Getting close.

As you can see I have entered another dimension. Twilight Zone kinda thing. I got the Legacy 40 painted and almost color sanded as much as I feel like color sanding which isn't much. The black was sprayed yesterday and needs a few more days to dry then a bit of sanding in preparation for the clear dope. It took eight hours of taping the checkers before paint and 2 minutes to paint and a half hour to remove all the tape pieces. The weather has been raining for over a month now and it's just too humid to spray the clear. The do over on the P40-Q into an L-17 Navion is just about ready for paint. I ordered some olive drab dope but they didn's have any so I back ordered it. They sent some enamel instead of dope. I plan to use that and spray 2 part clear over it for fuel proofing. The jury is out on the compatability of the two paints but I'll find out soon. I have to order some graphics for it. That is always a treat.

More engineering brilliance.

I determined that a dope paint finish was better than monokoting the wing and tail. Appearance Judges don't like to see monokote on a model and points are hard to come by. That cost me a second place at one contest. I stripped all the 'kote and paint and figured on changing the model from the P40-Q to the L-17 North American Navion. I had to square off the stab. tips which wasn't a big deal but changing to tricycle gear was a problem. The plane has a foam wing which is cored out to lighten it and to make a passage for the leadout lines. The resulting wall thickness isn't strong enough to mount the gear support blocks and the lines would rub against part of it also. After a few weeks of study I came up with the system in the picture. I cut a chunk out of the fuselage and epoxied in a block of 1/2 inch plywood with grooves for the torque portion of the wire gear legs. I removed a secton of balsa sheeting and glued in 1/16 plywood to support the wire gear. As luck would have it I was able to use some already used wire gear salvaged from wrecks. The nose gear was easy as it plugs into the motor mount as usual. I should glue on a layer of fiberglass over the 1/16 ply for added strength. I epoxied the bare balsa wing skins and that is up to sanding before priming. I finally got dry enough weather and finished spraying the white base coat on the Legacy 40. That is up to masking for the first trim color.