About 11 months since starting this Barth 1:3 Waco project. It’s been an adventure! I expected to be further along but the winter months slowed me down as it’s too cold to spray dope. I need two more nice days to apply a final coat of Sig Tennessee Red.
This is not a competition-level scale aircraft. More of a stand-off-scale. There are imperfections but most folks won’t notice unless they look real close. Only I know!
The Waco is covered with Sig Koverall which is a non-adhesive, heat-shrinkable fabric. Start by applying Sig Stix-It adhesive to the airframe. The glue is heat activated so apply a couple coats, let it dry, lay the fabric over it and apply the iron. Stix It has a stronger odor than dope. Respiratory gear is required or a lot of brain cells will be killed. You then shrink it with an iron or heat gun to bring it to drum-tight. Then I applied pinking tape from Dynamic Balsa for a scale touch. No, I did not stitch the tape.
First fill the weave of the fabric with clear dope. There is no right or wrong here but more about how much fabric weave (texture) do you want visible in the final finish. I brushed on three thinned coats. Then I primed with two coats of white dope to cover the lithoplate and give everything an even base layer. I found a mixture of 60:40 thinner-to-dope perfect for my sprayer.
Want to shoot dope? Bring $$. $27 for one pint! So one gallon of spray-ready, thinned dope costs about $170. This will be a $500+/- paint job. Ugh! But it is looking purdy.
This photo a close approximation to what my Waco will look like when finished.
After the red dope is complete, the leading edges will be painted (brushed) with black dope. The remaining trim is Callie Graphics. I keep thinking I am close to completion but the to-do list never seems to get smaller. RXs, servos, lights and electronics are in and tested. Gas / smoke tanks and plumbing are yet to be installed. Batteries are waiting on final CoG measurement.
