Gang: I’m building a 1/48 airplane (Hasegawa Typhoon) which has a 3-piece wing assembly. Two upper wings outboard and one lower wing which also forms part of the lower fuselage. The fit with the fuselage is excellent on the bottom, but on the upper surfaces there are rather large (about 1/32") gaps both sides. When I dry-fit, if I hold the wings at the ends and flex them upward, the gaps on the upper joints disappear and fit perfectly.
Sooooo, is it possible to somehow bend the wing assembly without breaking anything? I only need about 3/32" total to give a nice, tight fit. I was thinking of hot water maybe? Please don’t suggest candles, I don’t trust myself to get anything that hot anywhere near my model [#oops] [:I].
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Rich [8D]
Richard;
From the sounds of the problem it is forcing you to put what is called a “dihedral” or The upward or downward inclination of an aircraft wing from true horizontal.
As far as I know the Typhoon has little or no dihedral to its wing. Check your references to be sure.
If it does have a slight or pronounced dihedral then what I would suggest is this. Build the wing first by cementing the upper two pieces to the lower single piece. Let this set up for a few days to ensure a strong bond. With this done you can then go on to securing the fuselage to the wing. I would use a super glue and activator. You could secure the wing to the bench with thin books or blocks of wood at the tips of the wings and as you secure the fuselage you could apply slight downward pressure to decrease the amount of the gap while you apply the cement. This is how I used to put dihedral into Balsa kits years ago. Trust me those are more delicate than styrene. Slight downward pressure is the key.
Hope this helps.
Cheers;
Gregory
Rich,
As Gregory has pointed out, you need to check your references and glue your wing on at the angle the references show. And, unfortunately, a great many times, this does leave you with a gap at the wing root. If the gap a a small one, I just fill it with putty and sand as needed. However if, as often happens, the gap is a large one, I fill it with strips of various thicknesses of styrene to fill the gap (the structural strength of putty is nil). After trimming and sanding the styrene to match the surrounding surface, apply a thin coat of putty and sand smooth.
Gregory,
Dihedral is the designed upward slant of an aircraft horizontal surfaces. Anhedral is the designed downward slope of an aircraft horizontal surfaces. (just couldn’t let it lay - lol)
It worked![^] I had to go through the process 3 times and the third time was a charm. I put about 2" of hot water (as hot as my normal house water) and sat the wing assembly in it for about 20 minutes. Then I carefully applied pressure, let it spring back, applied pressure again, and so on. Then dry fit. After the third try - a perfect fit. Glued her up.[:D] And no filler required!
As far as the dihedral, I’m not entering this one in any contests, I just want it to look good. Also, I assume that if there is a gap, there shouldn’t be - I assume the model is correct ( I know that may not be the case). I may post a pic when this one is done.
Anyway thanks for your advice guys.
Rich [8D]