Building & Fiberglassing Techniques

Volume 1

Following upon his best selling videotape "Secrets of Weathering", Dave Platt turns the camera on the mysteries of building a Nationals level Radio Control Scale model.

In this new series, we again visit Dave in his own workshop and witness an original model take shape....from design all the way through to finish painting.

Volume 1 shows the fuselage and tail group construction: along the way we see plenty of demo's and shortcuts.  With an appealing conversational and anecdotal style, Dave shares over 50 years of model building experience with us... he's been there, done that!

Anyone aspiring to become a Scale expert will find a study of this series an essential learning process, with the added plus of saving time and money ... Enjoy!

'Techniques' with great tips in the following order.

  • The 'bent centerline' fuselage

  • Why stab & elevator are built first

  • Sheet balsa joining to make 'level'

  • Glass building board advantages

  • Constructing an elliptical and symmetrical stabilizer

  • Why laminated leading-edges?

  • Making a brazed elevator horn

  • Fabricating scale hinges

  • Sheet balsa hardness & weights

  • Setting up a fuselage centerline with positioning of formers

  • A one piece fuselage jig

  • The engine mounting plate

  • Erection of the main fuselage crutch with formers

  • Installing servo pushrods

  • Pushrods connections to tail wheel and elevator

  • Why you should cut your own planking strips

  • How to strip-plank the fuselage

  • Fitting the last planking strips, easily

  • Sanding the strip-planked fuselage, properly

  • Installing the engine & fuel tank

Copyright © 2001 Dave Platt Models
1306 Havre N.W., Palm Bay, Florida
(321) 724 - 2144
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