\ said:
Wing to fuselage joins and eliminating those annoying seams across the fuselageJohn
I think that the wing to fuselage join is something that does concern a lot of modellers, particularly if they are not 'habitual' aeroplane builders. There are many ways to minimise the stress of this. A couple are used by me almost routinely.
The first applies to all aspects of building a model and that is to dry fit well ahead. This should enable you to avoid either squeezing the fuselage making it to narrow to fit the wings properly, or having it too wide to fit. I have resorted to using lengths of sprue as spreaders to widen a fuselage by a couple of millimetres when fitting the cockpit has resulted in a slight narrowing.
The second ties in with my attitude to instructions (that they are simply someone else's opinion of how to put a kit together). Whereas a gap can be fairly easily fixed a step most definitely cannot. It is worth considering how you attach the wings. Sometimes it might be better to fix the upper wings (and these are separate on almost all kits) to the fuselage BEFORE attaching them to the lower wing(s). You should be able to make a nice even and stepless join with the fuselage. When you now attach the lower wing(s) you will find that rather than a step at the fuselage you may have a small gap at the wing leading edge and gaps, as mentioned above, are much easier to fill, fix and hide than steps.
It may also be worth fixing a lower wing assembly to the fuselage before adding the upper wings. The only way to find out what works is to plan and dry fit a couple of stages ahead.
Whatever you do check the dihedral (the angle of the wings relative to the fuselage). Ideally it should be correct but even more importantly the same on both sides. Nobody will notice a degree too much or little dihedral except you. Most people don't know the correct angle and won't have a protractor in their pocket anyway. Obviously the margin for compromise can't be too big or the model will just look wrong, but there is a little window.
Everyone, even SWMBO
, will notice if the model is asymmetric.
Fuselage seams are generally a simpler proposition. First and most obviously you must ensure that the two mating surface actually do mate. Sometimes a little sanding maybe needed and I've had to remove the little alignment 'pins' on more than one occasion when they were actually causing a misalignment! I then tape the two halves together and run a liquid cement into the join, squeezing the two halves together. You don't have to do the entire join in one go. Once finished leave it alone for the ooze of plastic which is filling the join and gluing the halves together to completely dry. I usually allow at least an hour. Remove the tape and scrape the excess ooze off with a blade. Scrape carefully along the seam, not across it. Nine times out of ten the seam will need no further filling at all.
Cheers
Steve
