Hey,
Glad to see you're making the effort! "If you're going to do it, do it right, do your best!"

Preparation: The fin's leading edge at the dorsal is actually sharp up to where it meets the forward spar of the fin. From there up, it's rounded. Shape your leading edges accordingly. The outboard leading edges of the stab are round.

One could hammer a piece of aluminum to the shapes or use plastic. I've done both but for the uninitiated to metalsmithing, plastic's the easiest. Tape a piece of .010" ABS over the plan and draw a side view outline of the leading edge allowing a couple of inches past your desired part. You're going to be stretching the material from this direction so allow lots of gripping room. Determine where the material would come back to and draw a line there. Cut out the aft edge of your piece and tape it on the aircraft. Once you're happy with it, cut two just like this with scissors. (Bigger the Better) DO NOT cut the leading edge, yet.

Tape the piece along the aft edges and run a bead of Super Glue along that edge removing the tape as you go. Don't try to bend it over to the leading edge at this point. Now take out your heat gun and experiment on some of the excess to determine how much heat's enough.

You're working a compound curve wherein the material has to change shape and the more area of the material you heat, the more uniformly it will change shape. Apply the heat and, pulling you'll be able to get it to conform to the shape, to a point and it may be half-way, it may be less, but you're going to fill the difference with spot putty. Inside curves require shrinkage, outside curves require stretching. Plastic when heated naturally shrinks so you just need guide it. Once you've got it formed as far as possible take a very sharp exacto and carefully trim off the excess at the centerline of the leading edge or thereabouts. Be careful on this cut as it's a dangerous one...better way to cut this is with a Dremel tool. Tape it on the leading edge and wick Superglue into the joint.

Now turn the part over and glue the other side. Fill the very leading edge, 400 grit sand and you've got a leading edge that's as good as it gets.

With my 1/5th scale Birddog the plans include exactly scale panel lines, rivets/spacing/screws/Dzus fasteners, access panels, the whole enchilada! (Why Guess!?) I've got a 1/5th Scale Beaver that's ditto.

If anyone's interested in building a truly scale Birddog or Beaver contact me: [email protected]

I applaud your efforts. If you're trying you're doing a lot more than most.