JARTS HOT

Well while I have building momentum, and with a some slopes trips comming up shortly I continued with the JART over the weekend. I decided to leave the flying field early on sunday as conditions weren't great and I have missed a few rounds in the postals already.

I decided on a nice crimson red for JART no 1 (there will be more) after waxing the fresh moulds and masking off ,I sprayed about 4 coats of red 2k with an airbrush.

The first layer of cloth is a 104 gr which drapes well, you can press it into the mould and smooth it out prior to wetting it out. I have also cut a piece of 163 gr and some carbon before mixing 50gr of resin.

Two carbon tows 12k run the length of the fuselage as well as the leading and trailind edges of the fin, the carbon cloth 96gr is layed in the area were the wing will go through and the tail plane attaches , some small carbon off cuts beef up the pointy nose(I expected the nose to be difficult to wet out without a bubble so I made a cut from the nose down the fuse about 2cm long)this allowed the glass to conform to the shape ,ok. Next I layed up a second layer of 163 gr but this I cut slightly inside the mould and wet out.

After about 3hrs the resin had become semi cured (the so called green stage) and using a new blade the cloth is cut down flush with the mould. At this stage I join the halves a little different to the standard method , I cut strips about 2cm wide and wet them out in the mould , one strip on the bottom egde of mould 1 and the other on the top of mould 2 ( the photo above shows the joining strip on the near side sticks up about 1 cm). This is allowed to go to the green stage at which time I mix up 10gr resin with some flox to a syrup and using a syringe or plastic bag you "ice" a bead along the outer edge of the joining strip. The verticle fin has NO strip so relies only on the bead of goop to bond it. The two halves are accurately bolted together make sure the joining layer has slid into the other half, and leave to cure.
This morning was like a prelude to Christmas , I could not wait to see the results.

The mould was flexed and I could hear the cracking sound as the part released, first half popped off, and all looked good, a little more flexing and out it came.The white flashing is the joining mix that squeezed out and will be trimmed of.

The completed fuselage... perfect I am thrilled, it is a little waxy as I decided for the first one I would rather the part released ok. The paint will now be buffed with P1 polish back to a gleam.

For the record it weighs 185 grams and feels more than rigid enough.

Next we start with tailplane and wings but I am not posting these.I may however cover the canopy mould.

PS I am sure the designer Reed has been keeping an eye on my build as there is some info on JART WORLD .

Mike