Sig Sealane

[piker]

While I was in California, I found a hobby shop that had a very good inventory of kits, some vintage.  I was in heaven.  I ended up buying 6 or 7 kits.

One that I picked up was this Sig Sealane.  I remember this kit coming out about 20 years ago, so it's a fairly modern kit compared to what I usually build.  That means it has lots of laser cut parts and uses a lot (to my dismay) of light ply.

I decided to dive into this build as an easy to build (quick), sport, flying boat.  I'm hoping to do more water flying next summer.

I started the other night and have only put in about three hours so far.  It's coming along quickly and it's nice to be building again.

Robert

[Frank v B]

Piker,

Do any of the remaining 6 kits have my name on them?  
I am curious which other kits you found.

Frank

[piker]

Hey Frank,

Sorry.  I'm hoarding my kits right now.  I have ambitions to enjoy some serious building going forward.  But just in case, I'll leave them to you in my Will   

They had a lot of kits there, but I was looking for models that held nostalgia and traditional building styles for me.  I built the Spirit kit to 90% while I was down there, and as you know, I'm working on the Sealane now. 

I'm excited to get to the Jenny, Rearwin, and Great Lakes.  But they'll have to wait until I get my many repairs and previously started builds done first.  BTW, The Jenny kit didn't come with plans.  I didn't realize that until I had purchased it.  So I googled, and came across a post from 2019 where Martin Irvine, a friend from Kingston, had posted the plans on RC Groups.  I printed them, and they're perfect.

Robert

[piker]

I've been plugging away on the Sealane.  Last night, I spent some time creating wood savings and balsa dust.  The basic fuselage framing and wing build up is complete.  I'm really enjoying the build.  It's fun to frame something up from flat stock, and then sand it into a nice, smooth, shape for flying.

[piker]

I haven't updated this post in a while, so I'll have to go back in time a bit.

These imagaes show the construction of the nacelle for the pylon mounted motor on this flying boat.  I used the basic construction from the plan but added a bit more style to the shape.  It was a bit tricky but turned out O.K. I guess.

These pictures are from the end of December.

[piker]

And just like that, the plane is ready for convering.  In fact, I've already covered the wings.

Here's the problem...  I'm covering from my supply of Monokote, the covering I've used since I started building planes in the late 70's.  I have a "new" roll (not opened) of white, and I had a enough left over pieces of red for this plane.  But the red is going on weird.  It seems dry and is challenging to shrink.  The wing tuned out O.K., but my plan is to do some trim work, with the red, where I have to lay the covering over the white and let it naturally adhere.  That's how we usedto do it.  I'm pretty sure it won't work with this older covering.  And unfortunately, I can't buy any more.

Oh well, we'll see how it turns out.

[Michael]

You are the cleanest and neatest builder I know!

[piker]

Michael, my bench is clean when I cover... better for covering that way.  Plus, I only have that narrow bench so no room for clutter 

Basic covering is all done.  I'm going to get the control surfaces hinged in place before I add any extra covering trim, so I have have a better look at the conplete plane.  I have a bit of a "vision" for the look, but really, I'm making it up as I go along.

This covering job has been a bit of a struggle with lots of frustration.  As I mentioned before, the red, and as it turned out, the black, were difficult to deal with.  The white (which was from an old, but sealed roll of Monokote) went on nicely, but the red and black, which were opened years ago (but kept in a box) were a struggle.

Anyway... Onward!

[msatin]

Looks beautiful Rob

[GuyOReilly]

Nice colours!  This will be quite visible over water, snow or grass!

[octagon]

must be AI. Nobodies bench is THAT tidy.