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Now it’s time for the fun part, gluing all the external skin gores together. All 180 pieces plus their joining strips. There’s only one diagram in the instructions that shows how they go together. Basically they are labeled A1l to A18l for the left side, A1p to A18p for the left side. But it takes 5 parts to make the 47” strips to go from nose to tail and all 5 parts are labeled the same. Instead of gluing the parts together to make such long strips I chose to make up 5 fuselage ring sections and then glue these 5 rings together to form the outer skin. Luckily the parts for each of the rings are located on 4 adjoining pages once printed out. So it was fairly easy to keep the parts for the various rings organized.
My basic technique is to work from the top down, one side at a time. Then join the two halves together at the top, check that they fit the internal frame, then glue the bottom seam. The only glue joint between the inner frame and the outer skin is on the bottom seam.
To minimize the gap between the gore sections I glue the joining strip to the top piece. Then crease the joining strip using the seam ripper. I use a metal ruler to prebend the joining strip tabs. I then use the beveled edge of my workbench’s glass top to glue the lower gore to the upper gore as tight as I can at the correct angle. I use the handle of the crochet needle to firmly press the glue joint together. Have a paper towel handy to wipe up any glue that squeezes out from the joint. Then flip the pieces over and use a round tipped tool to press the seam from the back against the flat glass desk top to create a near gapless seam. Repeat 180 more times and you have the outer skins ready to mount.
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