Steamer Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 Building one of my Fathers old kits, and came across a minor issue. Kit came with an extra wing but minus half of the very stab. Any thoughts? My plan is to try and cut the extra wing down and if that fails use cardboard. 1
ghodges Posted February 2 Report Posted February 2 THAT is a conundrum! The solution depends largely on your experience and skills as well as the materials you have access too. IF you have access to some sheet plastic (you can find Evergreen brand at hobby shops and Hobby Lobby) then you could cut it to shape to make the other half of the vertical fin. After gluing it to the kit part, you'd then (if it was still thick and blocky looking) sand the edges to round them off in the front and top and down along the trailing edge of the rudder to make it thinner/sharper. You could use either 1 piece of a thicker sheet, or if all you can find is the thinner sheets (.02/,03) you could laminate 2-3 together to get the desired thickness needed for the other fin half. Another, but more difficult route, is to use epoxy putty. I recommend a hobby brand like ApoxySculp or Smooth On Free Form Air, but you could even use plumber's epoxy putty available from hardware stores. Just be sure anything you use has at least a 1-2 hour working time, and is NOT some 5-10min type. You'd need to use a good amount of it, but the following should work. Mix enough together by rolling it together on a large sheet of wax paper. When it is thoroughly mixed take a rolling pin or rolling armature of some type and roll it out into a flat sheet on the wax paper. Try to make the epoxy putty a uniform thickness SLIGHTLY MORE than 1/2 the thickness of your plastic kit vertical fin. Using the kit fin, lightly press it into the sheet of putty to mark the outline to cut out. Cut that part of the sheet out and press it into place on the kit fin. Do this somewhat carefully so that you're not leaving finger dimples in the putty as you press it in place. If you get those, apply some more sheet putty into those dimples. This will give you the other "half" of the vertical fin you need. MOST epoxy putties can be smoothed with a wet finger (water or alcohol) BEFORE they start drying. You should use your wet finger to round and blend the front and top edges of the putty to the plastic fin and also smooth out any lumps in the putty side, as well as try to make the trailing edge thinner and sharper. Once you've refined it as much as you dare, allow it to dry 24hrs. After that, the side can be sanded like the plastic parts can and be filled and further refined with more regular putty as needed. One last thing..... before doing ANY of the above, I'd put out a request to your local modeling friends/club/websites you frequent to see if anyone has a spare Monogram B-52 fin from a trashed/partial kit to give or sell to you and avoid all that work! Hope this helps! Gil 1
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