The original Blue Angel did not use a completely round plywood nose ring because it had to be thick to support the front of the original wood beams for the engine mount. The thickness of a round nose ring would have made it difficult to shape the fuselage to the ring and keep it round to match up with the spinner.

I elected to use a thinner round nose ring to pull and glue the front of the fuselage together and to give a rough guide the build up of the front of the fuselage. But because of the sharp angle of the fuselage line as it curves to the nose I added a second 1/32” thick nose ring that was slightly larger than the spinner back plate. I cutout the fuselage so I could install the engine on the mount and put the 1/32” nose ring on behind the spinner. I then moved the 1/32 nose ring around behind the spinner until it was exactly centered, and then spot glued it from behind to the thicker nose ring. I then removed the engine and glued the ring all the way around on the outside and on the inside of the ring. This process left a small gap between the balsa and the nose ring that needed a little filler. I’m going to be glassing the fuselage with fiberglass cloth and polyester resin so I mixed up a small amount of resin with micro-balloons and filled in the gap. After it setup I sanded it smooth.

There is not much prop clearance with the 12 -10 prop but I only fly off tarmac.

To be continued…