To the left is the first glue fillet still wet, just smoothed with a finger. Let the glue totally dry.
Here's the same fillet, dried with air pockets. Another glue fillet will fill some of the open holes.
It'll take three or four fillets to fill and smooth the glue line.
After three fillets the inside fill is looks smooth.
You can lightly sand the fillet to further smooth before paint.
This launch lug/tunnel reminds me of the old Estes Wac Corporal kit. The long lug on the Wac Corporal is concealed with balsa strip sides.
Launch lug fillets have been bugging me lately. I've tried many techniques that I thought would help me contain the bubbles, all failed.
ReplyDeleteOn my last build I finally solved it, I think:
1) Apply a single TB2 fillet, pushing it into the joint as far as possible. This will inevitably have bubbles.
2) Cover with a layer of CWF, and then sand smooth.
My working theory is that the single fillet is adequate to provide reinforcement to the joint, while the CWF cover is purely cosmetic.
This process is easy and stress-free, since bubbles are no longer a problem to be avoided. At least on my one build it yielded an excellent result.