Freewing 80mm A-10 Modifications

[RCjetdude]

Thanks Alpha. I am hoping others will be adding mods of their own to this thread very soon as well and look forward to learning from them as a result.

I noticed an issue with the nose gear after doing some taxi tests today. It is possible for the scissor links on the back of the strut to hyper-extend and lock up.



I loosened the set screw just above the tire and found that the strut was not bottomed out all the way. I bottomed it out and tightened the set screw and it can no longer hyper-extend now. It is worth checking when everyone starts getting theirs.

[RCjetdude]

Thanks for sharing this detail work with us. It should help a lot of us put out some great looking Hogs!
Jim.

I agree and am looking forward to seeing what people create. There are so many different ways to modify this plane.

[RCAV8R]

Thanks Alpha! That is a work of art! Rob

[RCAV8R]

Hey Guys...for those that airbrush...I have never had great success using acrylics as opposed to enamel (and I want to use acrylic for the A-10). 1) How do you thin your paint? Do you use water, a soap solution, or commercial thinners? 2) I have not had as much success with the consistency as with enamel...do you go thinner and use more air pressure, or visa versa? Can you give me your thoughts on thickness and air pressure??? In the past I couldn't get the even coat without "glopiness"! 3) What size nozzle were you using Alpha? I'm guessing medium? Thanks, Rob

[F106DeltaDart]

Hey Guys...for those that airbrush...I have never had great success using acrylics as opposed to enamel (and I want to use acrylic for the A-10). 1) How do you thin your paint? Do you use water, a soap solution, or commercial thinners? 2) I have not had as much success with the consistency as with enamel...do you go thinner and use more air pressure, or visa versa? Can you give me your thoughts on thickness and air pressure??? In the past I couldn't get the even coat without "glopiness"! 3) What size nozzle were you using Alpha? I'm guessing medium? Thanks, Rob

For me, I use the model master acylics straight out of the can with no problems. The Tamiya paints do tend to require thickening to aviod exactly what you described. Tamiya sells small containers of acrylics thinner, which is what I have used, but I'm sure there is a better solution. I have thinned Behr paint from Home Depot with denatured alcohol though, might work fine on normal acrylics as well..

[RCjetdude]

For what I did with the exterior latex paint I used Createx reducer to thin it 1 part reducer to three parts paint and an airbrush with a 0.3 mm tip which worked well. My compressor does not have an air tank so my pressure varied some but was not a big deal for what I was doing. I don't have vast airbrushing experience but at that ratio my paint was thin enough that it took three coats to cover well. I did not experience any "glopiness" and did not strain the paint.

[Jpahemi1]

I've used model masters enamel for a long time and it works great. Recently I used a bunch of Tamiya paint on an RC tank I was building and found that if you add Tamiya thinner in a fresh bottle just up to the neck of the bottle it airbrush's great at 18 psi and a medium needle.

I'm not sure what I'll use on my A10 when gets here. Hope I have to decide soon. Like this Friday maybe. Probably wishful thinking. Waiting for this plane seems to be harder than others. I think it's the Squawk and all the great discussions and ideas.

John

[Twowingtj]

Thanks for taking the time to share your techniques Alpha and others. Some great tips. This is going to be a great platform for a decent level of detail.

[RCAV8R]

I've used model masters enamel for a long time and it works great. Recently I used a bunch of Tamiya paint on an RC tank I was building and found that if you add Tamiya thinner in a fresh bottle just up to the neck of the bottle it airbrush's great at 18 psi and a medium needle.

I'm not sure what I'll use on my A10 when gets here. Hope I have to decide soon. Like this Friday maybe. Probably wishful thinking. Waiting for this plane seems to be harder than others. I think it's the Squawk and all the great discussions and ideas.

John

I like enamel too, and I think it is the best for plastic models, but given the A-10 will have a base coat of acrylic, and it is a foamie, I'm reluctant to put enamel on top. Rob

[Alpha]

I've airbrushed Testor Model Master Enamel and Tamiya Acrylics directly onto Freewing, Dynam, and FMS models' factory paint without any issues. No primer, no woes. Testors seem to stick better is some cases. If you have those Testor Model Master Enamels, don't worry about using them through an airbrush. I thin those ~4:1 with Testor thinner and they shoot great at ~15 psi.

RCAV8R, I thin Tamiya Acrylics with Tamiya thinner, X-20A. The big 250ml bottle is only $5 or $6. In the past, I've thinned Tamiya with different ratios of water, 100% isopropyl, ammonia-free windex, and Future floor polish, with varying degrees of success at varying psi. It saved me $2, but why incur the hassle when I could just use the factory stuff and not have to worry about consistency? Nowadays I shoot a 2:1 ratio at 20psi for coverage and 3:1 ratio at 9-12 psi for detail. Everything is always consistent and I don't worry about clumping or dry time or spatter.

Regarding the medium tip, I use this airbrush, stock. I would say it's a Fine to Medium airbrush. It can draw a line 1mm wide if I needed it do, which is smaller than I'd ever really need for airplane models at this scale.

https://www.amazon.com/Badger-Air-Br...er+patriot+105


I mix and store my Tamiya paint in these soft squeeze bottles. They're the perfect size, and have an eye dropper tip, so I can add paint into the airbrush's paint cup one drop at a time.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Another thing to be mindful of with Tamiya is that their XF line of paints don't always have perfect FS matches. If I'm mixing Tamiyas to create FS, the bottles come in handy since they're large enough to mix 100ml total of product. Light Ghost Gray, for example, is FS36375. The closest Tamiya equivalent is one part XF19 (Sky Gray) and three parts XF2 (White). That totals four parts paint, to which I'll add about two parts thinner (see ratios above).

