J-3 Kitten
With all of the basic framing done (above), it’s always fun to do a dry run and see how it all fits. After the major assembly is done; all of the frames (at right, above) are sanded to shape and ready to install the running gear. The jury struts (at right, below) are made up from round toothpicks, built directly over the plan. In final assembly the struts will be hand fitted on the model. The mounting rails (below) for the control system are glued in place and the board fitted into the fuselage.
spar is sanded to a 20-degree angle on the bottom side, and after the components are covered can be hinged using either the iron- on covering material, or light hinge tape. The rudder is shown to be angled on the left side, but it really doesn’t matter, so if you happen to accidentally sand yours on the wrong side it’s no big deal.
The wing is a simple single spar, egg-crate style affair with upper and lower rib sec-
tions. Build the wing panels over the plans beginning with the 1⁄16-inch square balsa rib bottoms and 1⁄16 × 3⁄16-inch strut mounts, leading and trailing edges and the main spar. The upper rib sections are glued in place next, followed by the tip plates, R1 ribs, A2s and 1⁄16-inch square balsa diagonal bracing to complete the basic structure. Block up the tips as shown on the Main Spar Assembly Drawing and glue A1A in place
followed by R1A, A3 and A4. Remove the wing from the board and sand to the basic shape.
Installing the running gear The 3⁄32-inch square balsa frame is glued in place in the fuselage as shown on the plans. The pushrods are set up using .025- inch carbon fiber rod and .015-inch steel wire lashed to both ends. Z-bends are used
At this stage the motor had been mounted and the pushrods installed in the fuselage. The control board (at left) was secured with a dab of silicone and taped in place while the silicone dried. After all the equipment was in place and working properly the model was covered (above) with Coverite Microlite and the vinyl trim from Callie Graphics was added.
38 DECEMBER 2012
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