above the title proclaims: October 1955 "Air Trails" Magazing Cover - Airplanes and Rockets"Now! 'Air Trails Hobbies for Young Men' Expands into Young Men • Hobbies • Aviation • Careers" The final issue of Air Trails - Hobbies for Young Men was October 1955, so this November 1955 edition of Young Men - Hobbies, Aviation, Careers was the first in a series that ran for 13 months.

Two things caught my attention here. First it that the article is Part VIII, which means the previous seven were printed in Air Trails. Second is the photo of Claude McCullough of Ottumwa, Iowa. Ottumwa is the town from which M.A.S.H.'s Radar O'Reilly hearkened.

How Construction Affects the Finish

Correct building techniques for any model project can mean an easier, better finishing job; Paul tells how.

By Paul E. Del Gatto

John Talon turned out this magnificent Meyers 145 - Airplanes and Rockets

San Francisco's John Talon turned out this magnificent Meyers 145; took 2nd in 1955 Nationals' control line flying scale.

So far in this series on how to finish models you've heard from some very well informed and experienced model builders. But little emphasis has been placed on some of the general construction techniques which directly or indirectly influence the finish of a model.

Some facts about the materials used come in handy for anyone interested in building better looking models.

Balsa wood, our main construction material, is one of the most difficult of wood surfaces when it comes to applying a good finish. Couple this fact with the knowledge that balsa wood is cut several ways for varying degrees of strength, flexibility and weight, and the need for knowing how to select balsa becomes very apparent.

Look at the cross-section sketch of a balsa log. Note how it is cut. To begin with any log that is sawed from the center outward is known as a "quarter sawn" plank. Taking this plank and cutting it into sheets will yield balsa which in model lingo is referred to as an "A" cut. This type of sheet is most easily identified by its flexibility and velvety feeling, and it is best used for planking large areas such as the wing and stab leading edge surfaces or for fuselages.

Logs that are sawn approximately tangent to the annular rings are often referred to as a "tangent slash" or more commonly as a "flat sawn" plank. Cutting sheets from this plank will yield "C" cut balsa wood and an intermediary cut referred to as a "B" cut. "C" cut sheets are instantly recognized by their speckled appearance and exceptional stiffness, a quality which makes a "C" cut sheet very valuable to a model builder. This stiffness is the result of the laminated quality of the sheet due to the perpendicularity of the annular rings.

Your "B" cut sheet is an intermediary cut between the "A" and the "C" cuts which has its annular rings running diagonally, rather than perpendicularly or tangent to the sheet. The "C" cut is best for most model use where strength and rigidity are required. However, "C" cut represents the smallest percentage yield of all the cuts which can be obtained from a log. When "C" cut balsa is not available, then use a "B" cut of slightly greater thickness to compensate for the relatively lower stiffness.

Claude McCullough of Ottumwa, Iowa - Airplanes and Rockets

Claude McCullough of Ottumwa, Iowa, and new R/C, 4-wheeled Nats entry. A-1 finish.

Because of the spongy cellular structure of balsa it is subject to "breakers." "Breakers" are cracks or fractures at right angles to the grain which weaken the wood to a great extent. The bad part about them is that they are not easily detected until the wood actually breaks. Manhandling of the rough logs at the mill is the chief cause of breakers.

Another interesting quality of balsa is its great strength under direct compression. Rubber-powered model builders are perhaps more keenly aware of this because of the extensive use of 1/8" sq. longerons to produce a light structure, yet one strong enough to house a motor of up to perhaps twenty strands of 1/4" flat rubber. (Cross bracing balsa, diagonals and paper covering all serve to keep the longerons in direct compression, to absorb the load of the very powerful rubber motor.)

Thus the strength of balsa wood is determined to a large extent by the method of cutting used. Also a determinant of strength is the weight of balsa for each cubic foot. The average weight of balsa logs is 12 to 15 pounds per cubic foot; for identical cuts, wood that is lighter would be less strong and wood that is heavier would be stronger. Indoor model builders use balsa wood that may weigh as little as 4 lbs/cubic foot.

It is best to buy balsa wood when the most select cuts and light weight grades are available to you at the hobby shops you deal with and then store it at home for future use. This way, when you require something special you do not have to settle for something which isn't ideally suited to your needs.

Tatone's Meyers model receives from photogs - Airplanes and Rockets

Note all the attention Tatone's Meyers model receives from photogs at '55 Nats!

Besides balsa wood, the various covering materials used on all types of models are well worth your attention. Covering represents the final stage in the model's construction and knowing how to cover and what material to use under varying circumstances is a "must."

Materials generally employed are tissue paper, light weight and heavy weight Silkspan, silk and nylon. All these materials are porous to varying degrees and this is one of the main reasons why doping is required after the covering has been applied to a model frame.

If we were to examine a piece of each material under a microscope we would notice that all the materials have a "grain" direction. This grain direction is important for it serves as a guide to the correct application of a covering material to either a frame or solid wood surface.

Of the covering materials generally used tissue paper is the most difficult to apply for several reasons. To begin with it can only be applied dry because it lacks the "body" of the other materials and when moistened tends to fall apart. Then too, its shrinking qualities do not lend themselves very well in areas where uneven shrinking is required. Round fuselages, curved wing planforms, wing-tips and fillets are generally covered with one of the other materials unless lightness is a serious determining factor in the model's construction.

This particular advantage of light weight and the fact that an airtight smooth dope finish can be achieved with fewer coats than with the other materials makes tissue paper popular with rubber-powered and small free-flight gas model plane builders. The disadvantages possessed by tissue paper can be offset a great deal by exercising particular care on sharply curved areas.

Material Facts - Airplanes and Rockets

Material Facts

When applying covering to a wing we generally have two surface areas to cover: an upper and lower wing curvature. Prior to covering prepare an adhesive of approximately a 50-50 mixture of cement and dope. With a warm iron (not too hot) press out any wrinkles that may have been put in the covering material through folding or mishandling. Whether you cover the top of the wing or the bottom of the wing first or one panel at a time makes little difference.

Beginning at the wing center joint and covering just one wing panel at a time, apply the adhesive only to the outer edges of the wing panel and wing joint for several rib stations and lay the covering on with the grain running in the same direction (parallel) as the leading and trailing edges of the wing. Pull the covering taut in all directions until all the wrinkles have been removed. Then follow the same procedure until the entire wing panel has been completed. Remove the excess covering material with a sharp razor blade.

When covering flat surfaces such as fuselage sides, the entire side can be covered with one whole sheet providing the covering material is sufficiently long. However, curved fuselage sides must be covered in smaller sections to minimize wrinkles. If tissue paper is the covering material use only one full-length strip or do one bulkhead section width at a time; for Silkspan, silk or nylon the area covered can be doubled and sometimes tripled.

Silkspan differs in that the main fibers intersect each other in clusters running diagonally with the grain, but they are more widely dispersed and held together by a loosely woven arrangement of fibers running against the grain. These differences explain its better shrinking qualities; the stronger fibers enable Silkspan to be applied wet to a model.

Silk and nylon are entirely different in structure from either tissue paper or Silkspan and are the most desirable of all the finishing materials to use from the viewpoint of strength and covering qualities. The fibers of silk and nylon are uniformly arranged and perpendicular to each other; the grain is determined solely by the closer spacing of the fibers in one direction than the other. Another interesting feature is that the fibers go over and under one another. On curved fuselages or pylons it is almost always possible to cover a whole side at once with silk or nylon, and it can be applied wet for maximum flexibility of use.

Covering Notes - Airplanes and Rockets

Covering Notes

 

 

Posted October 10, 2015