What have I gotten myself into!: Ch. 7 - Fuselage exterior

Trimming the fuselage top (3.5 hrs)

The next task was trimming the top edge.

Fuselage edge to be worked on

The biggest issue here was mostly a psychological one, because I needed to cut off a part that I worked so long and hard putting together.

Inner and outer measurements

As the old adage goes “measure twice - cut once”, I spent a good 30 minutes looking at this cut from every possible angle, then finally just went for it.

No going back now

Off you go...

I sure hope I don't have to put this back on

I cut it slightly high, than sanded it down to the drawn pencil line.

Sanding things down to the proper size

Finished edge

Interesting cross-section (up is forward)

With the psychological barrier shattered, it was much less painful to cut the right side.

Here we go again...

... and again.

I decided to refrain from cutting the round elevator tube hole for now, because I will be using the offset tube that the Cozy girls manufacture, and it is possible that it might require a slightly different size hole.

Like the fuselage bottom, the top required quite a bit of sanding to bring it down to match my wooden template's shape. This time it didn’t take nearly as long though, as there was a lot less to cut away, and it was purely foam.