Hello Everyone,

I am taking on a new building adventure with a set of Blue Max II (1985) plans that I recently acquired. For this build I will need cut all wing and fuselage parts and wanted to ask the great minds of this forum for some help. I have built several kit planes now and all have turned out relatively good and proved to be fun planes to fly. These kits have all had laser cut parts and made the build easy however. Will you please take some time to offer any advice you may have on how to cut the required wing and fuselage parts, and any helpful tools you may recommend to make the job easier?

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

I have scratch built twice and built a few Sig kits that might as well have been scratch built. The Sig kit were actually no different than scratch building with the except the pattern of the part was already inked on the stock. Had to cut almost every part out and fit every one while trying to keep a straight and true air frame. Here are some suggestions.

A good scroll saw with a thin blade is almost a must.
A small building square and a set of plastic 45 degree triangles are really helpful.
Is is also helpful to make a couple copies of the plan. If you cannot do that put it on a copy machine and copy the parts and then those sections out to transfer the plan to the parts. If you want you can actually rubber cement the paper plan to the sheet material. After the part is cut out the paper will just peel off the part.
If the plans are they type that do not allow you build over them make a set. Lay out the major construction lines on sheet craft paper. Do not get in a gluing hurry. Trail fit parts and think about what is needed next and after that and after that. Remember you have servos and control rods and landing gear mounts and so forth to install. Don't glue yourself out.

Wing ribs. If they are all the same cut them all at the same time. Take sheet blasa and cut them to the length of the ribs. Stack them up and lay out the plan for one rib on the top one. Then cut all the ribs at the same time. It helps to glue on strips of blasa on the edges of the stack to keep the stack aligned while cutting. This is also where it is helpful to have the paper plan secured to the top sheet. Drill any and all holes before you start cutting to shape. A forstner type bit works good for the holes. It has a centering point and basically saws the holes.

Cut both sides of the fuse at the same time too along with any other part that is more than one.

For the bulk heads lay out the plan on the stock material and cut to shape. This is where a good scroll saw with a thin blade helps a bunch. If using a scroll saw drill a hole in the part and then disconnect the blade and stick it thru the hole and then reconnect it to make the interior cuts.

When installing the servos and control rods do this before you enclose the fuse. It is a little hard to actually lay them out ahead of time when making the bulk heads. Have the tail done and hinged but no glued to figure out where the rods need to exit the plane to keep the rod as straight as possible. It helps to make hand drills from normal drill bits by wrapping sand paper around the shank of the bit so you can hand drill the hole. A dremel with a fexlible drive helps a bunch for cutting holes.

I personally like to install dual aliron servos instead of one and the torque arms. I can fabricate a mouting tray a lot easier than drilling holes and putting in wires and hinges. I also feel that centering the the force works better than driving them from the inside.

Some stuff you are going to make up as you go like the servo mounts. A standard tray will work but you will need to piece in the mounts. If you don't want to use a tray bass wood rails will work too.

The good thing is that you have built kits before. You understand the parts requirements and the construction techniques and where you need to brace and reinforce and where you don't . Like normal start with the tail feathers, move on to the wing and then on to the fuse. The most important factor is to make sure you build the parts straight and square. If not the plane will not fly correctly. An incidenc meter helps to make sure the parts are level. You will also find out that some parts (like a wing tip) are actually easier if you just glue on the stock and shape after it is mounted.

Good luck and have fun.

I just built a Seamaster from plans. I used a template and cut all my wing ribs using it on a router table. They all (28 of them) came out exactly the same which made building a simple matter. I used a down spirel cutter bit with a bearing on top that ran alone my template. I simply stacked my rough cut pieces with the template on top and cut them.