Aug 28, 2022     More Skin - (18 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Rolled the fuselage over on its side to begin doing the side as well as setting the rudder deflection. Just easier when it's on its side. With Oratex you have to put a coat of glue on, let it dry three hours and put another coat of glue on so that both the skin and the frame have two coats. So while one is drying, I am either tacking on the skin or shrinking skin on another part. Right now I have the elevator done, the horiz stab is half done, left strut is done and I've gotten started on the fuselage. I would agree with Harlan (Farm Fox) that the side is a LOT harder than it looks. I also had quite the mistake. I thought the way to go was bottom, sides and then top. So I cut my pieces of Oratex to length for the sides and the top. Cut the first side to size, marked where the framework hit it so I could glue, and then laid out the piece for the top. It was real obvious to me that the top piece was never going to go on as one piece and I had not cut it large enough to split it in to two pieces. Went back to some of the builders logs on the forum and some videos on You Tube only to find out that you did the side and half the top as one section. The piece I had cut was now too small and I didn't have enough left to cut another. So my haste to get going cost me another 5 meters of Oratex. Not a cheap lesson for certain but that's what happens when you get in a hurry and don't listen to your own advice to check before you cut.