Okay, back to business for awhile . . .

I'm breaking some of my own rules. I was supposed to start this process when I had 3 - 4 relatively uninterupted days to complete this project, and that didn't happen! I have WAY to much going on to do this the "right" way. This is gonna be one of those "Do as I say, <u>not</u> as I do" kind of entries. Sorry guys! So, Step 9 really should be Step 1, and should have been done before I even started waxing my molds. By not following my own rules,and not anticipating just how much other conflicts are halting quick progression through the steps, I am letting my initial thinned epoxy coat cure way too long before adding cloth and I will notend up witha solid chemical bond. I'll talk more about this at the end.

<u>Step 9</u>:

Beings I didn't do this at the beginning like I am supposed to, It is time to start cutting my fabric. First, I pull out all my templates(pic 1); then, clean and prep my cloth cutting table (pic 2). I have a fabric cutting mat and Olfa fabric cuttersthatmake life SOMUCH simplerthan trying to cut fiberglass with scissors. These tools are VERYWELLWORTHTHEMONEY! I have templates for all the wood parts (wing ribs, fuse formers, etc., that I make out of formica) to build other structures of the plane, and then I have fabric cutting templates. Fabric cutting templates can be made from just about anything that will not snag the fabric. The P-51 fabric templates show templates made from mostly paper and cardboard (pic 3); and the P-39 templates (in pic 2) are made from my favorite material . . . formica. I misplaced most of my oldP-47 fabric templates (they were made from the blue plastic sheet that was a backing liner from some old 3/4 oz. FG cloth), and had to make new ones. Yet another reason why this should have been done before-hand! All these little delaysreally start to add up!