Badland Part 103 Pilots and Builders Forum

Cold front due this afternoon. Spent several hours finishing up the Oratex (all but the wings) so that I could get a look at what the finished body/empenage color scheme would look like. I'm basically pleased.

Oratex technique ... I use the small hobby (veneer) iron for attaching the edges of the fabric to the basic structure. It has a small footprint and a spade-like pointed tip for getting into tight corners and around the tubing (heat setting ~270 F). I do the basic heat shrinking with the Sentinel heat gun (heat setting ~340 F). Today I used the Toko iron (with the larger flat surface wrapped in silicon paper) to shrink tight all of my structures (heat setting ~135 C).

TEMU microphone stands delayed in shipment (probably weather) so no progress on the wing covering stands until sometime after the 18th. Should be somewhat warmer then too.

Man, that looks fantastic. The color combination really works well. Is the photo a good representation of the shade of blue? I had thought their blue might be darker...isn't it called "Corsair Blue"?

It's a pretty good representation of the SKY BLUE. Corsair Blue is considerably darker. I chose the colors to go with the white frame and Louisiana Tech colors. I'm a grad and was an Industrial Engineering Faculty member for a few years after Hurricane Katrina.

Oh, I didn't realize that they offered two shades of blue. I think when I purchased Corsair was the only option for the Oratex 600. That makes sense. I was going to say I love that shade of blue. I would have considered it as a second choice after the Cub Yellow. Looks great!

That with an off-white with some scalloped edges would be great for a vintage look...

I saw an example of the Corsair blue. It's lighter than a Navy blue, but not by much. I think the Corsair ultralight uses it. A bright white with it would certainly pop nicely. That dark of a blue with red may be too much, so Kurt's selection to me is right on the money. Though, the Corsair blue with the red and some white would make for a nice patriotic covering.

Oratex color matching thoughts ...

PAINT:

The Oratex matching paints cannot be easily shipped due to federal hazardous materials regulations. Cost prohibitive.

I could only get fairly close to the Fokker Red via PPG color matching enamels (cowl) and could only buy in one gallon quantities.

I got another fairly close match on the Sky Blue at Lowes. I paid just $5 for one of their small test samples (flaperon tips). The color was somewhat darker than the Oratex so I kept adding teaspoons of gloss white (from another project) until I came even closer.

VINYL:

I have some experience with vinyl wrapping and there are a number if brands available with many color options. Luckily we have one of the largest distributors of vinyl materials near me in Grapevine, TX (Fellers). I drove over (30 miles) and spent some time with a helpful employee looking for matches for my Oratex.

No decent matches from 3M, Avery, or Scotch. Though I did take a square yard of 3M Gloss White that I've used to trim the cockpit tubing.

Arctic blast due here today. We're hoping that the wonderful independent TX Power Grid has improved over last winter's performance that had me without power for 2 sub-zero days.

I'm not expecting to get much done before late next week.

Lost a week of build time due to the cold (2 nights of 9 degree TX cold). Instead we now have the winter WET move in. I finally got out to the shop this morning to find some minor flooding under the monster hangar door. My make-shift weather-stripping was overpowered and I have about a half-inch of water covering about a third of the shop floor. I need to get on with the weatherstripping replacement project and have the excavator re-work the grading on the door apron.

My propane heaters are able to get the 47 degree temps in the shop up to a workable level so I was able to make some progress on the wing stands. I'll get some pictures when I manage to drain the swamp.

Careful that shop heater doesn't over-tighten the Oratex on your tailfeathers! LOL

That's an empty tank.

I did find some slack in the fuselage cover this morning after the week of cold. I used the Toko iron on it and it's nice and taunt now.

I had to do the same for my fuselage. The cold was a good way to determine what still needed more heat!

Oops, maybe a little too tight?