Profile Elevator Profile Components
Profile cutting carbon laminate Make the overall spar depths slightly undersized , as it is easier to fill the surface rather than be stuck with a protruding spar . A dihedral brace wing joiner is glued to one side spar , and a box created on the other side to receive the joiner through the fuselage .
Profile Spar and joiner box Servo plates and horn hard plates ( top and bottom ) are glued in flush . The leading and trailing edges are lined with balsa , PVA glued on as are the balsa shaped wingtips which can be hollowed out to reduce weight .
I use Red Devil , One Time light-weight filler to repair any surface imperfections in the wings and fuselage foam edges . Once this is hard and sanded , then the brown paper covering can be applied , using a medium weight 65 gram paper from The Warehouse Stationary or similar . To glue it on , use an Aliphatic PVA thinned with 40 % water applied generously to the foam or balsa surface . It pays to add a bit of tint to the glue so you see where it is applied . The brown paper , dampened with water spray and cut oversize is then laid on and spread out with a credit card . Then trim to oversize so there is enough to fold around the edges and make radial cuts into the edge to allow for the curvature and overlapping of the folds .
Profile Spitfire wing cores The rudder is cut out of the fuselage profile foam sheet , a hinge post fitted and the foam is sliced or sanded to a thin trailing edge . A rudder horn balsa hard point is glued in and both sides are sheeted with 1.5 mm balsa and well sanded .
The stab / elevator is cut from a sheet of 3.4mm coreflute and the edges are covered with 12mm wide strips of graphic-vinyl stretched around the periphery . A 250 / 300mm long 2.50 / 3.00mm carbon rod is glued into one of the stabilizer flutes to stiffen the surface , and a panel of 2.5mm sq balsa strips are inserted into the elevator across the joining strip to act as a stiffener and a hard point for the elevator horn . The hinge is formed by making a cut through the bottom surface each side of the hinge line and removing the coreflute fin between the surfaces .
Profile Covering of fuz Again a generous amount of glue is brushed onto the folding strips and they are folded around the edges of the fuz and the wings . Then the whole of the outside surface is brushed with the diluted PVA which is left for a few minutes and then screeded off with the credit card . It is important to cover the other side of the piece being worked on before the first side dries so as to avoid warping . There is a surprising amount of shrinkage with the drying brown paper which adds to its strength , but needs to be controlled . With the wings , I prefer to cover the bottom surface first , and get a good wrapping around the leading edge from both sides which adds to strength and allows a good sanding for a better finish . Any misses in the covering can be fixed with patches of brown paper .
Once the covering is completely dry , all surfaces can be sanded with 120 grit paper and any tears or misses patched . Imperfections can be filled again with One Time , and at this