Gluing Wings to Fuselage Question

If there is one thing I always screw up on is getting a smooth seam along the wing root. There is always a ridge and I suck even more at smoothing it down...

Has anyone tried the idea of gluing the top parts of the wing sections to the fuselage and then gluing the fuselage and upper wing sub assembly to the one piece lower wing part? At least that way you could control and manage the wing root joint one at a time and not have to deal with several seams all at once. Only problem I can think of is if the wings have an angle to deal with.

How do you all do it?

Craig

Reply to
crw59
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i glue on the top, then the bottom and line it up.

Reply to
someone

g I always screw up on is getting a smooth seam

great, so someone else does the top first.... wonder if this tip is mentioned anywhere in all the various how to books, etc. Once again I am around 40 years behind what everyone else does in this dang hobby. will try this out next time on a beater kit...

thx - Craig

Reply to
crw59

i've seen it mentioned in a lot of places.

Reply to
someone

That can work, but what I usually do is to build the whole wing assembly (tops to bottoms - general the bottom is one span-wise part) and hold that in place with a strip of masking tape over the top of the fuselage assemblage running from wingtip to wingtip. That holds the dihedral in place and also holds the gap shut. It also holds the fuselage in the correct orientation to the wing.

But the tool that REALLY helps work the seam is my dental cavity file. I've described it before...if you can find one, get one - ask your dentist if you have to. Before I found my cavity files, I used to glue various grits of sandpaper to dowels or round toothpicks - tha makes a good tool, too.

Reply to
Rufus

I found this thread very useful, it covers wing root seams in the latter part of the thread.

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Reply to
bluumule

Thanks, great thread....I'm going to print the whole thing down at work tomorrow on our color laser printer. It will make excellent reference for the future. (:>

Reply to
Count DeMoney

yah, dots a gud wun!

Reply to
someone

Quite commonly, the problem is that the airfoil section on the fuselage does not agree with the wing airfoil. If the wing airfoil is too shallow compared to the fuselage, a common problem, then fitting a spar to the wing to increase the airfoil thickness helps reduce the problem. Measure the distance between the lower and upper inner wing space at about one third to half way back. Cut a stubb spar about 30 or 40 mil higher than that, out of 1/16 styrene, and glue into the wing. That will "prop up" the airfoil thickness.

Reply to
Don Stauffer in Minnesota

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