Official Freewing Twin 80mm/90mm A-10 Thunderbolt II Thread

[bcrc]

I would like to spray paint some areas of my Freewing A10. What is a good rattle-can paint that will not harm the foam or increase the "alligatorness". If there is a good paint that is not rattle-can, I do have spray equipment.
Thank you.

[TiredIronGRB]

It goes under the batteries

[TomPatton]

Ready to go to the field for maiden as soon as these 15 mph crosswinds quit. Been that way for 3 days now. Suppose to change to SW and about half the speed tomorrow, that will give me a quartering headwind and we can handle that.
Just a little nervous on this one...
Travel ready A-10 Thunderbolt...

[Grossman56]

BCRC, as TI says it goes under the batteries to hold them in place, Foam-Tac them into place. As for paint, a lot of us use water based latex that you can get in sample cans from any of the big box stores or from places like Ace. A sample can runs anywhere from $3-5 so its an excellent deal. Also, I use the small tubes you can get in the crafts section in Wally World as well as Ace, for mixing small amounts of paint. If you have a sample of the color you want to use, they can scan it and match it. If you take a piece of your airplane to match, tell them what it is and that you don't want it damaged. Some employees are better than others, I usually take a spare piece if I have one. They're pretty good. In the case of my Tigercat, there was no sample color so I got them to mix it as close to what I wanted and then adjusted the color when I got home by using the small tubes.
I applied the base coat and the second coat with a very soft brush artist quality brush, blending it smooth with light strikes, then sprayed 6 coats of pearl, then three coats of Spar Varathane by hand.

Grossman56

[flyanything]

Just ordered the A10 ... any suggestions for build, balance or flying? Maybe even any hints or suggestions for modifications?

[hellcat716]

Here are some pics I took of the full size A-10. Hope this is the one you are going for. The smaller details are the same on the A-10. If there is something specific, PM me.

Thanks very much. Need all the help I can get.

[bcrc]

It goes under the batteries

Why is it "H" shaped?

[karasr]

I just got the nerf vortes footballs and got the three whistles out and they are covered with foam. They seem to be glued in! so far it has taken me an hour. This is down right silly.
Hey MOTION. Why don't you buy a lot of a thousand from China for less than I paid for my two footballs--$50.00-- and throw them in the jet kits. So charge and extra buck.
Still can't get rid of the foam.
HELP!

[bill34207]

Steve put in 3 more flights on his today. I shot video of the 2nd time up (his 4th total)

[ryramZ]

Steve put in 3 more flights on his today. I shot video of the 2nd time up (his 4th total)

Great flight nice landing horrible weed whipper..lol

[Aros]

This plane flies so well! If you have flown a mid/low wing plane before, you can fly this one. So far she has no bad flight tendencies. I was considering adding a gyro before I flew it, but not any more. I haven't flown her in the wind yet, so that may change my mind, but we'll see. My first two landings were without flaps. My next few landings were with takeoff flaps. I don't have any elevator mix, and she does not pitch up with takeoff flaps, at least not that I notice. You do have to keep some power on and "fly her to the ground" as she will float, and flare just before touchdown. Again keep some power on, jockey the throttle as needed. If you slow down too much, which is easy, again because she floats, she'll stall, pretty flat, without dropping a wing, and just drop to the ground, and bounce you back into the air. It is soooo easy to learn how to grease the landings on this girl. I was a rock-star by my third flight. And that's not because I'm a great pilot. In fact, every flight two of my club members have a running bet on if I'll rip the gear out of my plane during landing at our grass field. Sad to say, they both have been paid multiple times.

The bad? I really don't have any "Bad" remarks about the plane so far, but here are a few observations:
1.) The paint smudges easily. The finish out of the box is excellent! Easily the best foam plane finish I have ever seen. However, you will handle this plane a lot, and I have finger smudges all over her. Maybe use some WBPU (water based polyurethane) on her to keep the finish smudge free.

2.) It's easy to get disorientated with the flat grey paint top and bottom. I did a few rolls, and rolled when coming out of the bottom of a loop, and it was hard to tell top from bottom, right-side up/inverted when flying at a distance, which I tend to do. My advice for early flights, until you are comfortable, stay relatively close during your initial flights.

