Greetings to all...

I have decided to step into the world of kit building, and the model of choice is Bruce Thorpe's Delta Vortex. Because I love delta's and from what I have read, It should be fairly straight forward.
I have a few questions first !

Where is the best place to build?
I have a very solid and straight table I built in my garage, the top is made of cabinet grade ply framed in with 2x4's. My garage is not air conditioned or heated, will this be a problem??

What is best to build on, building board or other surfaces?

What glue is best for this type of build?

What tools should I get that I may not already have?

Thanks in advance..

A sturdy table is good, but make sure it's FLAT.

Lay a straightedge on it and see if it lays flat or of there is a gap in the middle or on the ends.

Personally, I build directly on the table and use weights instead of pins, but if you want to use pins, lay a ceiling tile on top of the table.

I prefer to use medium CA for 90% of my building, but others prefer carpenter's glue (Like Titebond)

Tools:

Hobby knife, Sandpaper, sanding block, Razor Saw, drill bits and a drill are the most-used, but there are probably others that will chime in with more

for kit building tho most used tools in my collection are my sanding bars and blocks, and I advise to get one as long as you can get, the one I use a lot is 26in long. I couple of good straight edges dont hurt either, I have a 36in and a 48in. sharp blades for your knives are a must. One thing I have found very useful too are the extra long drill bits, I have a set 26in long from 1/8 to 3/8. some rattail and square files also have thier uses too, as do a good pr of scissors, I have both hairdressers and heavy duty. As for glues, I use mainly a quality wood glue and 2hr epoxies, I dont use much ca at all
My building tables are covered with 3/4 thick cork floor tiles ( 2 layeyers of 3/8 thick) that have been coated with polyurethane and are well waxed, I can pin down parts no problems if needed and the waxed poly stops glues from sticking to it. My table is 12' x 4', but I mainly build large scale, and is big enough that I can usually have parts drying one end and room to do the next as well.
unless you have extreme cold climate shouldnt be an issue, but an air con unit may be advisable during summer

Not having heat or A/C will not impact the model very much. It will impact you more than the model.

The manual http://www.btemodels.com/Downloads/dv_book.pdf recommends CA glue for most items. A few areas specifically call for epoxy or wood glue. Cold sometimes slows the cure of epoxy, and heat speeds it up.

If you decide to use CA's..try to get some good ventilation for the fumes. You don't want to become sensitized or allergic to it...

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned a dremel tool as yet. You will also need some covering tools when you get to that point. I've found that a small covering iron in addition to the large size is very helpful as well. I have built airplanes for 36 or more years and finally bought one of the small irons for covering and I don't know how I ever covered an airplane before it.
Still not very good at it but acceptible.

Good luck on your build, you will find it an enjoyable experience and rewarding when you can say I built that in this world of "buy it in a box" society. Good luck and have patience.............sugarfox

I have the same issue with my garage that you do. This forces me into a "spring and fall"
building schedule. I'm currently building a H.O.B. Decathelon .10 on a balsa building board
in a spare room. Building small kits indoors is a great option when access to my outdoor
workshop is limited.[sm=shades_smile.gif]

Ceiling tile is by far the best surface to build on....The T-Pins will actually stick to the tile.

I have friends in construction and get me gently used (or new left over) 24x36 tiles. Just make sure they lay Perfectly FLAT.!!!! You'll end up throwing away a few, so get as many as you can.

For your first kit, don't skip de-bonder. Sometimes you may have to re-try alignments.....or just get your fingers un-stuck.!!!

Good luck, and may I just add that you should by alll means dive in.!!
Your discovering the best part of the Hobby.!!

A Dremel can be handy but hardly required. About the only thing I use mine for is to cut music wire and bob bolts to length, polish silver-solder joins and smooth openings in cowls. It's way too aggressive for balsa work. I have a blackpowder gunsmith friend who calls Dremels "the Quicker Bugger Upper" and says 30% of his business is fixing what folks have done to their guns with Dremels.

Way more important, to me, is a wide assortment of clamps. Get two dozen spring clothes pins and invert them. I also really like the House of Balsa rib jigs. Six of these and you can rip off a wing half with CA in 20 minutes (not including the pre& post sanding). A bunch of lead weights have proved invaluable in keeping the work in place (I use Titebond II as much as CA).

I sunk the bucks a while back and bought an end-grain balsa building board. This is a wonderful thing. Mins is 16" x 36" and I have built up to 1/4 scale size models on it. I have a roll of wax paper from a food-supply outlet that was 500 ft x 36" and is about half used up after 30 years (and having also double-wrapped numerous venison cuts for the freezer).

Cheapest way to get yourself a flat workbench (essential for making sure wings etc are true) is to find yourself a solid core door and a couple of saw horses. You can usually pick up doors cheap at demolition yards (I got mine free from my local garbage tip).

Fairly essential hand tools are: a good sanding block (with about 3 times as much sandpaper as you think you'll need), a good (metal jawed, not plastic jawed) hobby knife with about 10 times as many blades as you think you'll need (it's amazing how fast balsa and iron on film blunt those blades), a metal straight edge (get one at least 3' long), a right angle (a plastic one from a drawing set), some string that won't stretch too much for aligning wings, pulling servo leads through tight spots etc (brick-layer's string is good), a razor plane, a razor saw, plus regular hand tools like drill bits & drill (hand or electric), a couple of screwdrivers, a pair of pliers to pend & cut music wire and a file or two to smooth the cut ends etc. It's also a great idea to get a pack or two of small plastic spring clamps from one of those discount shops to clamp things together while they set. If you're going to use iron-on covering you'll need at least a sealing iron with a cotton "sock". Lots of folks use heat guns (like blow dryers on steroids) to shrink it but personally I haven't seen the need yet. Oh, and allen (hex) keys... lots of them. Get a set of both metric and imperial. You'll want soft weights at some point to weigh down balsa sheeting while glue dries - you can do this cheap by filling some zip-lock bags with lead shot or even sand, and putting them in old socks.

Less essential but sometimes useful tools are things like dremels, drill press, bench vice. I don't actually use a razor plane - I have a very small carpenter's plane that does the job nicely. A pair of kitchen shears (like tough scissors) can be useful for trimming cowls and canopies. Oh, since you're working in an unheated garage you'll want a fan, both for cooling and ventilation (CA fumes are nasty). Probably the most important (yet often overlooked) bits of gear however is good lighting. I like to have two or three florescent light sources to reduce shadowing.

Salvage as many plastic take-away food containers as you can find to mix epoxy in - you should have plenty of mixing sticks from the kit off-cuts, but if not you can get ice block sticks from the local craft shops cheap enough.

Use your imagination and you can get a lot of this stuff cheap from demolition sites (lights, shelving etc), second hand shops (for hand tools), discount shops and so on. You don't need to spend a fortune at your local hobby shop - save the bucks for the kits.