Quote:
Originally Posted by Petestein
Nice discussion but in my opinion is that EVERY AIRCRAFT SHOULD HAVE STRUCTURAL FORMERS, no matter if it is with connecting strips or former against former. It is incredible that some models, such as Fiddlers Green and some Murphs models, have no formers with extremely complex fuselages like the PBY Catalina. I just can't understand why some designers get lazy after designing the model and develop no internal formers, let alone some precise and clear building instructions. I say this with all due respect.
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Broadly agree. I've had to write messages to designers asking how things are meant to go together, which way is up, etc. However, I know from experience that on even the best designed models the designer can never predict the exact thickness of the paper and thus the diameter of the former, with sub-milimeter tolerances being below the print resolution and thus the builder should always expect to have to trim formers. The other argument against complex 'skeletons' is the difficulty of getting fingers and tweezers in there to press glue joins together.
Anyway here's my solution to bulkhead joins: I glue the bulkheads together first, trim, then insert them into one of the skin sections so that the 'peg' can be perfectly fitted into the adjoining one. I do prefer glue tabs, but the bulkhead-to-bulkhead method makes sense for joining sub-assembles where you can't get tweezers in to press the join.