I spent the past few miserable days trying to get the wing ready to cover. Unlike the fuselage, which is mostly plywood, and the tail surfaces, which are mostly flat, the wing is neither. It’s mostly (fragile) balsa and curves. Care must be taken when filling and sanding not to nick adjacent components and create more items to repair.

The wing’s center section and leading edges gave me the most misery. The center section because the fiberglass reinforcement had to be hidden without scarring the nearby sheeting. The LEs because they consisted of balsa glued to hardwood dowels with CA, none of which sands at the same rate.

Regardless, I got ‘er done, although there was about 10 times as much filler dust on the floor than there was Dolphin Glaze on the wing by the time I finished. I got so frustrated that I took only random photos rather than a sequence that told a story.


The wing upper center section slathered with Dolphin Glaze.


During pauses in bouts between filler and sandpaper, I added some 3/32" balsa filler to the wingtips to promote covering adhesion.


Here, you can see the initial filling of the right wing leading edge. It took three, with much sanding in between


Nevertheless, the whole shebang was now ready for Ultracote.