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 J-3 Cub Construction Project Session #61

61 J-3 Cub Wheel and Cylinder Painting

Mike Midkiff recommended that I use flat black Tamiya acrylic paint to paint the wheels and cylinders of the J-3 Cub. So I drove over to the hobby shop in Irving yesterday and picked up a jar of the flat black paint shown below as well as jar of thinner. In addition, I also got a jar of Lemon Yellow, Orange, and White to try and mix to match the color of the yellow tissue that the J-3 Cub is covered with. 
 
The picture below shows the painted wheels engine cylinders on the J-3 Cub.
 
This is a close up of the two painted engine cylinders on the left side of the fuselage, which have not been glued on yet. The exhaust manifolds and simulated sheet metal cylinder covers will be left off until after the J-3 Cub has been test flown and trimmed. That is to say that they will be added later.
 
This is a close up of the top view of all four of the painted engine cylinders. It shows the two cylinders on your right slightly ahead of the two cylinders on the left, emulating the four cylinder opposed Continental 65 engine that powered the J-3 Cub. Granted, the front end of the model is not scale, but I am trying!
 
This is a close up of the painted left main wheel. Notice that the landing gear's wire axle has been cut to the proper length and the wheel retainer installed. A circular cap with a "Cub" decal on it gets glued into the center recessed area of the wheel.
 
There is an old saying that it is sometimes better be lucky than skillful! The balsa laminations that were used to build up the thickness of the main wheel ended up looking for all the world like the tire tread as shown below.
 
This is a close up of the painted tail wheel.
 
My next task for tomorrow will be start with the Lemon Yellow color as a base and add drops of Orange and White color along with some thinner until I get a close match of the color of the yellow tissue that the J-3 Cub is covered with. Once a close match is achieved on sample board, I will paint the nose block..................Tandy

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