BMatthews

Unless you're looking at making free flight gliders you'll still need to buy a radio set and some sort of propulsion system be it a glow engine or an electric setup. Or at least a radio to put into a slope soaring glider. If it's windy all the time and you have hills that you see birds soaring over then a slope soaring glider is a really great way to fly. But it can be tough to learn due to the increased turbulence. EDIT- I see from your other thread that you already live on a hill and are looking at a slope glider. So ignore the references to power systems.

There's really nothing you can do with regular woods to make a servicable model. It's all just too heavy without slicing it down to far thinner materials. It's easier to look at other options such as foam and some sort of outer layer or the corrugated plastic already mentioned.

A cheap way to build with foam and still have a strong model is to shape the foam and then layer it with newsprint bonded on with a water based glue. In effect a foam core paper mache style of construction. I went that route a bunch of years ago for making foam and newsprint control line combat models. I only ever made three of them but all three performed well above my expectations in terms of light weight, good flying charactaristics and, most important of all for a combat model, ruggedness. All three survived a few to a lot of ground encounters before finally being hacked to pieces by props during mid air collisions or just plain blown up by being "bellcranked" in those really impressive mid air collisions. The one that was "just" chopped up I later tested by bashing the remaining wing into the concrete floor engine mount first. It took a lot of hits before finally a full armed overhead swing loosened up the mount from the foam. I was more than impressed.

I've attached a sketch of what I did below to act as sort of a guide on how you could do a radio control glider or power model. The secret is to use multiple layers.

For bonding the paper I used thinned white glue. About 1 part glue to two parts water. And I presoaked and blotted the excess water from the newspaper to make it more limp. These days I think I'd presoak the paper and then use water based varnish instead of the glue. If you try this method be aware that the paper shrinks a lot when it dries. So it's important to either work fast when laying the parts and final layer on or to keep the first side damp with a plantmister while doing the other side. And when it's all done make the whole thing equally damp and then hang it so air can flow evenly around the whole thing. And due to the thickness of the layered areasit can take two or three days to fully dry. So be patient before carrying on.

For plans look for some of the high wing trainers up in the sticky for free online plans links. Then copy one of those for sizes and airfoils.