Saturday was another great building session. John stopped by for a visit to check out how things were coming along and contrary to the ‘hack’ job he voices I believe he thinks I’m doing a pretty decent job :).
Thanks to Peter for trimming off the excess of the top left covering I didn’t have a chance to finish last time as well as along the leading edge and sealing that down. Both Peter & I learned something new yesterday from John, which is how to cut a pretty straight/clean edge. After covering the top of the left panel, sealed all around the edges and using the blow drier to shrink of the center need to fold some over the leading edge to prevent wind from getting under and peeling it off.
Once adhered the time came for the trim trick demonstrated by John. Depending on where you want the line you allow the side of the blade to rest against the ‘natural’ curve at the desired angle and follow it along the length of the wing while you are making your cut. Ideally you want to do the entire cut from the same position as changing position can alter the cut reducing the visual straightness (for lack of a better word) of the line. This also ensure that it is cut to the same length throughout. Once cut you then use the iron to roll over the top of the leading edge onto what remains after the cut to adhere to to the wing.
The last part was cutting a piece for the center of the wing. Had to mark the wholes for the dowels, which I then cut out, and once fitting the covering over with the dowels through marked the two square wholes where the cables will come out. I then applied the covering to the sheeting on the wing keeping the iron level (sides to the bottom/top) and working from the center out to the left, followed by center out to the right and vise versa. Always want to start in the center so you work any air bubbles, wrinkles or other imperfections out to the edge in hopes they disappear :). Once done I found the two square holes, generally marked via the string previously pulled through the marking wholes. I made sure the covering was adhered firmly around the edge prior to cutting out the covering to expose the holes. We still have the string coming out, don’t want to loose it, as the string will act as our guide when running the wires for the servo in each wing panel.
I did my best to line up the bottom edge of the L panel yellow covering to look similar to the R as well as the center to be lined up with the L & R wing panel.
To wind up the evening you can see I started covering the ailerons, just the tips so far, which will be done fully in green. Before starting that next time I am going to go over the wing to make sure it’s done as best I can get it.
The aircraft is really starting to come together and will be starting to cover the tail soon and working on the fuselage. As a fun aside I need to find my pilot, which can be about 2-2.5″ tall with a fairly wide base as will want to glue and screw into place.
