RE: Ziroli Skyraider Build
Moving on to the fuselage!
This is were the laser cut kit shined. Everything on the fuselage lined up pretty good and all the pieces fit together without much adjustment. My hand cut kit I did fit pretty good but I needed to adjust a few things to get the stringers to line up and get everything straight.
I couldn't help but put everything together just to pretend I had a Skyraider. Unfortunately about this time was when my work schedule got hectic and I had to take an extended break from building the Skyraiders.
The only thing special to note in these pictures is the green tape. This is Scotch 3M brand #2060 "Masking tape for hard-to-stick surfaces". This stuff is awesome for holding balsa wood together even if it has lots of sanding dust on it. unfortunately Lowes and Home Depot in my area quit carrying it. I haven't tried the green "frog tape" to see if it works the same. The other blue and tan masking tapes hold just long enough for you to walk away for the night when gluing pieces together. The green stuff will hold if it sticks initially.
Another thing to note here is the mounting of the horizontal stab. I wish I had given it some more thought at this stage of the build so that I could make sure I had a good solid mount. Ziroli plans and instructions basically have you build the fuselage than then hack a hole in it to slide the H-stab through and glue it in. These is a little more to it than that, but that is about how I felt about it after it was done. Once again Barry (DBSpit) has a much better way of adding the tail to his Skyraider and I really wish he had done his before I had built mine because I would have copied his method. Sure my tail is solid, but it probably weighs more than necessary. I really should have given it some more thought before sheeting the fuselage.