HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[JohnReid]

This is the basic shape of the leading edge.This is mostly hand work done with sanders ,made by gluing cloth-backed belt type sandpaper of various grits to straight pieces of wood.Although these are primitive tools they work the best for hand shaping any wood at any scale.You can also use dowels for round work.
Draw a line along the center line of the leading edge and simply follow the curve of the upper and lower caps ,but don't sand off the line you have drawn. On the cap side stop sanding just short of sanding into the caps themselves.Finally check for flat spots and lightly sand until round and your line finally disappears.This may take a few hours of concentrated effort to do but the beauty of the wings shape is determined here.The picture was taken before final sanding.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

You can see from this angle that there is still a bit of a flat spot that has yet to be removed.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

No way am I using this!!!!!!!

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

I had to resort to an earlier type of Camel design for the center section.The middle two ribs are of improper shape and so is the fairing around the trailing edge. I only realized this after the ribs were all glued in.If you plan to do the later type of center section ,the trailing edge around the cockpit is made of the same wire as the rest ,therefore the ribs aft of the rear spar must be designed to fair into the wire.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

the trailing edge is wire.I chose to integrate the wire into the wood rather than just edge glue it to the rib.I lightly sanded the cap strips to fair it into the wire.This may or may not have been acceptable practice for a military airplane but in this case ,before the era of air regulations in civil aviation ,nothing was written in stone.

[JohnReid]