Hey folks,
I’ve heard a lot about thinning the trailing edges of a vacuform kit’s wings, but I’m not sure I understand completely. It seems to me that any thinning would change the profile of the airfoil, and cause some messy fit issues. Does anyone know of a tutorial that explains how to do this?
Thanks!
Cheers,
Alex
Alex You are right that if you sand the wing from the outside you will indeed change the shape of the airfoil, not to mention the panel line for all the flying surfaces. The thing to do is sand the flat gluing surface inside the wing. You will notice how wide this is due to the low angle compared to the leading edge. 1st thing I do is sand away the thick part of the flat surface, in from the trailing edge so the thickness of the plastic is about the same all the way back to the trailing edge. Next step is to sand the inside of the edge to thin the plastic more. This needs to be done at a bit of an angle so the molded edge remains intact and the thinning take places in front of the trailing edge.
I wish I could draw on a computer since I have probably confused the heck out of you.
As Marc has already said, you need to sand the inner face of the wing, and the easiest way to do this is to pin a sheet of sand paper to a flat board, and simply move the wing back and forth, inner face to the sand paper.
It’s vital that you check every few seconds as it’s too easy to sand straight through the wing trailing edge.
You also need to be careful that you don’t remove any material from the leading edge of the wing, as then you’ll end up with too shallow a wing.
Karl