More craziness...........
Photo # 68: Once the lower portion of the rudder was glassed and wet-sanded, I used the "heat and smash" method of
molding the tail light bezel from the clear canopy sheet material the plastic modelers use. Before removing it
from the rudder, I marked the bezel outline right over the pre-drawn lines already in place.
# 69: At this point, the outside edges have been cut and the bezel temporarily put back in place after the balsa has been cut away and lined with thin white sheet styrene.
#70: Using clear plastic sprue material from a plastic kit, I turned a bulb and base of the appropriate size on a
power drill ( the poor man's lathe ) using an X-Acto retractible blade as a shaper. It was wet sanded down to
1200 grit and polished to a luster using Novus plastic polish.
# 71: The finished product with a notched stem to better anchor everything w/ epoxy.
# 72 & 73: The before and after of the epoxy primed and sanded lower rudder. I decided to do this procedure at this
time for the sake of handling since doing this after it was epoxied to the fin would have been more
problematical.
# 74: With the bulb stem epoxied in place, liquid masking was carefully applied to the bulb and the base and
white styrene inside area was airbrushed flat gray. The bezel was then epoxied in place and so ends this
episode of minutia madness.