RE: Reaction 54 Jet Kit
Still making progress on the Reaction. I had hoped to have it flying in February, not yet, but maybe by February 53rd or so (aka March 24).
I just wanted to post the photo of how I did the alignment when I glued on the tail. I borrowed a Bosch GLL3-80 laser tool from work. It projects out 3 planes of laser light, 1 horizontal, 2 vertical and all mutually perpendicular. It also self levels ( pendulum) within a few seconds. The claimed accuracy (level, vertical, perpendular) is "1/4 inch at 100 feet", or better than .02 degrees.
So, I set up the level on a photo tripod, put the plane on the bench. I then cranked up the tripod so the horizontal light beam hit the wing tip TE. I had to shim one main wheel with a bit of balsa to get the wing level.
Then crank up the unit a bit higher, so now the horizontal plane hits the stab on the inside edge of the stab tips. Then one vertical plane run down the centerline of the fuselage (and also hits the nose gear strut, which does not show in the photo). The same beam runs right up the fin TE once the fin is aligned. Finally, the spanwise beam hits the intersection of the stab tips and the stab TE (without elevators).
Once I had everything fitted and aligned, took it apart without moving the model or laser, added epoxy, put it back together and squeezed a bit until it was aligned again, and let it cure.
The laser is about $400 on Amazon right now.. actually $100 cheaper than it was when I bought it for work a few months ago. Kind of expensive for just doing models, but if you can get access to one, it sure makes alignment easy!
Anyway, I should be done with all the Ultracote coverging this weekend, and I did get an adequate amount of cockpit detailing done already
Bob