New Way Nike Ajax Build, Part 16, Nose Section Tunnels

TIP: Before gluing on the nose section tunnels - 

I'd recommend filling the nose cone/tube and tube/adapter joints. I wish I had.

The joints are noticeable after the white paint is applied and are hard to fill after the tunnel strips are in place. The small fins and tunnels are close together.

There is good reason why Estes supplied the tunnels in balsa. I went with basswood thinking there wouldn't be grain to fill. Sanding the trapezoid profile in the tunnels would be difficult with the brittle balsa.

But - the balsa is more flexible and easily conforms to all the angles in the nose section.

My basswood tunnels were too stiff and had to be cut halfway through with a razor blade.

The lower picture shows how I had to cut and lightly crack the tunnels to fit the angles of the nose section.

Some 400 grit was wrapped around a Q-tip to sand away the primer for a better glue bond. The sanding also made a flatter gluing surface to match the flat bottom of the tunnels.