Applying Aluminum Part 2: Laying it down 

Well, thank you! You are very kind.

Man that's GREAT to hear! It's exactly why I made the videos.

You are more than welcome.

Hiding the seams will be difficult. Keep in mind that this is metal and in the hot sun it will expand just a little. There is foil tape that you can get in 12" width at about 150 feet long and that should help minimize the seams. As this is normally a technique performed on scale aircraft that will have seams, the seams are done in scale locations. I would suggest doing a test panel where you still overlap by about 2mm and try to burnish the seam down as flat as you can and then see how sanding works out. It may work but doing a test piece would be my recommendation. You can easily use standard foil tape from the hardware store before you fully commit and get a wider roll of foil tape. Best of luck and let me know how it goes!

You should review my post-maiden video on this project where I talk about this very issue... or lack thereof.

Please review part 1. Glassing is essential to the overall outcome of the finish. Because of the grain in balsa combining with how thin the aluminum is, the grain will show through onto the aluminum. Link to the wide aluminum roll is in the description ;) While you can use standard HVAC tape from Lowe's or HD, the wider tape provides more single surface area to do individual panels without making seams where there would otherwise NOT be a panel line on the aircraft.

@@JoshuaOrchard Thanks I will review the part 1 again. How about the signal reliability with using 2.4? Is there any concern from brown outs or anything that might affect signal reliability with the metal covering? Thanks.

@@tisoy909 See the following link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-S7tneIwr0cA.html

I was going to ask this same question. I wonder if sealing the balsa sheeting and then sanding it smooth would work? Like we used to with balsa rite a long time ago. I'm starting to build a Ziroli DC3 and I was thinking about skinning it with aluminum. Glassing this big plane is very time consuming.

There will be some on this project but not a lot. Enough to show what works. If you follow along in my build thread over at FT Forum or RC Groups you will see the latest updates. These videos take up SO MUCH building time to make. forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/winter-build-2018-19-hangar-9-p-47d-razorback.55044/ www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3124769-Winter-Build-2018-19-Hangar-9-P-47D-Razorback

Hey Bob, the aluminum is linked in the video description. you may need to expand the description as you view it as there are several items that I link to there. I hope that helps!

From what I've observed, this is not really any more or less difficult to apply than flite metal. It's essentially the same stuff, although according to the specs given by flite metal and on the Amazon stuff, Flite metal is slightly thicker. Good for stretching over curves but more difficult for tight corners. Everything is a trade off. I've personally never used flite metal so I could not say for sure.

Check out the description above, my friend ;)

@@JoshuaOrchard Thank You Sir!!

You either bend ACROSS the grain, OR the grain follows the bend. You CAN'T do both, as these are CONTRADICTORY statements. LMFAO.

Listen to the 9 minute mark. You might understand the statement above. The grain doesn't follow nose to tail. Let's make this simple for you. Grain line goes up and down, follow. Bend line goes left to right. The metal is bending over in the direction of the grain. I hope this helps.🙂

@@johnch14v64 I understand, in spite of the words you keep using to explain it. Once again, either the grain follows the bend or crosses it, it can't do both. You can't cross a river by following it, you can't follow a river by crossing it, and grain can't cross the bend if it's following it. It's not your fault, English is a difficult language. I think you're doing a good job. Keep it up.

More or less. LOL. I've said it before that this is not for the faint of heart but it's not impossible for the average person to do. Thanks for watching!