I am waiting for plans to arrive from England and a couple of short kits from Kitcutters so I had a bit of spare time and decided to recover and re-egineer a Jack Stafford Chipmunk I built in 2019. I was never happy with the covering and made quite a mess of the hinging. I wanted to rebuild it so the hinges would be hidden so I cut out the old wood on the wing and stabilizers and replaced it with wood that I could channel out. I sunk the hinges deep into the flying surfaces and now the hinges are pretty well hidden. The old covering was solartex that I had around and it did not stick well to the wood structure so I removed it, used a woodpecker tool to make thousands of little holes and recovered it with Ultracote. I have to do something with the cowl and I want some type of striping down the fuse and something I have yet to come up with for the tail. Although before it looked like a bit of a dog's breakfast, it will look better this time. I have wheel pants for it. The plane flew really well the few times that I did fly it, so I just need to pick up about a 46 or so for it, do some detailing on the canopy and finish the trim and it will be ready for the coming flying season, where, hopefully, we will all have the vaccine and can return to some sort of normal again.
I spent time today doing some trim work on the Chipmunk. I have wheel pants for it and I have to do something with the cowl. Need to do some work on the canopy, figure out how to add structure to the plastic to emulate the metal that surrounds the canopy itself. But the airframe itself is now finished and recovered and I just need to install the motor which is on the way. I am really looking forward to flying this guy, as it flew very well in it's old life, and hopefully will be even better when refinished.
Ok, finished with just a few touches. Canopy frame and rails, and of course motor which is on order. Then, ready for spring
Love this colour scheme!!