ZNLine Factory Enigma Build by Mark Novack

Well, it sure is nice to have something new to put out here. Today we took a trip to Brussels to assist our painter Ardaser (pronounced Ardash) who we overwhelmed by giving him four fuselages on top of four he already had, plus a bay of cars to fix and paint. So, I took along the good old Nikon Coolpix 5700 and snapped a few photos of the painting operation. I can't really present all the details like building, however, there really are not so many details. This involves elbow grease and patience, and LOTS of both of those. So, here is the short version of how to get that oooohhhhh...ahhhhh finish. It starts with sandpaper, lots of sandpaper. Knock off the shine on that gelcoat. Here is JP getting a workout.

Grits. Not the kind you eat. Start with 220 for the seam and the shine. Then 320. Then filler (light weight easy sanding body putty) on any imperfections. Pick away any places where the gelcoat made a little bubble on the Kevlar and fill them too. When the filler is dry, 150, 220, 320, 400.

One thing is missing from the list, and that would be a very talented painter. Here Ardaser tend to the masking getting ready to spray the second color. I do not know how long he needed to mask the airplane, but there is no overspray going to the inside of the airplane. No taped pin striping here. Even the thinnest of lines are painted.

OK, one for the camera. Ardaser is flying in the National class F3A (intermediate) when he is not painting.

Color number two has been sprayed. He will spray the red again later when he gets to the tail. He lays out his masking in a logical order so that he needs only to remove areas and cover painted portions for much of the job, although some details will need complete remasking. Let's see, he has sprayed the white, blue, and red. Then there will be yellow and silver, and a little bit more red, and then the fade effect on the canopy, and then a really neat ZNLine logo pattern on the nose that will fade too (a plotted mask of 2" ZNLine logos is made, I'll shoot some details later of this). And after it is all sanded to a super smooth 2000 grit, the graphics will be layed out and then the clear coat will go on. And that, in a giant nutshell, is the paint job. A fuse takes just four or five weeks, and the hours are very, very long. Soon, the first Enigma will be finished, ready for installation, so we will be back for that.

He sprays a white base. Some people use the gelcoat for the base, but for the few grams it will add, the base of white paint makes the airplane soooo much more beautiful, as the white is perfectly even everywhere. The white is spayed and sanded, then everything else is sprayed onto that, sanded, and clear coated.

OK, we are getting ready to stuff JPs Enigma. In fact, the hinges have all been glued and the wing has been garnished with servos, horns, rods, and is all ready set-up with the radio. Here is a short pictorial of the almost finished Enigma. Minor changes to the paint scheme can be seen. Here is a top shot of wing and stabs.

Close up on the wing. The graphics really liven things up. Anymore, airplanes look a little naked to me without some nice graphics. A special thanks to Dave and Rich at Performance Specialties for supplying their graphics. It is a beautiful graphic. I wore the YS Polo shirt for my competition yesterday and everyone wanted one.

There is no need to cover the middle of the wing here. A little deceiving, this is a very clean look when done this way.

The table saw method really gave nice results on chopping of the aileron. The gap is perfect and the same on both wings with minimal work. The covering lines up nicely.

OK, I do not foresee any problems in top/bottom orientation with this scheme. No confusion with any type of sky.

The horn is the ZN horn sitting in the nice routed area. The rod is MK along with the B.B. connectors, and the servo is Futabas 9550. The 9550 is a very nice low profile, metal geared servo. VERY FAST.

I really like the servo boxes. Yves doesa wonderful job of folding the covering into the box...evenly all around. Super clean.

Ardasher, your work is incredible. This guy is good. Really, really good.

This logo is not vinyl. This is a paint mask. A couple of hours to remove the lettering from the plotted vinyl mask, an hour or so to place it accurately on the fuselage...a couple of minutes to spray the fade. It provides a very nice detail effect.

The effect continues behind the canopy.

The rudder is not glassed and painted. The rudder is Oracovered. The paint is very well matched. No easy task for the pearl colors.

This looks so nice in natural lighting. Hmmm, I wonder to whom this airplane belongs.....

The servo tray is cut and almost ready to install. The weight of the tray with the plywood servo tray inserts installed is 24 grams.

Here is the layout. Futaba 9350 servos and a Tetra 580cc tank to feed the DZ. Notice the elevator servo, the one closest to the tank, is elevated 3mm. We will connect it to the MK elevator driver with a set of Central Hobbies CF rods, titanium rod ends, and MK B.B. connectors. JP will add a pull cable for up elevator for his own peace of mind in case of rod failure. Our other airplanes using this system have flown combined several thousand flights without a single failure or the CH/MK system (JP weld for adhesive). OK, there remains a few hours worth or outfitting to be done, and then this Enigma will make it's first flight.

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