Hello,

I am presently building the Unionville Beaver and I am having trouble attaching the plastic (ABS) wingtips. The problewm is that the wingtips are already painted and the wings are already covered. When the wingtips are dry installed, they
do not fit perectly on the upper and lower surface of the wing. Some space can be seen between the two. What can I do to fit the two surfaces perfectly without making a big mess with the glue ?

Tom

I too am building the Unionville 8ft Beaver, and my approach will be to toss the plastic tips, and build them out of balsa. Then too, I am sheeting the entire wing with 1/16th balsa, so it will not be too much of a problem for me.

One approach may be to insert 1/8" balsa or light ply inside the plastic tip, so that it is flush with the inside edges all the way around. Then glue to the end rib, and fill and sand as required. By having wood inside the tip, you can sand away the plastic and then blend into the end of the wing. If it will require a lot of plastic to be removed, increase the thickness of the insert as needed.

Hello BobbyT,

Like I said in my post, the wings are covered and the tips are painted. Your method is good if this work was not done. I do not want to uncover the wing or sand the tips.

At what stage of construction are you?

tomd-RCU
As for your problem, I would guess that you will either have to add or delete something on either the tips or wing end to get a perfect match. And that will result in some rework of the covering or paint. If the tips are sticking up above the wing, you might try cutting a small triangle shaped slice out of the middle of the bulge, and pull in and glue the sides. Maybe you can heat the plastic tip and reform it to fit – BUT this could be a disaster if not done carefully.

I am currently framing up the wings, with all bottom sheeting and internal stuff in place. Here's some of the things I am doing that's not called for in the instructions. Wings will be plug in with internal wing tubes out to the sixth rib. Wings will be sheeted top/bottom with 1/16" balsa. Wing tips will be built up from balsa. Flap and aileron servos will be mounted in the wings, with tubes installed for the servo extensions. Ribs adjacent to each servo bay are 1/8” ply. Cabin area of the fuselage is built with 1/8" light ply sides, with internal scale structures and full instrument panel. Fuselage from rear of cabin back will be built as a separate unit and attached to cabin area. Depending on weight, I may sheet the rear fuselage. The problem with a Beaver is it’s very short nose, which can cause all kinds of balance problems.

The firewall supplied with the kit does not match the plan dimensions, so I called Unionville - who said they have reduced it to provide more air flow between the cowl and firewall. I will probably build a new cowl. On the plan provided, I found that the left/right spans of the stabilizer/elevator are not symmetrical.

Good luck with the fixes.