Today I had to drive over to Roy's Hobby Shop in
Hurst, Texas, to pick up some 3/32" X 1/4" balsa strips to start the
planking on the forward portion of the fuselage. I also picked up some
medium hard 1/8" square strips for the stringers while I was there. First I
planked the fuselage bottom section between the ignition hatch opening and
the radio hatch opening. Then I decided to plank the forward lower left side
of the fuselage so I could rough in the ignition hatch cover as shown below.
I am most pleased with the way the ignition hatch cover is going to
integrate into the forward fuselage contour.
This is another view of the ignition hatch cover
screwed to the bottom of the fuselage.
Two special 1/4" X 1/2" edge blocks were drilled
to match the attachment holes in the radio cover's frame. These holes were
then drilled oversize to just fit the head diameter of the 2-56 Allen head
screws and then the edge blocks were beveled and glued to the radio hatch
cover as shown below. As you can see, I managed to get three strips of
planking on the cover's bulkheads before I ran out time this
evening............................Tandy