Member's Projects
Waco SRE
Hi All!
In the last year or so I've discovered micro R/C and have had great success. I recently fell in love with the little Waco SRE model that was published in the February issue of Micro Flight magazine. Dave Robelen did a real nice job with this thing and being a confirmed "Wacophile", I had to give it a try. Long story short, it came out very well and flies just SUPER! Basically the airplane is stock from the plans but I felt the need to detail it as much as possible. The final flying weight is 31 grams, using an RFFS100 reciever, DWE actuators, an internally mounted Cloud 9 micro on/off switch and a single 170maH LiPo cell. The antenna is an internally mounted Azarr M-72 Lite unit. The motor is a KP00, with a homebuilt 6:1 Didel gearbox. The prop is a highly modified GWS 5 x 4.7 plastic unit, whittled down to reduce area and look more like a Hamilton Standard.
This little Waco has now been flown on several occasions in a fully enclosed basketball court and this has proven to be way more space than it needs. It ROG's perfectly straight and, throttled back, flies at a very respectable scale-like speed. So far I've been able to do touch and go's, stall turns and loops. It's great fun to fly and very satisfying to watch on those close in low level passes. I would highly recommend this design to anyone who's looking for a nice flying scale ship for micro R/C.
The logo on the fin is the WACO factory winged logo that we reproduced in decal form, as are the NC numbers. To make these decals, we scanned the required art into our computer and printed it out on our inkjet printer, using the Micro Mark decal paper. This system works well, provided you first exercise some care in pre-coating the finished decals with some sort of setting solution. Micro Mark suggests a product like clear Krylon but we found a better solution and used a product called Stencil Magic Top Coat Satin Spray - this stuff is terrific! You can find it in most Wal-Mart stores in their "Stencil" department. Trust me, when you find it, buy at least two cans.
My Waco was built from contest wood (5#-6# stock). If I had not painted and finished it as I did, I already know that the finished, ready to fly weight would have been 28.6 grams. Therefore, by adding the various details and giving the model a reasonable finish, my weight gain was about 2.4 grams. To me, this was a reasonable trade-off for a nice looking model.
For almost all of my personal indoor R/C models, l use what I believe is a tried and true method of finish:
  1. Pre-sand the wood to be used with #400 paper
  2. Proceed building all separate componets but do not assemble them yet.
  3. Carefully re-sand each component to achieve a "ready to finish" feel
  4. Apply 2 light coats of Stencil Magic Satin Spray, sanding lightly with #400 between coats. Use high pressure air to remove all dust from finished parts.
  5. I use craft paints for all my small models. I thin these paints 1:1 with fresh water. I use a small Badger airbrush to apply one light coat of thinned paint to each part and allow them to dry - about 15 minutes or so.
  6. Lightly sand each part with #400 paper and remove any dust with high pressure air.
  7. Shoot a second coat of color, just a little heavier to achieve the desired color coverage/depth.
  8. In the case of the Waco, I then shot all parts with a thinned (1:1) coat of gloss clear craft paint. This makes the color really "pop".
  9. Again, in the case of the Waco, I then taped off the yellow trim pattern. After
    this, I shot the tape/surface area with a light coat of Satin Magic clear - this seals the tape joint, eliminating "bleed".
  10. I shot the yellow trim next, using 1 light coat, allowing it to dry, followed by a 2nd coat to achieve coverage/color. The trim tape is then removed.
  11. Finally, the completed model is given a single light coat of thinned gloss clear to unify the depth and color.

Done with common sense and a little care, this is an exceptionally light finish that really holds up in use. Sorry for the length of this, but you did ask.

Scott Christensen
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