Army Trainer 1952

[steve]

I recently refinished my Super Cub to look like some Army Trainers that were used around 1952. I used the method of sealing with Ploycril, spackle coats, primer and lots of sanding in between.

Looks okay but I think I added some weight. Had to add 2 ounces to the nose and I'm still not at the right CG; provided the CG is 1.75 inches back from the leading edge.

[flyer88]

Very nice !!! Thats lots of work

[badlands]

Love it!

[sb352]

Nice looking cub

[admiralev]

looks real top-notch. you're a man in need of some larger wheels...

admiral

[steve]

Thank you for the feedback. The refinishing was a lot of work and I'm not sure I would do it again. This is the process that I followed:

1. I pulled out the anti crash sensors and filled their holes, as well as other holes and dings in the foam with spackle.

2. Sealed the surface with a coat of Polycril and block sanded that out.

3. Then I took some spackle, mixed it in a cup with a little water forming a paintable paste. This was painted over the whole surface of the wing and fuselage. Then everything was block sanded out.

4. Then I used Duplicolor auto primer and went through several cycles of painting and always block sanding.

5. Once I'd had enough of that, I sprayed it with Testors Yellow in the can. 2 cans covered the whole thing easily and is the perfect color.

6. The markings are printed on label paper from the computer and the numbers are vinyl stick ons.

In the end, it looks very nice and if you look closely at the pictures, you can see that there is a little foam texture here and there. The reason I said I probably wouldn't do the process again is that the plane now has a hard paint finish on it. Much like an egg shell. The foam underneath is still flexible. So any impact, no matter how small will crack the surface of the paint and is impossible to repair. So I guess I better not crash! ;D

If I do it again, I'll probably just fill the worst holes with spackle and pain the foam. After all, the fun with these planes is that they are inexpensive and you can knock them around quite a bit as you learn to fly. There just might be some crash pictures in my future.

[cokebuck]

Beaut paint job! Don't ever fly it. Unless you land perfectly everytime, that beautiful paint job will get scuffed, dinged & scratched. Geez look how smooth of a finish that is, seen with the sun reflection!

[Dale F.]

Beautiful work!! Your plane looks GREAT!!

[skivit48]

Wow what a great job you did on that. Looks like the real thing.

[rcb1rd]

Steve,
Great job! You should display this one and build one from spare parts (use your electronics). The flyer may never have the hard work and love of this one but it'll look great in the air.

The scale of the Airplane star decal looks dead on what is it's length?

john

[rjmara]

Excellent job on the paint,after putting all that effort into it,I'd have to see it in the air at least once!

[charliebrown]

Nice job!

[thabreit]

Nice job looks great, only problem now i bet ur scared to get her airborn

[N4768Z]

Great job! The attention to detail paid off. That's a great looking cub!

[barnburner13]

In case you haven't heard it enough, that is one good looking plane, I am trying to to do a "Rosie the Rocketeer" grasshopper right now