World War II Project - Horsa Glider - Part IV

Before I started applying the cardboard "skin" I wanted to make sure that the different sections separated correctly. In this case the locking mechanisms are part of the build with the passenger compartment being the key. Make sure that both the tail section and the cockpit section attached by the simple act of twisting them together. you don't want to be forcing things together or swearing at your model as it lays in pieces on the floor. Proceed with a little caution and be prepared to sand or file the locking mechanisms as need till you get a nice fit.

Then its on to the skin! Not much to say here other than patience is a virtue and its better to go slow and make sure that glue joints have dried before forcing things. You need to make sure, especially on the crew compartment that the grooves in the cardboard remain parallel to the body and don't twist, nice straight lines is what you are looking for here. I found that clamps come in very handy to make sure you have good contact with the flat areas.

I started with the wings. As I feared I managed to break the main spars which throw everything off slightly. I managed to get it together and its pretty straight. This is the easiest of the skins to apply and I should have just done it right away the cardboard adds a lot of strength across the upper surfaces of the wing that will keep it from breaking. The cardboard is not the easiest thing to work with. Bend it to much and you will have a hard time getting things to lay tight against the right areas. Clamps and weights can't even be used in some areas. But the wing, overall, is pretty easy.

Busted spars. I should have used a straight edge to make sure that the front of the wing was completely straight when I glued these back together. Again pretty small pieces from MDF used for structural integrity just don't cut it.

Weighing down the right wing. I did bend the cardboard for the front of the wing first. But I left it unglued while I worked on the upper surface.

I found that just holding the front edge of the wing down when I glued it was the most effective way to get a nice neat front edge.

Upper surfaces in place

You can see the gap between the left and right halves, it is narrower at the back and wider at the front, this is a problem created by the broken wing spar and not having the wings nice and straight

Weighing things down

The end result

You can see just how much I was off when I fixed the spar. I had to widen the slots to get the tabs to fit on one side.