Now, I move forward with creating buck stations. A buck station is a guide that ensures that your plug is going to resemble what you want it to in the end. For this project I use the same 1/8 inch mahogany that I used for the initial profile pieces. My strategy for placement of buck stations is simple, I put one anywhere that I am concerned about maintaining the correct lines of my project. Usually I am of the opinion that more stations are better.

Another rule that I like when deciding how many stations to use is to make sure that my sanding block is longer than the span between the stations. I am going to fill the spaces between the stations with floral foam blocks and then sand the foam down to the level of the buck stations. The sandpaper will easily cut the foam down. If the sanding block is shorter than the distance between the stations it will create a depression in the foam. Not that a depression in the foam is enough to ruin your project, but it is enough to cause you more work in finishing your project.

In the photos below I have placed numerous buck stations on both sides of the copter fuselage. Make sure to measure all of these out when building a mirror image project. Another way to ensure symmetry of your project is to cut the buck stations for each side at the same time, if necessary, clamp the mirror image pieces together and smooth them with a sander to ensure identical shapes and epoxy the stations in place at the same time. These procedures keep you in focus and your project symmetrical.

With all of the buck stations in place, I can examine the two halves of this project for symmetry. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should be pretty close. Once I am comfortable with the symmetry, I can move on and start filling the two halves with foam.