Round and round...

Kept working on the ailerons, not without some head-scratching issues..
Rounded tips now, and balance tab too!

i discovered that in top flite GS corsair the balance tabs of ailerons are not intended to be scale; the tip of the balance tab, in fact, in real scale f4u was rounded and the stab, in that point, was "carved" to let the balance tab move freely. not in this kit!  the rounding of the tab is only slightly curved and then it's flat; the building manual is silent about it, but i'll try to do it as scale as possible. so i will glue a flat surface on the stab, just in front of the balance tab ( to fill the gap that in this point is important) and then carve it to make a shape that will "hug" the balance tab. ok, stop writing.

I left behind the stab sanding so now i'm on it. i draw a line in the center to ensure to sand simmetrically.

I used the Graal of sanding, the great planes multi sander, sanding LE or TE made easy.

 

These are the results, easy task with the Graal!

First half done...

..and that's it!

Next step will be to sand and cut the ailerons' ribs and give them the right profile.

I noticed (sadly too late) that the stabs are not scale too! the entire surface is flat in this kit but in the real plane the two halves were taped, and the tips were significantly thinner than the roots. i would be forced to start all the project over, but now that i started i won't stop. maybe i'll reproject some stabs and ailerons later in the building, in exact scale...maybe...later...

see you!

Elevators

Did some work on elevator, and finished trimming the stabs; now all the surfaces are even..

started the elevator..once i had the balsa stick glued, i realized one of the sticks was bent, very much bent!!
i had to sand it to fix it, result is good..

Than i added the ribs, 10 for every side... 4 SIDES! ..boring..

Here the assembly, man those are heavy! some glue drops ruining the picture..

next step is building the balance tab, one of the best features of the real corsair, that gives that smooth looking shape.

 then the tab closing ribs, and the tips..these balsa tips are reeeealy soft... don't clamp 'em for any reason!!

now i'll have to glue the fake mini-ribs on balance tabs, install the torque rods blocks, and give the shape a reason to be, sand sand sand...
I need to look at some photos to understand the le shape of ailerons and the way they're hinged.
then the stabs le, sand sand sand and finally the balance and trim tab, to make it more scale.
see you!!

Stabs

I removed the wood wafers from the clamps, and sanded the edges. glued together and to LEs.

The LE doubler, the triangle, is fatter than the rest, will have to sand it flush..
this is the effect...

Next step the TE, the wood stick is a little bent, maybe the humidity during the transportation (the kit is as old as 5-10 years), i'll fix it with the ribs.

Cut the ribs, with a little bevel to copy LE inclination. Glued the ribs..

Then I glued the first skin to the back of the stabilizer.I use thick CA glue 'cause it gives me the time to reposition a little the framework on the skin before it cures (few seconds).

After that it's time to cut the hinge blocks, 8 of them. and glue 'em.

Trimmed the back skin; i left 5 mm of skin on each side, my exacto knife is that thick...

at last, the front skin, with some weights on it, i'll let everything cure for the night.
see you tomorrow!!

Let's Begin!

Hi everyone,
it's time to begin...
i started with this awesome topflite kit. some balsa bashing on course!
Strarting with the tail:

Glueing the "core" of the part with 30 min epoxy, very messy for me! now my hands are completely covered in glue..

Next step: the leading edge, two balsa sticks, luckily it's not all hand job!
Cut the shape on paper and trasfert it on the LE.

These are the leading edge tips, they tack glue perfectly to the LE. I used the same method, cut the paper and transfer it on wood.

Finally, (for tonight) I tack glued these first few pieces together to check allignement.
Tomorrow i'll free the wafers woods from the clamps, sand them, do the TE and ribs, who knows, maybe i'll finish it..(i don't think so..).  P.S the skins are already done, thought it was no so much interesting to see it here, they're 4 pieces of wood glued together in couples and sanded!