A Collection of R/C Modelling Tips - RC World

Signed, the guy who has a nice deep slice in his finger RIGHT NOW.BWAHAHAHAAnd welcome to the "hobby".Those are CA hinges. You can cut the hinge slots before or after you finishcovering, but don't glue the hinges in until after. The slots can be cut witha hobby knife with a #11 blade, or a TY1 Hinge slotting tool. They shouldonly be the thickness of the #11 blade. After slitting the covering, put a pinthrough the center of the hinge, insert the hinge into the wing (or whatever),slide on the control surface up against the pin (this keeps em centered), flexthe surface as far as it will go, and put 2 drops on each hinge. Now, turn thewing over and flex the other way, and put 2 more drops on each hinge. Theyshould be flexed about 50 times after gluing, and that's it! Be sure to pullthe pins out. Good Luck!!The hinges go into slots that you cut into the surfaces with an X-Actoknife. The slots are centered on the hinge line of the surfaces. Youcan cover the plane first, then cut the slots. After getting the hingesand control surfaces aligned, just a couple drops of thin CA on eachside of the hinges and you are set. Use a piece of paper towel to wickany excess glue out of the joints.Hi Lee, lets see if I can help. The white plastic-like thingies areyour hinges. ( If your using C/A hinges see bottom ) Before you coveryour model you need to cut a slots in the trailing edge of the stab andfin (attached to the fuselage, you'll picture it in a minute). I assumeyour not using ailerons. To do this use a ball point pin and draw a linedown the center of each. Yep! I know that 3/16" or 1/4" is tough to geta centerline on but if you hold the point of the pen against the woodand using your fingers as a break you should be able to draw a straightline down the center. You should be able to eye-ball it when your inthe center. Note that there are tools that will help you draw a perfectline down the center but I doubt this was included in your kit.OK, using the plans as a guild, locate where the hinge is positioned onthe wood with a small pencil mark. This is where it gets fun if yourusing the regular plastic hinges. You need to first use you x-acto #11blade to cut a slot on the center line just big enough for each hinge.Then you need to enlarge the slots so that the hinges will push into theslots. After this is done you will need to do the same on the rudderand elevator using the hinges as a guild. I tape them to the stab andfin and then us a pencil to mark the locations.Finally, remove all the hinges and cover the model. You will be able tofind the slots by sticking an x-acto knife through the covering. Afterthe model is covered you need to epoxy the hinges in place. So, using15 minute epoxy bind the hinge and at the center place a small dab ordish washing liquid soap. This will prevent the epoxy from sticking tothe hinge point. Now, place a small amount epoxy to the end of thehinge that will be inserted into the stab or fin. Do the same for allthe hinges on the stab and fin. Let the epoxy setup. OK, with theepoxy set its time to attach the rudder and the elevator. I usually dothe elevator first as there a more hinges there then the rudder. Justapply a small dab or epoxy to each hinge, line up the elevator or rudderand push in the hinges. Again let it set just flex it back and forthseveral times as the epoxy sets.