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

[Gringotuerto]

I finally joined Aros , and his Arctic Camo Club. ...

What paint are you guys using that doesn't dissolve foam? I was considering painting my Mig-29, but don't want to end up with a puddle of melted foam.

[crxmanpat]

Any Testors spray paint, including Model Masters. Rustoleum 2X and most Krylon works well too.

[Aros]

I agree with crxmanpat. In addition, avoid lacquers at all cost. Enamels work fine on EPO foam but always start out with light coats at first.

[crxmanpat]

Agreed. The key with any paint job is to be patient and apply light coats. I also just recently discovered Krylon Craft Foam primer. I used this on my recent F-14 repaint, and I didn't have ANY paint peel when masking off areas of foam.

[Gringotuerto]

Agreed. The key with any paint job is to be patient and apply light coats. I also just recently discovered Krylon Craft Foam primer. I used this on my recent F-14 repaint, and I didn't have ANY paint peel when masking off areas of foam.

I had some trouble with the adhesive backing of some decals taking paint off foam, and so I coated some of these areas with clear polyurethane. It seemed to create enough of a protective layer to make the problem go away. I was thinking I might do a light coat of this before spraying. The problem is....when I do a decal area, I only do a small area where the decal goes. To paint, I would have to coat a huge area and add more weight. It seems small weight, but this is a real issue with full scale airplanes....the weight of paint is not totally insignificant.

[crxmanpat]

I primered, painted, decaled and then clear coated my F-14. I have no idea how much weight I added with all that (over the stock paint I might add), but it doesn't seem to notice it in the air.

[Hugh Wiedman]

What paint are you guys using that doesn't dissolve foam? I was considering painting my Mig-29, but don't want to end up with a puddle of melted foam.

Ditto what all the guys before me said. I like to first brush on a couple coats of exterior clear spar urethane on either the factory paint or even over bare foam (which needs to be well cleaned with a solution of diluted alcohol-Jack Daniels works but over ice, not on foam). This helps keep the existing paint from peeling if using any trim tape, which with the A-10 I used about 1/2 mile of trim tapes for curves. Then I used a couple light coats of the Rustoleum 2 in 1 (includes primer and final coat) spray enamel base color, then masked for each additional color and sprayed that. I did end up hand painting the final black color (except the nose section which was sprayed) with testors enamel (not acrylic or lacquer) only because the massive amount of masking at that point was just too much for my patience and I needed to see what the 1st 2 color patterns looked like to fit in the black and didn't want to re-mask those sections a 2nd time. Any other trim colors where done with testors enamel, then once graphics are applied and everything finished, 2-3 coats again of the exterior clear spar urethane for durability and it completely eliminates any paint or decals from chipping off (and adds durability to the foam). Others use the clear spray final coat, but that gets in too many places I don't want it (surface hinges/ordinance mounts/gear doors/etc.) unless you are very diligent in masking. You will actually get a better and more consistent clear coating with spray, but I'm old fashioned; give me a bucket of paint and a brush and I'm off to the races!

[Wrthog]

Water base cromax pro, use it all the time . But then again I work as an automotive painter so i have a mixing bank on tap. Works great!

[Hugh Wiedman]

Need some quick advice. Planning on doing the A-10 maiden Friday and wondering what kind of flight times most of you are getting. I'm using 2 RT 6250's and I'm not usually "heavy" on the throttle. For now, I've got my timer set at 3:50 but normally start setting up for landing when it gets down to 1 minute and without a go-around, usually land with 45 seconds of starting the landing set up.

[Waconut]

Hugh, I am using Admiral 5000 and I have my timer set at 3 minutes. I have about 30% left on the average flight. A couple times when I was heavy on the throttle I was down at 14-15%.

[crxmanpat]

Hugh,

I use RT 5800s in mine, and sometimes the 6250s, and have my timer at 4 minutes. I usually have 25% left after landing. And that's waiting until the 30-second warning goes off before setting up for landing, with the timer going to 0 right around touchdown.

