Devin W.C. Ryan

Building 4 Star 60 Day 13: Right Wing & Tank Floor

Today was another great building session.  I am really enjoying building my plane with Peter.  It’s quite different from anything else I’ve really done as rarely am I building things with my hands, unless you count my fingers typing away on a keyboard! Lol.

Started working on the right wing panel, which basically means going through a similar process to how we built the left wing panel.  Started by pinning down the main and rear spar along with the balsa trailing edge.  In this case though we couldn’t use the one provided as it didn’t have a straight edge, discovered when pinning into place, so to feel more comfortable we used a piece from Peters supply.

We did do some things differently this time around by gluing the spar webs and ribs (except for the W1’s) to the main and rear spar assemblies as well as the trailing edge in one go after doing a trial fit.  Then we glued the balsa leading edge to the leading edge of the wing ribs.  A slot for the triangle side to fit into is precut.

Right wing panel (ribs, main & rear spar webs)
Right wing panel (ribs, main & rear spar webs)

After that we weighted everything down which meant we were finished working on the wing for another day.

Turning our attention back to the fuselage I lightly sanded all the edges of the tank floor where glue will be applied and then did a trial fit.  In order to get the floor to fit properly I sanded the ‘angled corners’ a fair bit.  Once happy with the snug fit I applied glue all around the edges that will make contact with the fuse and then put it into place.  Worth noting is that the instructions mention putting triangle stock along the landing gear plate with the bottom against the former on each side.  Peter felt we didn’t need to do this since we beefed up the landing gear plate in the first place and thus the fuselage will also sit higher.  Peter mentioned we don’t want to over support is as then the landing gear won’t shear off properly (potentially destroy the fuselage) in a rough landing.

Tank floor glued in place
Tank floor glued in place

Some things worth mentioning I discovered today from the last building session is that we couldn’t get the dihedral brace to fit properly so we sanded it a fair bit causing a looser than desired fit.  Peter had a eureka moment and as it turns out I over clamped the one spot causing the spar to break down into the rib of W-1 not allowing the brace to slide in properly.  Peter kindly shimmied the main spar up into place where it should have been and built a brand new dihedral brace since the one provided was now over sanded.

Peter and I are pleased with our building progress so far.   Afterwords today we talked more about other things I need to think about.  One is I need to purchase my engine, which will be a Saito 100.  The other was talk of colors.  I need to look into ideas and then I might sketch myself up what I’m thinking.  Currently my thoughts are:

  • White for the fuselage
  • Florescent orange for the rudder and top of the fin
  • Some kind of color to wrap along the top of the fuselage before and after where the wing is
  • Not sure on the actual wings themselves
    • Yellow for the wing bottom
    • White with orange tips on top
    • Black (green?) invasion stripes on the bottom

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