Devin W.C. Ryan

Building 4 Star 60 Day 7: Comradery

Todays session was a different one.  Since the next couple steps were straight forward Peter placed the first layer of fibreglass over the wire/elevators.  He also glued the fuselage bottom, which I’d already sanded, to the fuselage and clamped it since it was straight forward and keeps us moving forward.  You can see the outcomes in the first and second pictures respectively.

First layer of fiberglass to elevator 'connector'
First layer of fiberglass to elevator ‘connector’
Fuselage bottom added
Fuselage bottom added

We went over everything and while going over the fuselage I noticed one of the formers, near the nose, is still not sticking in place and needs to be glued again.  This definitely enforces that you need to check over and recheck everything.  Not sure why certain pieces are being so stubborn!

Since the next major thing we’ll be tackling is building the wing Peter thought it’d be good for me to see some wings in various stage of construction so we went to Marc’s.  One was an LT40 wing, bare wood, and is close to what I’ll be building.  It was great to chat, hear some stories (he engineered/designed plans for a warbird and built it himself!), see his collection, what he’s working on, and various other aspects of the hobby.  He has planes he built and ARFs along with projects lined up to build.  The sentiment seems to be if you find something you might use at a good price then get it.  Especially kits as you never know when they might be discontinued (or might already be if it’s from another hobbyist).

Something that stuck out to me today that went something like if you’re only doing this because you like flying the planes then you’ll likely get board and not stick around in the hobby (winters are long and you’re not doing anything in the hobby) but if you enjoy building, modding, tinkering, and the like then it provides you with a stronger interest, or something like that.  Apparently some people just buy ARFs, crash at some point, and then think the planes garbage so someone else takes it, rebuilds it and is flying it in no time.  So far I’m really enjoying building.  Can’t say for sure if it’s the building aspect, comradery with Peter or likely both, but I am really enjoying learning to build and how you see all this wood take shape and by your hands becoming a plane!  I do agree with Marc though it is therapeutic… a great way to take your mind of things and just relax.

I got an idea as to how I might be able to organize to fit another plane in my apartment… and hopefully more as time goes!  He uses metal verticals that you hook the shelf brackets too at the night you require and can adjust them as needed based on the plane being stored.  Instead of resting shelves on them you use round protective foam over the brackets and then rest the plane body and wings on them.  Not sure if my landlord would appreciate all the wholes/anchors in the wall so perhaps can build up shelving similarly and just anchor to the wall?

1 thought on “Building 4 Star 60 Day 7: Comradery”

  1. Pingback: Building Aero 3D Day 67: Fin Glued – Devin W.C. Ryan

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