Thursday, February 23, 2012

Super Alpha Build Part 5 Fin Fillets and Primer

I won't bore you with the details on the fin and launch lug gluing. Everything was standard here.
I did substitute a 2" long X 3/16" diameter lug for the 1/8" lug supplied in the kit.

I'm still on the fence regarding Titebond Molding and Trim Glue for fin fillets.
It does shrink some, certainly not as much as white or yellow glue.
Down the root edge there is a slight "valley". I did three fillet coats of the the Titebond M & TG.

On a model this size, I prefer rounder, deeper fillets. I may go back and add some epoxy fillets after sanding down the primer.



The Titebond M & TG really works well on the launch lug fillets. No bubbles and no argument there.
I wish the root edge of the fins had this nice of a rounded fillet.






You can see the "step" where the raw balsa was on the top half of the re-shaped nose cone.
The lower half was still sealed from when it was on the cloned Red Maxx.

2 comments:

  1. Had the same shallow fillet results with Elmer's Carpenters wood glue Max...if applied thick (launch lugs) bubbles will appear...........White glue is now being used here....

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  2. Metalhead,
    It seems all wood glues will shrink at fin fillets and bubble at the launch lug joint.
    Since this build I've had more practice with the Titebond M&TG. Like any new material it takes time to get the fillet technique right. I use the Titebond M&TG all the time now with great results. It won't bubble in the deeper lug fillets. For fin fillets it's perfect for LPR models. It shrinks very little.
    For a while I tried making wider fillets with the Elmer's CWF and they were too much work. It was okay but didn't give the best results from the Titebond M&TG.

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