Cadet Aeronautics B-29--Possible Rebuild

[Joe]

Hi, All,

Recently I found this old Cadet Aeronautics B-29 model in the type of disreputable condition to which I have become accustomed;  I made the tentative id with the excellent help of Steve Remington, both through his website and his personal opinion.  It is 1/96 scale and made of balsa wood.  I am pondering restoring it, but I have not tried my hand at restoring a balsa model and I think it will be a challenge since it would all to easy to remove too much wood.

My first thought was to start by priming it and work on the primed model.  By doing that, I could immediately see if I were going too deep.  That said, any advise and counsel from this august group would be more than appreciated.

Regards,

Joe 

[lastvautour]

I would defenitaly recommend sanding blocks/sticks and high grade sand paper at least 220 or higher. As to priming, if doing so, do it with two or even three different colours so you are not attacking the model surface at all. Good luck, I have problems working with balsa also.

Lou

[Joe]

Thanks, Lou,

This is such a pretty model that I truly want to restore it.  But the softness of the balsa scares me.  The propellers are also balsa and I think I will use either plexiglass circles or a much harder wood.  The same is true of the landing gear. 

This project will take a lot of pre-thought and will likely sit in my home-office for quite a while whilst I scope out a strategy for its restoration.  The original builder did not use any sanding sealer;  thus, the grain is a major league issue.  I may have to invent my own sanding sealer.

Thanks, again, for the advice.

Joe

[cliff strachan]

Hi Joe.
I think you could just sand it down. I restored/rebuilt an old Mariner that I built when I was a kid. After sanding and vertually recarving the whole thing I sealed it with the old standard mix of clear dope and talcom powder. It came out pretty good. especially consideing the shape it was in. But, before painting test to make sure the paint you're  planning on using is compatable with dope.
Cliff.

[R.F.Bennett]

I agree with Cliff a gentle sanding and a re-paint. If you try to take it apart you'll probably break it up. Do a test paint spot under a tail feather first. If the spinners will come off I would make new propellers and possibly reinforce the landing gear using stronger materials and make a stand with some weight to it, so it won't get knocked around.
Good luck, It's amazing it's survived this long.

[Joe]

Gents,

Good suggestions all!  I am going to let it sit in my home-office for a while and try some experiments. 

In line with Ray's notion,  I am certainly going to replace the props, spinners, and landing gear and use a more substantial wood. 

The grain is so evident and distracting that I feel the model will need lots of filler.  One possibility is to start with a soft filler, gently urge it into the grain, and carefully sand with 400 grit paper. I am very uneasy about removing too much paint.  As I wrote earlier, this is such a nice model that I am eager to restore and preserve it.

I like the idea of making a stand for it:  I just need to ponder a location where it will be both safe and viewable. 

Thanks, again, for your interest and help.

Joe

[Ken Pugh]

Sanding sealer seals the wood to allow sanding.  Though it can fill some grain, it is not specifically designed to fill grain.  Since this model is built and painted, a good primer may do the trick.  Dupli-Color makes a product called filler primer.  I found out about it from the RC scale guys.  They use it to build up and simulate panel lines.  It goes on pretty thick.  You can spray on a few light coats to get started and then spray on a thick coat.  This stuff just keeps on building up.  It will definitely fill grain and engraved lines if you let it.  Spray a coat, sand very lightly, then spray more.  Just sand over what you got enough to smooth it out some then start building up with this stuff.  It is meant to fill sanding/grinding marks in car bodies.  If something is resisting getting filled by the primer, just spot fill that area, sand, then prime some more.

I found it at Advanced Auto and Napa.  Here's their website.

http://duplicolor.com/products/primer.html

Prop blades can be reinforced.  One way is to just saturate them with super glue, the thin stuff.  It can get into the wood and make it hard.  This can then be sanded.  They can also be covered by tissue, silkspan, or even 0.75oz fiberglass cloth.  By the way, covering with tissue or silkspan is the old school way to hide wood grain by the control line stunt guys.  They are famous for beautiful finishes without plastic film.  On my Sopwith Pup, I covered it with silkspan and set the tissue with Minwax Sanding Sealer (a good product, by the way).  The sealer has a slightly elastic feel to it and the fabric is very strong.  It gives without tearing.  The silkspan over the solid wood wing eliminated all grain.

If you try the fiberglass cloth in the future, don't use epoxy or polyester resin, use Minwax Polycrylic.  It is water-based, dries thin so it needs a lot of coats, and is very light weight.  RC scale guys again, they swear by it.

The Dupli-Color Filler Primer will definitely fill the wood grain.  Coat, sand, repeat.  You'll get there much quicker than with a regular primer.

Ken Pugh

[Joe]

Ken,

Thanks for the excellent suggestions.  I have ordered some Duplicolor Filler Primer and will test it on some balsa.  In regard to the prop blades, they are very, very fragile and, to boot, the pins that were used to mount them are rusted.  I think they will need a complete dismantling and that might be their demise.  I am inclined to just repo them with bass or clear white pine;  that might be less work in the long run.

Thanks, again, for the note.

Joe