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Sunday, November 22, 2015

Estes Honest John, #7240 Build, Part 8, Fin Shaping



Look at the final picture in the last blog post. You can see the center line at the root edge isn't very defined. I could have sanded the fin thinner but I decided to build up the center line to make a sharper taper.
Some CWF filler was brushed on the center near the root edge. Don't get any filler on the inside root edge.



After it dried I went back to the block with 220 grit.
You can see the edge being formed. It's just a little higher that the balsa would have been.

Here's a shaped fin.
The raised center line now goes all the way across the fin.
The picture is a bit confusing, the darker area at the leading tip is a shadow, not sanded off filler.








I looked back at the laser cut fin sheet.
You can easily see the angle of the root edge, especially on the low end.

4 comments:

  1. All your builds are great, but this is particularly good.

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  2. Chris,
    In your opinion, would you characterize the fin shaping process as "enjoyable"? I understand the cool challenge of doing some of this stuff, but an hour of sanding per fin just sounds tedious to me. Obviously everyone enjoys something different. I also know I wouldn't be at all happy building that kit and *not* shaping the fins properly, so that leaves me kind of in limbo on this kit.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Neil,
      For me it's enjoyable but years back there were some very frustrating first tries. I sand with the TV on and the time goes pretty quick. You don't have to shape the fins to the wedge shape, I just like the challenge.

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