3.) Oddly enough, she can seem to disappear when you are looking straight on at her, like after your turn to final and you're lining up for a landing. I was/am considering a paint scheme that will help me identify top and bottom in the air. I've been flying without the armament, and one of my other club members SMDUB, suggested to fly with the armament as that will help give her definition in the air.

Additional observations:

1.) The shipping packaging, OMG!!! Again, the packaging was phenominal! One of the best packaging jobs I've seen! I'm and engineer, and I can oly imaginge the effort that went into designing "just" the packaging! Hats off to the Freewing/MotionRC crew (I assume) for knocking that outta the park!

2.) Unless you are speed demon, or looking for maximum efficiency from your power setup, the 80mm fans are wonderful! They have great power, and are quiet (comparatively)! This thing just rocks in the air with the stock setup. No need to change a thing, unless you just happen to be a tinkerer.

3.) I have my timer set at 3 minutes, but it will count up after the 3 minutes have expired. So far I have been able to go 4:40, and still have about 3.78/cell so after a few more flight, I'll probably adjust my flight timer to about 3:45-4 mins and see what happens. That's with mixed throttle, and flying at typically 80% throttle.

4.) She just wants to fly. Nice long take-off climb-outs are so easy. No need to yank her off the ground. From a flight/flying perspective, whomever did the wing design on this plain straight nailed it!!! Cudos!

5.) Both my Gens Ace/Tattoo and Pulse 6s 5000s come down pretty warn. Not hot, but warm. These are the same packs I've used on my HSD Super Viper and F-16, so they have seen some good use. I have some Revolectrix batteries I want to try and see how they do.

What else?!?! I dunno! I can't stop gushing, and wipe this stupid grin off my face! I may have to buy a 2nd one of these A-10's, as I'm probably going to wear this one out!!!

Good input! Thanks for sharing!

[TiredIronGRB]

"H" for Hog

[Boots Whirlygig]

I just got the nerf vortes footballs and got the three whistles out and they are covered with foam. They seem to be glued in! so far it has taken me an hour. This is down right silly.
Hey MOTION. Why don't you buy a lot of a thousand from China for less than I paid for my two footballs--$50.00-- and throw them in the jet kits. So charge and extra buck.
Still can't get rid of the foam.
HELP!

Take your sharp knife and carve the plastic!

[catvman]

Ready to go to the field for maiden as soon as these 15 mph crosswinds quit. Been that way for 3 days now. Suppose to change to SW and about half the speed tomorrow, that will give me a quartering headwind and we can handle that.
Just a little nervous on this one...
Travel ready A-10 Thunderbolt...

Tom your pvc stand is awesome. Would love to copyit. In this configuration does it allow to invert fuse for wing installation?

[dahawk]

Just ordered the A10 ... any suggestions for build, balance or flying? Maybe even any hints or suggestions for modifications?

lots of updated info in this thread and on RCG. Start reading.... lol

[xviper]

Just ordered the A10 ... any suggestions for build, balance or flying? Maybe even any hints or suggestions for modifications?

There are at least 2 build videos on YouTube and a mod thread here.

[bill34207]

Great flight nice landing horrible weed whipper..lol

Sometimes I think they do it just for aggravation. I was a good 150 feet from where he started up so you can imagine what it was like standing on the flight line.

[crxmanpat]

Four more great flights today, total of 11 now. Lots of oohs and aahs from the peanut gallery. They especially like my ordnance decals. Last flight had a good crosswind on landing, but she crabbed in just fine for another smooth touchdown!

[Boots Whirlygig]

Sometimes I think they do it just for aggravation. I was a good 150 feet from where he started up so you can imagine what it was like standing on the flight line.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L2houvRME_Q

[themudduck]

My Freewing A10 came with two "H" shaped pieces of some matting material. What is it for?

Use a little Foam-tac to glue that matting to the surface of the battery tray. The stuff is so the battery will stay put, it keeps it from sliding and works great.