ORIGINAL: dhal22
when you polyurethane the wing skins be sure and roll the glue to just a sheen (on the foam) and then lightly mist the balsa skins. i also recommend placing the cores and skins between the shucks and clamping between 3/4'' pieces of MDF. (or vacuum bagging) you won't believe how far the glue expands into the foam.
are you considering retracts? i painted mine (almost finished).
Retracts, maybe the mechanical ones. We will see. All monies coming into the house between December and Jan (and sometimes Feb) I don't even bother to ask for, lol Learned my lesson! Once February comes I can indulge with little to no friction from the other half. Kind of an understanding she and I have. She is great too cause man wow I have blown some [X(]serious[X(] money!!
For now I'm going with no to retracts on this bird. I'm looking into some mechanical retracts if my hobby guy can find some affordable ones with a steerable nose. I'm pretty sure I won't tho.
My work bench is topped with 3/4" MDF. I have some extra 3/4" MDF. However it is a 8 foot by 2 foot slab that was left standing up against a wall for a few months. Now it has a nice minor bow to it. DOH! So I cut a useful chunk off for the foam shuck and put it into a jig to bend it backwards. I took it out of the jig and it looks good now against a straight end and to the top of my bench, which is plum. A couple of car batteries should hold it down firmly to the foam cores when bonding the skins.