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