C-119 Flying Boxcar

[lastvautour]

Thye Boxcar is bigger and more scale-like.

Louis

[J Luke]

I've been working the last couple days to get the wing fitted to the fuselage. Just a reminder that this will be my derby car for our church event, so I'm keeping the wings removable for now. The fuselage will race without the wings and tail section attached.

Here you can see where I've planned to cut the notch in the wings and fuselage:




Here I've got it clamped into my vise for the vertical cuts. I made covers for the metal vise by taping and supergluing large popsicle sticks together. They simply rest on the jaws of the vise. I considered making something where I routed out a groove on a piece of wood to fit over them, but this was much easier and less time-consuming.


I bought a set of hobby blades from a chain hardware store. I thought this one would work to at least start the cut for the horizontal section of the notch. It worked so easily, that I was able to get the "plug" out with it in no time. With some firm but gently rocking back and forth, it easily cut straight in on both sides to remove the plug. I'll be using this blade for that procedure in the future!




As I trimmed the wings to fit, I came to a point where I couldn't easily see what was needing to be trimmed in order to get a closer fit. I could feel that it was something on the upper curve of the right side of the fuselage, so I "colored" on the fuselage with a pencil, then pressed the wing back in, and the graphite rubbed off on the part of the wing that needed to be trimmed. I repeated the process until the fit was much closer.


By the end of the night, I was satisfied with the wings. They sat evenly in the notch with no rocking to either side. I began trimming down the top of the wing "spar" so that I could use a bit more of the fuselage "plug" that was cut out. I might fiddle with the bottom of the spar to see if I can get the wing to sit just a little lower, but for now, I'm happy with it. I plan on drilling a hole for a dowel to go between the wing spar and the fuselage for strength and stability.








Now I just need to repeat that two more times to get the booms fit!

[lastvautour]

Nicely done.

Louis

[J Luke]

No school today means I got some work done on my C-119. I added a dowel to go between the wings and fuselage for added strength and stability, and to better hold it in place since it won't be glued until after the race.



I was able to get the other boom fitted to the notch as well as cut out the remaining tail pieces.


I was feeling ambitious, so I went ahead and started gluing. I drilled and added toothpicks to go between the wings and the booms. I didn't quite get the centerline on the booms vertical. Oh well.




School was canceled tomorrow due to weather, so I might get more done. Still to do:
 - Shape underside of the fusleage
 - Shape and glue tail pieces
 - Trim and attach "plugs" to the notched fuselage and booms
 - Putty
 - Prime/sand/putty/etc.
 - Paint
 - Props or discs

[lastvautour]

Excellent progress on you Boxcar.

Louis