First views of the fuse!

Alright, here is the fuse and cowling. It's not perfect. It's not a one sheet job with no seams like Lucien Miller might be able to do...but I'm happy with it being my first ever covering job.

P:S: I did not need to use the Serger at all on the Daddy-O.

The Wing is Covered!

So after waiting a week for another roll of covering, I was able to finish the top of the wing last night and add the accents and pin striping this morning. I'm really happy on how it turned out. I'm happy to have learned that automotive pin striping shrinks very easily to smooth out bubbles in curves.

My first step was to cover the bottom of the wing. I first covered the rear 3/4 with the antique white with the edge covering the spar. I then covered the front 1/4 with the blue and had the 1/4 or so overlap over the spar. I then cut out the accents in Aerotrim sheets and stuck them on. Finally, I added the black pin striping.

Painting

A quick pick of the first coat of paint on the cowl and wheel pants.

The Cockpit is now done!! I printed off some instruments from here and cut/pasted them in the panel. I'm really starting to get the hang of this covering!

The funny thing that you'll only notice if you look up close is that the black in my cockpit is gold sparkle black. I hand brushed it on...and it was the only black I happened to have at the time on hand! It came out pretty well I think.

I have some more pictures to come today. I painted the wheel pants and cowling last night with color matched paint from Home Depot. $1!!!

Horizontal Stab and Elevator

They are covered and ready for hinges and horns.

I covered with AeroFILM Antique White and used the AeroTRIM Lux Blue for the designs. After that I used some normal black pin striping from AutoZone to make it pop a bit.

I'm really happy how things are coming along with the Daddy-O. The wing is almost done. All I need to do it sand/form the leading edge and go over all of the important joints and bonds with some thin CA.

However, the most exciting part is that I've built and covered the ailerons! I'm pretty good at getting wrinkles out of covering with a heat gun...but I've never actually covered anything. I'm using the AeroFilm (or Solarfilm) from Stevens Aero Model. I just needed to set my iron at around 210 degrees and it tacked just fine. I'm sure I could be a little neater with the seams...but the heat gun shrinks everything very nicely. I was fully intending to just practice a fe
w times with the ailerons, but I was pleasantly surprised when the very first one was a keeper! (and the 2nd one was just a hair nicer! I tend to do decent on a first attempt...and then bomb the 2nd)

More to come!

The fuselage is done! I started the wing last night. It's odd to not want to stop working on it even when it's past my bedtime!

I have a deadline on the wing...my cleaning lady is going to be surprised (and probably disappointed) that our bedroom is covered in a fine layer of sawdust!