Estrellita EF1 / Shark EF1

[DonStegall]

Got the parting plate for the cowl done yesterday (Saturday) and primed it this morning. If I get another coat of primer on after sanding and get it pained by dark. The PartAll PVA will go on tomorrow and molds will be ready by next weekend.

I made a long video on how parting plates are used and the making of this one. Probably won't be online until next weekend.

You can follow the progress at https://www.facebook.com/pg/EF1-Pylon-R ... 7812889645

[DonStegall]

Got the cowl plug sanded today.

Got one coat of primer on the parting plate early in the day. We had some sun and heat and I got a second coat of primer on it and got it sanded for painting.

The gaps are not really as big as they look in this photo. Some modeling clay will fill the gaps. I may try Kevin Matney's Paraffin wax techhnique to get sharp edges. Jim Katz swears by it.

[DonStegall]

I often use colors that I plan on painting planes with to test for how they will look together. I have used the Nelson Hobby Specialties paints for a long time, but my stock aged and is no longer any good. I can't seem to find that they still exist. Their paint was made by System Three. This is the WR-LPU San Juan Tan on the page at https://www.systemthree.com/products/wr ... ne-topcoat

The plug is not perfect, but by the time I prepare the molds by sanding, compounding, polishing and waxing, they should yield very good parts.

The scoop was not 100% symmetrical. I tried to fix it up some.

Looking good on both sides except for a small run I got when I put the wet coat on at the end.

This is the WR-LPU Mercer Green on the parting plate.

I plan on painting my Swee' Pea Q40 using these paints and colors. It won't be 100% scale, but I will be adding some checkerboards to the wing and tail and some green diagonals on the bottom of the wing and it should look pretty good. Of course completing the molds is the major objective, but I got to see what the colors would look like.

[DonStegall]

While I have shifted most of my posting activity to Facebook and have a new page there currently called The Independent AMA and NMPRA Pylon Racing Page and an EF1 page at EF1 Pylon Racing, I'm still going to post what I consider useful info to the NMPRA forums.

I finally have the shop back in full fiberglass production mode. Not quite there yet for composite work yet, but in a week or two.

Here's an update on the molds for the fiberglass parts for the Estrellita EF and Shark EF1 laser cut kits.

Mark Ackerman of Carolina Custom Kits came to my house and shops on Monday. We went over a lot of stuff including the molds for the Estrellita EF1 / Shark EF1.

I'm now sanding / compounding / polishing / waxing them so I can get them sprayed with PVA.

I'm putting cloth on the Proud Bird EF1 molds for fiberglass parts.

Epoxy and cloth are getting slung all over the place. I even have male molds in progress for the Mako Shark Q40 stab with just a few days left before I have backup male molds for the stab.

Here are some pre-sanding photos of the Estrellita EF1 / Shark EF1 plugs.

[DonStegall]

Since my return this year, the #1 request has been for the Estrellita EF / Shark EF1 parts.

With the shop back in gear. And me back in gear, things are getting done.

Mike Helsel, Greg Doe, Brad Clayton, and others are due parts. Mike doesn't know it yet, but he is getting a complete laser kit and fiberglass parts for his patience in dealing with me not getting these done in the past year. I'll even build the plane for him and delivery it at OJA in May if he wants.

I have sanded the turtle deck, the hatch mold for pulling plastic hatches, the cowl mold, and the cowl parting plate with 320, 400, 600, 1000 paper. My compound is so old, I'm running to Walmart tonight to get more compound and polish. I plan to have things ready for PVA before I hit the bed and spray PVA as soon as the air is dry enough on Sunday.

Here's the hatch after compounding and polishing with my old stuff. I need to get the compound and polish to get a mirror smooth finish on it.

I sand and compound my molds before using them. And I make male molds. So the plan is completion of the turtle deck and hatch molds (I have one for laying up fiberglass hatches almost done) this week. And the cowl molds by sometime next week.

[DonStegall]

Sometimes you just do what you have to do.

I started on the final sanding of these parts on Saturday around 6 pm ... It's now 9 am and I have been up all night.

I was not happy with the 320, 400, 600, 1000 after running to Walmart and getting more compound, polish and wax.

So I wet sanded 1200, 1500, 2000. Then I used Meguiars compound, 3M Finesse-It, and Meguiars paint polish. I used a carnauba wax for the first coat. Then six waxings with H&M Dolphin Wax (which I put in a bigger container to make it easier to apply).

I made holders for the cowl in the parting plate before waxing those parts.

Then I filled the gaps between the cowl plug and the parting plate with modeling clay.

These three pieces are ready for PVA and it looks like we have a nice day.

I will spray the PVA and then put surface coat on tonight to protect the PVA and the surfaces.

[DonStegall]

I was going to put surface coat on these molds tonight. But I was late getting the PVA on.

This is my first time using the H&M Dolphin Wax on molds. So I went heavy on the PartAll PVA.

They are nice smooth coats.

Jerry Small used to say "If you can paint PVA well, you can paint anything". He gave me a lot of painting advice.

I have a SATA MiniJet III HVLP gun. Getting the pressure correct, the spray pattern, and flow correct is very important. And the weather makes a big difference. I had nearly perfect weather, not too hot, with only a mild breeze, and not much moisture in the air. I dust coated the first layer and even with this super slick wax, I got no fisheye on heavier coats

I used to only spray PVA in the SATA gun. THen I started spraying System Three Epoxy Yacht Primer that is water reducible, but cleaning up with acetone. Then I started spraying the System Three LPU (Linear Polyurethane) paints. I have sprayed Klass Kote epoxy with it also. Having a good gun makes a big difference in quality of results. I use a step down regulator and have a air cooling system in my air line.

