Acro Primed 

Acro Primed

Just another progress photo. The Acro now has two coats of water based polyurethane and one coat of Krylon water based primer-sealer. Once it dries, I will sand it some. Then two coats of Rustoleum. I am chickening out on the test of Rustoleum Painter's Touch water based enamel a little bit. I am just going to paint a stripe on the fuselage over the regular Rustoleum. That way the stripe can serve as a test of whether the Painter's Touch is fuel proof or not. But if it is not fuel proof, the regular Rustoleum under it will be fuel proof. But if the Painter's Touch turns out to be fuel proof, it will mean that I can have a good looking finish on a plane in five coats. And all the coats would be water based-no stink-easy soap and water cleanup.

Acro Finishing

Just realized I forgot to state that the initial tacking around the edges with the Polycover is done at low heat. Then the shrinking is done at high heat. So I am posting this as a correction, or some kind of an expansion.

Finishing the Acro 

Finishing the Acro

Just another progress picture. Covered the Acro wing last night with Polycover transparent yellow covering from Hobby Lobby. This stuff is great! It is low temperature and high temperature. You tack (laminate) it onto the bare balsa (no Balsarite required) around the edges, and then shrink with high heat. No heat gun required-just an iron with a temperature dial. But here is the thing. I am lame at covering. Monokote drives me crazy because it is always full of sags and wrinkles when I use it. I realize there are some people out there that can accomplish a perfect covering job with Monokote, but I am not one of them.
I bought a roll of Oracover a few years ago on sale-probably at a swap meet. It was fluorescent orange. I finally used it to cover my Skyray 32. And it was great. But it was first generation Oracover made in Germany and no longer in production. And I ran out of it halfway through covering the wing on my Clowniac.
So I went to the Hobby Lobby website to find some more. It turns out the name has been changed to Polycover. Polycover is the third generation of Oracover. And now it is made in England.
Well I covered my Acro wing last night with Polycover. It is fantastic! This is the covering I have been dreaming of all these years. It actually looks like I know how to use iron-on coverings. And it is a very light finish because there is no paint under or over the covering. And the covering itself is very light.
I had to change my finishing plans for this plane. The instructions for the Polycover state that aircraft dope will not adhere to it. One must use epoxy, polyurethane, or auto acrylic paints to get adhesion to the Polycover. So I am using Olympic (I bought it at either Home Depot or Lowe's) water based gloss clear indoor polyurethane for the sealing coats for this finish. Two coats should do it.
I am posting a picture of the Acro with the Polycover on the wing and a coat of polyurethane on the balsa and the edge of the covering inside the masking tape.

Acro 

Acro ARC 

Acro

Here are a couple of pictures of my current project. It started as a Sig Akromaster kit. But as you can see, it is modified. So I am calling it the Acro. The Acro is just about ready to cover and paint. First the wing and tail joints have to be reinforced with carbon fiber veil. The wings will be covered with Polycover (from Hobby Lobby) transparent yellow. Then the finish on the fuselage and the tail feathers will be one or two coats of Stewart-McDonald Colortone water based Guitar Lacquer. Then one coat of Krylon water based primer. Then two coats of Rustoleum. I am also going to try Rustoleum Painter's Touch water based enamel for one of the colors. I am planning to use three colors. And I want to see if the Rustoleum Painter's Touch will be fuel proof. Of course I expect it will be or I would not be willing to try it. Any way I will post more pictures as the plane progresses.

Akromaster? 

Akromaster?

What should I call this one? It started out as an old Sig Akromaster kit that I bought on eBay for $23.00. I had to replace the wing trailing edge stock and the wing spars. The end result is a fairly straight wing with a little more area than the kit.
And I know I am going to modify the canopy and the tail feathers. So it will end up basically an Akromaster, but not quite.
Here is a picture just to let you know that I am building something.
Blue skies and light winds.