You dont have to boil it, I personally have never heard of that. What I think is most common is to soak the balsa wood in regular old water. Once it has been soaking for a little while you can pull it out and bend it anywhere you want. When I have balsa that is already partially glued onto the fuse and it still needs bending, like around a round nose or whatever, you can grab a cloth or a big wad of paper towls and soak it in water. Just go back inforth over the area that you want to bend and shape with the wet cloth or towl and it will slowly start to bend around a curve. As for glueing wet balsa, the only thing I have used to glue it while wet is CA (cyanoaccylate) glue and kicker. I think if you use any other kind of glue that is slower drying you will need to get clamps and secure it in place until it thouroughly dries.

If you have to do some serious bending around really tight curves, the best chemical to use is amonia. If you soak wood in amonia for a little bit, that is the best chemical I think that will soften the wood to bend it anywhere you want. Windex is a good second or substitue because it has amonia in it.

David