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General Aircraft: Tips & Techniques
Discussions on specific A/C building techniques.
Thinning trailing edges - how?
Emeritus
_VISITCOMMUNITY
Uusimaa, Finland
Joined: March 30, 2004
KitMaker: 2,845 posts
AeroScale: 1,564 posts
Posted: Saturday, March 01, 2008 - 09:39 AM UTC
Hi,

Quite a basic technique probably, but something I have never tried, so I'll ask away.
How do you exactly sand down overly thick trailing edges on aircraft models?

From some build articles, I've got the impression that people just sand down the insides of the wing halves to make them thinner.
But doesn't that compromise the fit of the components, both between the wing halves and to the fuselage as well, if the shape of the wing changes drastically because of the sanding?

Is there any handy tutorials on the subject, either online or printed? A quicky googling didn't return much in the way of useful tips.
I'd be grateful if someone could shed some light on the subject for me.
CMOT70
_VISITCOMMUNITY
Victoria, Australia
Joined: August 23, 2007
KitMaker: 629 posts
AeroScale: 539 posts
Posted: Saturday, March 01, 2008 - 12:06 PM UTC
This is something i've always wondered about as well, i've never really tried it- not even when i did the Eduard P-39. It would seem to me that whichever way you do it- sand the inside or outside- you would be changing the profile in some way and lead to fit trouble or something that just wouldn't look right. Not to mention the loss of surface detail if you sanded the outsides.

There must be something i'm "missing" with this trailing edge thinning. So i'm curious as well!

Andrew
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