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Tips for minimising wing root joins


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Sand, dry fit, sand, dry fit............... until you have something that you are happy with, minimising the amount of filling required by dry fitting is the way to go. If your wing is larger at the root that the fuselage section it meets with, consider sanding the wing half flat down on a sheet of sandpaper placed on a flat surface, but apply pressure to the root end as opposed to the tip end of the wing, do this equally on both halves of the wing but don't go overboard or you may knack your leading edge or end up with a distorted wing.

Wing fitting / alignment tabs can be the cause of problems like this, check that they allow the two wing halves to sit together properly & also check that they align the root correctly with the matching fuselage section & trim / sand as required.

If you are still left with a gap after construction, you can fill it with thinned filler (weak acetone works with squadron & 3M fillers, plain nail varnish remover without any funky additives does the job) which is far easier to use that straight filler. Tape along your root joint so that only the gap + 1mm or so either side shows, apply thinned filler (work fast as the thinner will evaporate quickly) along the gap & the get a cotton bud dipped in weak acetone a wipe it along the joint to remove excess filler. With a bit of practice you will be able to fill the gap almost perfectly, with little or no need for sanding.

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You didn't mention what your working on, but most WWII type A/C you can, after all the pre-fitting mentioned above, glue just the wing top to the fuselage before attaching the bottom wing section,but remember to pre-fit the entire wing assembly upper and lower, this will give you complete control of the fit to the fuselage and will eliminate any steps,as long as you do your part.

Ta-152 Build

Curt

101_4646.jpg

Edited by Netz
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Alternative 4,

This works very well for me: On many kits the bottom portion of the wing is molded in one piece, and the upper wings are separate.

I glue one top to the bottom piece. I then attach this assembly to the fuselage, making sure that the wing root joint is perfectly flush. After this dries, I sand down the mounting pegs on the other wing and glue on the top, again making sure that the wing root joint is flush.

This usually works quite nicely. Occasionally, I'm left with having to work on sanding flush the wing leading edge, trailing edge or wingtip. But this is much easier to do than trying to fix a wing joint that isn't flush.

I hope this works for you.

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Tamiya putty and nail polish remover works well for me.

Apply the putty with a toothpick with a trimmed and flattened end. Let it set for twenty minutes or so, then using a q-tip dampened with nail polish remover, gently remove the excess putty. You should have a nice smooth join as a result.

You may need to repeat the application if the putty shrinks too much as well.

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HI

What do you guys do to try and eliminate the need to fill and sand wing roots. I sometimes get steps or gaps that need sanding, which or course obliterates detail. I have thought of thinning the wings but that could be easier said that done

Cheers

I refer you to this: http://hawkeyes-squawkbox.com/2008/07/22/encore-perfect-seams/ where I illustrate such solutions.

c47wingroot.jpg

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I dry-fit the wing bits to the fuselage (no surprises). Then, I sand the inner surface (where the wing-1/2 touches both fuselage and other wing-1/2) till the height/thickness of the wing matches the height of the wing-root on the fuselage.

Then, I glue one wing-1/2 (usually the upper. It is the one seen most often.) to the fuselage, ensuring a perfect match. If you have to flex the wing chord-wise/front to back to make it conform to the fuselages wing-root, then drill 2-3 spaced holes at the flex-points on the wing-1/2's vertical wall, so that you can glue the wing-1/2 to the fuselage in sections WITHOUT the glue getting past the holes. I start at the front/leading edge of the wing. Do the other wing next.

Then you glue-on the underside parts in the same way (irrespective whether the under-wing is in one part or 2 x halves) - glue the fuselage ends only. DO NOT glue the wing-tips together.

Wait a day to let everything dry, then finally glue the rest of the wing together, right out to the wing-tips.

Good luck. George, out................

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One thing is to know your subject; a lot of aircraft (think Spitfire) have a covering over the wingroot join, which actually sits proud of the fuselage and wing surfaces, albeit not by much. This means that you only need to concentrate on any gaps, not on getting a completely smooth join.

Edgar

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