I hope to get surface coat on in the morning before I leave for work.

[DonStegall]

It's GO TIME on the molds for the Estrellita EF1 / Shark EF1.

The surface coat came out perfectly and went on smoothly without running.

Only thing is I'm out of white pigment for the other half of the cowl mold. It typically takes me 3-4 days to do the layups the way I like to do them. So I have time to get more pigment.

I have to pick up more epoxy on Wednesday after work. Don't have time to waste having it shipped.

I plan to have these except for the cowl done before the weekend so I can make some proof parts. Then I will sand the molds and make male molds.

I will probably do a fuselage build video on Saturday or Sunday.

These parts are not going to be cheap. I have well over 100 hours in making these. And there are a lot of pieces. I will probably charge $75 for a full set of parts including the wheel pants if people want to buy them.

I may offer them primed in the molds for an extra $10 a set. I can put the epoxy primer on very light and take care of pinholes.

Some people have told me they want to be able to see through the parts while building the planes. Could be good for the turtle deck and seeing the pushrods.

I have considered making a pan for the bottom of the rear of the fuselage since it has stringers on it. That would leave very little of the fuselage covered in plastic. Would this require approval?

[DonStegall]

I'm not going to post photos every time I do a layup on these molds. I'm making progress and I expect to have the molds done by this weekend, excluding the cowl mold. That will go into next week. Then I will make male molds. I will probably pull proof parts and build the Estrellita fuselage this weekend so I can see how things fit. I will videotape the fuselage build. I'm video taping the making of the molds, but I just don't have time to edit and publish videos every step of the way. Each minute of video you see takes 10-30 minutes of processing and editing time. Even though my Mac has an upgraded hard drive, I still have to do a lot of work to create the videos.

But the molds are finally well on their way. The surface coat is on and layups are in progress. I should have Estrellita EF1 / Shark EF1 kits at the OJA race. Plenty of time for people to build one or more for the 2019 AMA Pylon NATS.

I had a very good in-person visit with Mark Ackerman of Carolina Custom Kits and HobbyExpress.com this week in my shop. Much good stuff is coming as a result of that meeting. Much benefit to the pylon community, including EF1, Q500, and Q40.

I did an interview with Mark on Monday afternoon. You can see the interview in the hardly viewed "Building Tips" section at viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6229.

Or you can just view the video ...

Click on https://youtu.be/d0olOXwobSc to open the video in a browser tab so you can view it full screen.



Even though my music concept has the potential to make much more money for me than I could ever make off of R/C, I'm highly focused on the R/C projects. and am changing the timetable for the music concept. I want to have fun at OJA and the NATS. And I'm going to be going to a lot more races this year. There is a Club 40 group getting started in the Lexington Kentucky area that has a Club 40 race scheduled for Saturday August 10, 2019. I plan to attend the race, and I invite everyone in the area to support the race. I will soon post a flier for that race.

Even the expert pilots have fun in Club 40. The parity of the planes and the slightly oversized airframes that are similar to the original Spickler Quickie 500 are a lot of fun for just mixing it up with the newcomers and having fun. StegallHobbies.com has the http://www.stegallhobbies.com/Club40Racer that is a fun build and there are ARF kits of the http://www.abmshowcase.com/the_world_mo ... fault.aspx and the http://www.abmshowcase.com/the_world_mo ... fault.aspx that require only about 4 hours to get ready to race excluding breaking in the engine and getting test flying in. Come play with us on Saturday July 13, 2019 at the AMA Pylon NATS. I will be demoing some http://Club40Electric.com planes and I will have extra Club 40 planes if you just want to race. I fly Spektrum, but my planes will be receiver ready for those that flyy other brands. No Stabilization or telemetry on the "Loaner /Fly it Like You Stole It" planes. Just pure flying for fun, no strings attached.

I'm going to organize one or more music jam sessions at the NATS. A lot of R/C pilots also play musical instruments. I have a full band's worth of equipment and I will be posting a song list so that people can practice playing some music before the NATS and have some after hours entertainment fun. Some Lynyrd Skynyrd, some Blue Oyster Cult, some Jimi Hendrix, some blues jams like Redhouse. Even some acoustic stuff.

I hope to have my "Interview Studio Setup" so I can get some after hours interviews with pylon pilots like the one I did with Dean Stone at https://youtu.be/iwFG2AOq00Q.

Yes, I know I wandered off topic on the Estrellita / Shark stuff, but sometimes a single message works better than spamming the forums.

Please email me at Don.F.Stegall@gmail.com with suggestions or comments about my proposals for the NATS. Or just pick up the phone and call me at 704-968-2881 .. I have daily meetings from 9am to 10 am but I can usually talk other times during the day and talking on the phone is much easier for most people that writing messages .. or just text me at that number and I will get back to you.

[kane]

Attention all builder's that may have purchased kits from Carolina Custom Kits.

It was brought to my attention yesterday that the foam wing cores that they recently sold (2021) with their kits will not meet the area rule. There is an easy way to validate this. If your cores plus the LE + the TE do not measure `10.5" your cores are too small.

Although this is a design that Jerry and I did a while back, it is no longer under my control. Same holds true with all the models that Elbert Innovations is selling. They started out as mine but both Shane and Mark have made them their own along the way. If you have an issue with your kit you recently purchased please reach out to whom ever you purchased it from.

Sorry for all the troubles.

I have included my original plans. Please validate your model before entering it into competition.

DK