This is really cool!

[lrogers]

I have discovered another use for one of our shop staples; good old yellow carpenters glue. That's right, carpenters glue!

Did you know that when a fine tip glue syringe (got a bag of them at Wood Craft for $7) is filled with yellow glue and is then quickly "dabbed" along a guide line, you end up with a row of VERY scale looking rivet heads? Yes, it's true!!!! I did my first row of practice rivets tonight on a piece of paper. I did about 200 in a little under 5 minutes and that included filling the syringe.

This is a technique I have to learn for my scale r/c Sea King helicopter project. Good thing this is a fairly fast process since I'll be putting on about 4,000 of the things!

The next step is to try this out on the stock canopy off of my Vigor. Hopefully, by the time I get the rivets installed on it, I will have a good handle on "riveting-with-a-glue-syringe."

[crokett]

Larry,

Reading your posts on this reminds me of the time I built a kite from a kit. It was a 3-masted clipper ship approx 5' long and 4' tall. Balsa wood and paper. After much time spent building I flew it for all of about 5 minutes before I brought it in. I was terrified it would crash.

I am sure you have several hours in already and you haven't actually built anything yet. But if I were building your kit I don't think I'd ever fly it. Your posts still make for interesting reading though - keep em coming.

[lrogers]

Last year, when I opened the box on my H-500D fuselage (this came pre-painted and was beautiful) the first thing my wife said was, "are you really going to fly that"? "What if you crash it"? I told her that yes, I was going to fly and if it crashed, I'd cry and either rebuild it or build another one! If you're going to play with r/c helicopters, or planes, you have to go into it knowing that sooner or later, a crash will happen.

I have seen kites like you described any they are something. The clipper ship always reminded me of a ghost ship. How long did it take for you to build it?

[crokett]

I think the kit might have been called the Ghost Ship. This kit took about 25hrs IIIRC. I made a few mods - switched the cardboard gussets out for all balsawood and doubled up on the existing balsa gussets. There were other kits in the series. I built a couple of them. The other notable one was the Wright Flyer. I never got it to fly very well. It did occur to me while I was building it that the Wright Brothers flew a much larger version that was a lot of the same construction - wood and cloth.

Found a link to the full line. Prices have gone up since I had mine.
http://www.dumasestore.com/catalog/i...hp?cPath=50_64

[lrogers]

Those are really some cool kites! Over the years, Dumas has taken a lot of my money in exchange for their boat kits.

[Sam Conder]

This post is useless without pictures. Post a pic boy, so the world can see!

[lrogers]

Sorry Sam, I didn't think a row of simulated rivets on a piece of paper was worth a picture. I PROMISE, when I put them on my "practice canopy" (this weekend I hope) I'll get a picture up.

They really are cool looking!