Wing Details

Nov 7 , 2006

Gun Fairings

Starting on the bottom of the wing, I needed to add the gun fairings that were part of the underwing hatch covering the MG 151 cannons. I started by cutting them from balsa blocks and sanding them to shape. Next I cut up a small piece of brass channel and glued it to the top of each balsa shape to help form the spent shell chutes. Lastly I fashioned a couple of tapered end caps for the brass channel from small pieces of hardwood.

I used five or six coats of Deft Clear Lacquer on this assembly to seal and harden the surface. You could glass them if you like, I just didn't feel like messing with it for such a small part, and the Lacquer method works quite well.

Next I used the Green Spot Putty to start feathering the surface details down into the overall shape of the balsa fairing. Again this is a repetition of putty/primer/sanding until the shape comes to life and everything is feathered to a smooth blend.

After gluing the finished fairings into position on the bottom of the wing, I use my standard putty and blend process to feather it into what will be a simulated removable panel.

With the fairing smoothly blended into the wing, I mask off the perimeter of the desired panel shape with blue tape. Then about 6 coats of Filler Primer applied like I did on the wing fairing and I have a good panel build up.

After my light sanding, I remove the tape and have a great raised edge to simulate the removable panels for the pylons. Next is to work on the wingtip lights.

Wingtip lights

I begin setup up scale wingtip lights by cutting a wedge indentation into each wingtip using a coarse sanding block. Next I get out a piece of scrap aircraft ply and grind two teardrop shaped depressions into it. I then used a scroll saw to cut each of these two areas out, giving myself about 1/16" or so around the edge of the depressions.

Then, I used a bench grinder and hand sanding to bevel the backside of the pieces up to a feathered edge. Going back to the wedges that were cut out of the wingtips, I then used a Dremel to grind out a small teardrop depression into each of the wingtips. These position right at the rear edge of the wedge cutouts.

Now I go ahead and glue the two AC ply components into place in the teardrop depressions, giving me a simulated lense frame for each light. Before moving on, I had to seal up this exposed balsa. I gave it about 4-5 coats of PolyC and sanded it down. A few passes of putty and primer and I've got a nice finished shape to add my lenses to. I could have made the lenses easily with styrene, but I wanted this hardwood "frame" to facilitate a good solid structure to glue the lenses into... something stronger than thin styrene.

For the actual light lenses themselves, I used some tiny Christmas Bulb beads from a craft shop. With their "stems" removed, they are the perfect teardrop shape to simulate the scale 190 wingtip lenses. I also drilled a small hole in the back side of each bead, which allows the epoxy to ooze in and somewhat "peg" the glue joint. (I don't glue these on permanently until after the plane is all painted).

Note that I use a red lense on the left wing, and a blue one on the right wing. The right light was actually a blue lense with a yellow light bulb inside, which together produces a green light. This is true with any plane that I know of, and even all the green traffic lights you see on the road.

In retrospect, I wish I had cut the wedge flats out of the wingtip back before I glassed the wing. It would have given me a better smooth blend into these areas with a lot less work and hassle. Blending the exposed balsa back into the wing was a bit of a bear.

"control surface details"