MK Building Project

How I build MK (Japanese style well engineered) wings. If you have not built an MK kit, you really have missed "classic wood modeling" at its best. The wings are always built up balsa wood and fully sheeted. A well built built up wing can be lighter than an average constructed foam wing, recognizing that a "Pro-built" foam wing made with hand selected balsa will be lighter, straighter, stronger.

Rusty's Rule #1- A straight and light airplane can be set-up and trimmed to be a great model. A crooked and heavy airplane should be given away.

Rusty's Rule #2- The wing is what flies so make every effort to make it straight, symmetrical left to right and as light as the you can.

The following method was not invented by me, I am not suggesting that I thought of it. The method does work as long the building surface is flat and straight...your eyeballs straight. I use a maple top mounted to (2) IKEA cabinet bases with (8) adjustable legs. The cabinet bases are connected with 1 x 4's and have a few cross braces. I check it every so often to see how it is moving. THe finish is about (6) coats of clear urethane, waxed and recoated every few months.

Process: I acually glue the wing to the work bench. Painters tape is used as a "mold release" with little balsa sticks glued to the wing and the tape on the work bench. Each rib had a centerline drawn on it as well as the leading edge during initial construction. The MK Champion has the top of the wing flat and no wash in/out so it is glued together with the top down. The spar is tack glued, then the tips are floated parallel to the work surface, then the center.

Straight trailing edges are created using square aluminum tubing then shimmed along the TE with little balsa sticks. The photos of the Champion show many used on the right wing panel due to the crappy crooked TE piece and the left was much better.

The wing sheeting is carefully assembled with parallel sheets to the LE and TE with a triangle sliver at the main spar...tedious, results always are good. The sheets are taped together using 1" painters tape and yellow Titebond glue, weighted overnight. Sanding consists of a long straight block with NEW 80 grit paper and finished with an aluminum T bar sanding bar. Vaccuum, a little angle is added to the leading edge of the sheeting to properly fit against the LE attached to wing.

Titebond Trim glue (does not run) is used on the ribs, spar and TE with thick cyano used on the LE of sheeting aligned with a long straight edge as it is attached...straight is what straight does. Pins are added after pressing and repressing the sheeting to the very solid structure. Let dry overnight. The wing will be broken free from the little sticks, the tape removed from the work bench and the top sheeting will be applied using a similar process. The structure is very accurate.

Time...wing sheeting took about 3 hours to make. The raw wing panels took 2 hours. Gluing the wing to the bench took about an hour. Sanding wing sheeting, cut (2) sheets and apply took about 2 more hours.

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