Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Completing a Monster Big Stick

One of the most popular flying models in RC airplanes is the "Stick." Some call it the "Ugly Stick," others "Das Stick," and the names go on... "Little Stick," "Big Stick," "Giant Big Stick," and "Monster Stick," to name a few.

The reason for it's popularity is because it is a simple design and it flies well. It can also be scaled up and down without suffering a degradation in how it handles in the air. I have a friend who has purchased 6 and crashed 4 of them. He gives me the wrecked ones and I pay him a modest fee.
I then take them into my shop and make them whole again.

Several months ago I was at a swap meet and on a table was a Giant Big Stick. The guy who built it was there with his wife and it was for sale. He wanted $100 for the airplane and $50 for the motor which was a knock off of a 60 cc DLE. In addition he wanted $10 for the box of paint that included around twenty quart cans of Poly Products. It was perhaps the best deal I ever got at a Swap Meet.

For the life of me I don't know why he let it all go so cheap and in retrospect I should have asked him. The retail price of everything I got was around $1200 and it was masterfully built and covered, except for the spray painting and installment of the electronic and mechanical flight controls.

On line was a video of how to use Poly Products which showed a three step process from start to finish.

My friend Ron told me I needed to practice before I risked ruining the beautiful, nearly completed model and I agreed. So I watched some more on line videos and started practicing with putting on fabric coverings and spraying them with an automotive touch-up gun.

I got the hang of the spraying part and early in the week applied a coat of Poly Spray which is a silvery paint that coats the surface and is designed to eliminate the opacity that often results when a painted fuselage is held up to the light. The final step will be to apply the Poly Tone which is the color scheme of the airplane. That is easy enough because Sticks are generally painted red and white with Maltese cross decals on the wings and fuselage.

The color sprays beautifully and it doesn't take much to cover and leave a nice gloss. Most of the spray paint evaporates making the end result much lighter and better than a rattle can from Walmart.