Back to Basics

The alignment of the fin has been sorted, the lower front end of the fin has to blend in with the rather long dorsal fairing, the whole lot has to be on the centre line of the top decking. My method of aligning the fin was to mark a line on the top of the front former 3/16" from the pin on the CL. The fin is 3/8" wide at the base. With a piece of straight balsa sheet pinned at the 3/16" mark at the front former, and laid tight against the fin enabled the position where the dorsal fairing meets the fin to be marked.

The top deck sheet has been reduced in thickness slightly as it goes towards the fin. The dorsal strake had to be reduced in height to match the fin fairing. With everything aligned and pinned, after final checking of the tail plane squareness and the central position of the fin, the top deck will be tack glued in place and left to dry overnight.

The top decking is now ready for shaping. It has been planed flush with the fuselage sides. The final shaping starts with planing the top corners of the decking at 45 degrees. The angle doesn't have to be precise, as long as its "about right" is OK. The depth of the shaping will be correct when the joint between the inner skin of the side sheet and the top decking is exposed. When both sides have been shaped with the plane, the high sides of the angled face will be planed down to form a slightly oversized radius. The radiused corners and curved profile of the decking will be sanded with a Coarse Permagrit block, changing to a fine block before final finishing. The tank hatch will be cut and fitted with a detent and latch before cutting the top decking away from the fuselage. With any luck, I'll be knee deep in balsa shavings by lunchtime.

Preliminary shaping complete, the edge of the triangle reinforcement is just visible. Next job is to make a couple of templates to check the final steps. Unfortunately the laser cut dovetail I tried to hide has re-emerged, and will be even more prominent as the fuselage radius cuts into it. Perhaps a large SMAE sticker would cover it up?

The second stage planing brings the shape close to the required profile. The plane blade has been re-sharpened and is set to cut a finer shaving at this stage. The photo shows the gap between template and fuselage, the light emphasises the gap which is about 1mm in places.

Brian - Progressing well,
reference to " Deac" on plan certainly dates the design.
Pleased to see you are now allowed indoors to bash balsa.
Regards
Colin