[bcrc]

I have a 3 year old Freewing A-10 80mm from the first batch.
Starting this year the nose gear does not retract all the way up during flight. It works fine on the ground, so the only thing I can see as a problem is that the added air pressure in flight adds enough resistance so that it stops. On the ground, if I put a finger in front of it, it stops with very little resistance.
Is there a replacement nose gear retract unit that will fit that will have more power before stopping?
Thanks,
BCRC

[Hugh Wiedman]

Elbee ,Waconut , crxmanpat , thanks so much guys, I really appreciate it.

[crxmanpat]

I have a 3 year old Freewing A-10 80mm from the first batch.
Starting this year the nose gear does not retract all the way up during flight. It works fine on the ground, so the only thing I can see as a problem is that the added air pressure in flight adds enough resistance so that it stops. On the ground, if I put a finger in front of it, it stops with very little resistance.
Is there a replacement nose gear retract unit that will fit that will have more power before stopping?
Thanks,
BCRC

I answered on RCG too, but you probably just have a cracked retract housing. Just replace with a stock retract unit and you should be fine.

[xviper]

Hugh ................. checking in .......................

Flew mine this morning and it was the first day that I flew both flights without any damage to the nose gear. I don't usually grease the landings on this plane twice in the same day. Usually one flight ends in a bouncer. Today was exceptional.

Here's my battery situation:
2 x 5000mah, 6s, Gens Ace, 45C
Timer set for 4 min. Batteries at landing ............. 3.78v/cell (about 25%), batteries are "warmish" with mixed throttle ................... lots of rolls and a couple of loops, with at least one full blast, low fly by and one slow/low full flap fly by.

[themudduck]

Need some quick advice. Planning on doing the A-10 maiden Friday and wondering what kind of flight times most of you are getting. I'm using 2 RT 6250's and I'm not usually "heavy" on the throttle. For now, I've got my timer set at 3:50 but normally start setting up for landing when it gets down to 1 minute and without a go-around, usually land with 45 seconds of starting the landing set up.

I'll pipe in as well, reinforcing what then others said. I use RT 6250's. My timer is set at 3:40 and I usually always have a little less than 30% remaining when I check the packs afterwards, enough to do a full go-around if I don't like the way my first attempt goes. I've used this setting for a long time and it works well for me, like XViper I fly with mixed throttle settings. You can get 4 minutes from these batteries without a problem but I like having a safety margin and I don't want to abuse those great batteries!

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks themudduck

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hugh ................. checking in .......................

Flew mine this morning and it was the first day that I flew both flights without any damage to the nose gear. I don't usually grease the landings on this plane twice in the same day. Usually one flight ends in a bouncer. Today was exceptional.

Here's my battery situation:
2 x 5000mah, 6s, Gens Ace, 45C
Timer set for 4 min. Batteries at landing ............. 3.78v/cell (about 25%), batteries are "warmish" with mixed throttle ................... lots of rolls and a couple of loops, with at least one full blast, low fly by and one slow/low full flap fly by.

Thanks xviper seems you get about as much time with the 5000's as others get with the 6000's. Probably the lighter weight allows a slightly lower throttle setting with similar performance. I found that with the SU-30. Get about 3:30 with HRB 6000's. Tried the Hobbystar 8000 and only got about 3:50 with the same reserve left (25%). I definitely noticed with that extra weight it needed a significant increase in throttle to haul it's fat but around, and then there was dismal vertical performance. On the other hand, my F-16 with the 12 blade 1835Kv inrunner flew almost identical with either the HRB 6000 or the Hobbystar 8000, but ended up giving more than an extra full minute coming in with 25%. Either that fan is more efficient (and provides more than enough power) or the air frame can take the extra weight without losing any performance. Clearly the SU-30 is at the edge of it's available power with the stock EDF's.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Had to cancel the maiden of the A-10 Arctic Thunder, had the truck loaded early this morning with it and 3 friends, but found I had a dead battery. Then by the time I got a new one in, the rains came, guess it will have to wait to next week.

[Splat]

My weekend flights are cancelled due to smoke...literally can't see the sun right now. We worst air quality in the world right now. Parks are closed, can't go outside. Yay 2020!