Mega Mosquito Build Part 7, Fins!

This primer sprayed fin is posted for good reason. Enlarge the picture and check out the raised grain!
This has happened once before in newer Estes kits with "laser cut wood".
Estes no longer lists laser cut balsa in their descriptions. I think this denser "balsa" is probably Tung wood.
Tung wood is native to China where most all the kits are bagged up.

In some ways I prefer the Tung wood. It's stronger and still pretty light, great for sport models.
But it doesn't fill like balsa! I never saw raised grain this late in the finishing process when the fins were made of balsa.
Like before I may have to give the fins another shot of filler / primer to get rid of the grain pore lines.

The body tube fin root areas were masked off before the primer was shot.
This primer will fill any remaining tube seams that the CWF didn't fill.

The fins were glued in.
When the tabs were inserted it took some wiggling of the fins to get the slots edges to seat properly against the fin root. The centers of the slots got pressed in slightly when the tabs were against the motor mount tube.

Originally I was going to use epoxy for the fillets. Instead I used five fillets applications of Titebond MTG.

Even after the first white under coats the Tung wood grain was still showing through.
Another white coat and sanding should fill the remaining grain.
Balsa might be softer than Tung wood, but it sure fills easier.