trying to finish up the bottom of the wing. the brake lines for the wheels will have to wait until i can find something to simulate the fittings for the line so they are on hold.

pic 1: i moved on to the last thing i want to do to the bottom (i think anyway). i made some hinge covers for the aileron/flap hinge. to do this right i needed the equipment to vacuum form which i don't have. but i happened to run across an article in RCSI mag (sorry, i can't remember the name or even locate the article now) that showed how to use a male/female form to make simple plastic parts. first, the part that is to be reproduced is made. in this case i'll only be using the top half for the cover. the rest of the form just helps the shaping and makes it easier to get the shaped plastic off (instead of trapping the form).

pic 2: then an outline of that part is cut out of ply.

pic 3: you can see i used a toaster oven set at 350 to heat the plastic. once it sagged i removed it from the oven and used the male form to push the plastic through the ply mold with the result below. the trick to this is to make a very close fit between the two forms. i found the best fit really left little room for the plastic but when heated it worked pretty good.

pic 4: the plastic i used was recycled packaging from a mp3 player. i ended making 5 pieces but only got 3 useable ones. that's ok, i only need 2.