Quest Tomahawk SLCM Build Part 11 Fin Glue Prep

The fins were cut from 1/8" balsa.
The instructions never say to round the edges, maybe they were looking for "squared" sharp edges. But, at this thickness, they looked clumsy.
After the previous filling and priming, I rounded the leading, trailing and outside edges. I'll have to refill and prime the fins again.
The fin on the left is square, the fin on the right is rounded.

Because I had problems with the body tube roughness, I went ahead and primed, then sprayed a white coat to be sure it was smooth.
This is not the best way to get a good glue bond, so the paint will be sanded down to the tube at the fin locations.
I used 220 grit on a block trying to sand a thin rectangle about 1/4" wide. Any roughness to the sides of the root edge should be covered with the fillets.

These four lower fins glue right to the shroud. It's hard to see in the picture, but the white paint was carefully sanded down to the card stock shroud surface. You can barely see what's left of the penciled fin alignment lines.


Five inches up from the top of the boat tail are the rear of the forward wings.
When the paint was sanded down I cut into the tube layers again.
Luckily this will all be covered by the wing and fillets.