[slamdance64]

Hi Steve and Alpha,

thanks very much for sharing everything with us. I am a big fan the European colours on the A-10 and would do mine in those colours, but the treeline at our field would be brutal on approach!
Going to have to pick up an airbrush and have a go at it over the winter. For now, I have new graphics from Callie that will keep me happy! I am looking forward to more mods and need to pick up some 3D printing skills soon :-)

Brent

[downwindleg]

Wonderful information all the way around and great job on your plane Steve. I am blown away!! I guess I was behind the door again when this thread started. Hope to hear more details on the operable canopy and measurements on the individual parts of the stowable ladder would be helpful as well. I posted numerous ideas about the operable canopy including drawings and video as well as the decelerons and the stowable ladder and invited input from everyone on the main thread. Also questioned Alpha months ago on the same. Not sure why there needed to be a "separate" thread when we are all working toward the same goal. What am I missing? Doesn't feel very good. Brad ...........P.S. Thankyou crxmanpat for clueing me into this thread.

[OV10]

Wonderful information all the way around and great job on your plane Steve. I am blown away!! I guess I was behind the door again when this thread started. Hope to hear more details on the operable canopy and measurements on the individual parts of the stowable ladder would be helpful as well. I posted numerous ideas about the operable canopy including drawings and video as well as the decelerons and invited input from everyone on the main thread. Also questioned Alpha months ago on the same. Not sure why there needed to be a "separate" thread when we are all working toward the same goal. What am I missing? Doesn't feel very good. Brad ...........P.S. Thankyou crxmanpat for clueing me into this thread.

Brad.......Steve started the thread to showcase HIS mods and then Alpha just the other day suggested that it would be a good place for all the mods collectively which I personally can understand cause the main thread is deep at almost 3300 posts.
How'd you not see this thread :Confused:...does Aros have to change the color of the new post ball icon from yellow to flashing red LOL

[dusmmdb]

Gents

all these freewing wing planes were airbrushpainted using enamels thinned slightly with enamel thinner from model masters.

ive had good luck with this method

[RCjetdude]

Gents

all these freewing wing planes were airbrushpainted using enamels thinned slightly with enamel thinner from model masters.

ive had good luck with this method

Great job on those paint schemes. I think it is pretty much fine to use enamel, or acrylic, or latex house paint. Go with whatever you are comfortable with. Even using a brush to apply the paint would probably work fine. If you want to try airbrushing, mix up some paint with the input you get and practice on something. Play around with the pressure settings if you can and mix ratios until you get good results. Achieving the weathering effects that Alpha has presented is attainable with practice and a little planning in advance. I really appreciate him taking the time to walk us all through what he did so we can learn and improve our skills if desired. I will be getting back to the cockpit/canopy mods here soon.

I just got done going back and adding some 5mm square carbon fiber tubes inside the fuselage to strengthen it. There are chanels already molded into the inner walls of the fuse on each side and I just ran a bead of Foam Tac into the chanels and pressed the rods in place. I am doing this to strengthen the fuse because of the weight I am carrying and based on input from Captin Mike and Pilot Ryan. It might not be a bad idea to go ahead and do it on your own planes as well just in case. It certainly can't hurt and it is super easy to do.

[downwindleg]

Brad.......Steve started the thread to showcase HIS mods and then Alpha just the other day suggested that it would be a good place for all the mods collectively which I personally can understand cause the main thread is deep at almost 3300 posts.
How'd you not see this thread :Confused:...does Aros have to change the color of the new post ball icon from yellow to flashing red LOL

I guess so! I don't even know what your talking about dude. Guess I'm just too old or backward or both.:Loser:Brad..........still don,t understand the separate thread but that's O.K. it was a reach for me to start with as I am not very computer savy.

[RCjetdude]

My radio and electronics installation with the upper battery removed.



I mounted an A3 Super II gyro here because I had it lying around.



Receiver and Scorpion here...



Shockwave2 sound card here. The card is mounted to a couple pieces of 1/8" ply and servo taped to the wall.



This is the switch to turn power on or off to the sound card.

[RCjetdude]

I just got these to make some missile racks for the Mavericks.



"Dadgumit" Alpha....

[Twowingtj]

I just got done going back and adding some 5mm square carbon fiber tubes inside the fuselage to strengthen it. There are chanels already molded into the inner walls of the fuse on each side and I just ran a bead of Foam Tac into the chanels and pressed the rods in place. I am doing this to strengthen the fuse because of the weight I am carrying and based on input from Captin Mike and Pilot Ryan. It might not be a bad idea to go ahead and do it on your own planes as well just in case. It certainly can't hurt and it is super easy to do.

Am quite interested in what the input from Mike and Ryan was. It's one of those "ounce of prevention" things.

[RCjetdude]

Am quite interested in what the input from Mike and Ryan was. It's one of those "ounce of prevention" things.

For me, because my weight is at the upper end they thought it might be just that in case I had a harder than desired landing (who me?). The channels are in there and great for wiring runs but can also be used to help strengthen the fuse if desired. I don't think it is necessary on a stock setup but sometimes people start out stock and then get "mod fever" and it is easier to install them before making any significant mods obviously. Or if someone desires to add bigger heavier batteries that puts their weight up around mine.