Levelling the wings, tips anybody ? :)

[Radzy]

Hi guys,

I'd like to ask you for advice on thing that looms large in my mind every time I build an aircraft. How to level the wings or horizontal stabilizers.
It seems they always tend to drop or go uneven... WIth my current build - E-2C I spent like 30-40 minutes to get the stuff into position (wings, vertical/horizontal stabilizers, even engine pylons). Those things really drive me crazy, because this happens with almost every airplane I want to build.

Do you have any good tip how to deal with this ... almost nightmare to me ?

Cheers,
Radek

[Bridon]

All depends on the model of course but I think the best way I would approach this would be to secure the fuselage to a flat surface with wedges and masking tape then when you are happy it is firmly secured and upright then set up a simple jig with blocks of balsa or polystyrene packaging material to hold parts that need such support until the glue sets.

That is the beauty of this hobby, you can often use scrap materials as an aid to building plus you will soon develop an initiative for solving problems such as this.


Brian

[75thRanger]

I am no expert by any means but I have seen people using a piece of tamiya tape or some such masking tape to form a brace of sorts from wing tip to wing tip across the top of the fuselage. You get your wings set into position and then apply a long piece of tape over the top of the fuselage and apply it to the underside of each wing. this makes a tension bow and will hold the wings into position until the glue sets. Hope this helps.

[Radzy]

Thanks guys.

@Ranger - yeah that's what I'm doing currently - using masking tape, but the normal painting masking tape you use for inhouse painting (much cheaper to waste ).
Still it's a PITA for me to get them into correct position... And still it didn't work out with my P-39 that ended up like this ...:



I set them in position - secured with tape... but it shifted in meantime and I dunno really how to fix this stuff (it dried overnight and now is stone hard - well this was few months ago, so now it lies on the graveyard.. )

[75thRanger]

Sorry about the bad luck! I would definitely try to block the main fuselage in such a way that you know that it can't move. As was suggested earlier by using old scrap styrene or wood blocks and then make two identical blocks for each wingtip. Glue everything up and then apply tape across body to wingtips. Another suggestion would be to place a strip of tape across top and bottom of fuselage. I would think that this would keep the bloody things from moving. Hope that one of these will help. I usually use Tamiya extra thin once I have the wings in position. It dries fairly quickly but still gives you some time to make adjustments.