Lay the plan on the table and place the fuselage on the top view. Line up the fuselage edges, and the rear edge of F2 with the drawing.
Stick T-pins in the table on each side of the fuselage to prevent it from moving. One on each side of the landing gear block and one on each side of F2 should do the trick.
Pull the aft end of the fuselage together. Use a square to make sure it’s directly above the drawing, and that the tail post is vertical. The two sides should be at the same level. In other words, don’t let one side be higher than the other.
When the parts are straight and in the right position, glue them together with thin CA.
Glue F8 into place.
Make a wedge out of a piece of scrap balsa to reinforce the tail post joint.
It might take a bit of work with a utility knife and a sanding block to get it to just the right shape. Glue it into position with CA.
You can check alignment by eye-balling from the front. It’s not too late to break the tail joint loose and start over if you have to.
Sand the bottom of F2 to match the angle of the fuselage sides. Attach 1/16″ plywood F9 to the bottom of the fuselage with medium CA.
Lay a piece of 1/16″ balsa sheet on the bottom of the fuselage behind F9 and mark the location of the fuselage side on the sheet. Don’t cut it super close. Go ahead and leave a little bit of extra hanging over the edge.
Cut the piece, place it on the fuselage bottom and hold it firmly with one hand while using the other hand to glue it with thin CA applied from inside the fuselage.
It should be noted that you can easily twist or distort the fuselage shape unintentionally while holding the balsa sheet. Make sure you don’t do that.
After you have the first piece of sheeting attached, mark another piece and attach it the same way.
Continue adding sheets until you cover the entire bottom to F8.
Make a mark on top of each fuselage side 4 inches in front of the tail post.
Cut a couple of pieces of 1/8″ balsa sheet a quarter inch wide and 3 and a half inches long. These will go on the inside of the fuselage sides to reinforce the horizontal stabilizer mount. To avoid getting glue on your fingers you can stab them with a hobby knife.
Use medium CA to attach one strip on each side.
If the strips protrude above the fuselage sides, sand lightly to make them flush. The stabilizer mounting area is cut to a specific angle, so don’t get carried away with the sanding block.
Make a piece of 1/16″ sheet balsa for the fuselage top, directly behind the dashboard. Sand a slant into one edge to match the angle of the dashboard. Holding it in your hand while sanding would allow it to warp under the pressure of the sanding block, and the edge would end up curved. If you put your piece at the edge of the table while sanding, the edge will be nice and straight.
You can glue the first sheet from the inside with thin CA the way you did the bottom sheet, but this won’t be possible behind F3 because the bottom is already there and you can’t get in there any more. So mark the rear edge of the sheet on the fuselage sides with a pen, apply medium CA, then put the sheet back and glue it in place. Here’s the plane ready for the second sheet to go on. Don’t forget to apply some glue to the edge of the previous sheet, too.
Continue applying 1/16″ sheeting to the top of the fuselage until you get to the line. Leave the last 4 inches open.
Put the fuel tank hatch in place. You may want to sand the front edge a little bit to make sure there will be room later for covering film. Drill two 1/16″ holes at the front, through the hatch and the mounting plate below. Attach the hatch with two #2 sheet metal screws. Installing the hatch now will allow you to blend the edges of the entire fuselage, including the hatch.
Now it’s time to trim all those jagged edges off. You can go straight to it with a sanding block, or you can start with a utility knife or hobby knife. Make sure the blade is sharp. Cutting is facilitated by making a slicing motion while trimming, preferably toward the fuselage. Try not to make gouges and divots while trimming.
Also sand the top and bottom sheeting to eliminate any unevenness or protruding glue blobs in the joints between the sheets. The area around the struts can be difficult to sand with a block. In these cases an emery board comes in handy.
When you sand with the block, don’t make the edges round yet. Sand everything flush, so you’ll end up with a smooth fuselage with sharp edges and corners.
Now use the sanding block to round all of the edges. Keep in mind that the top sheeting is only 1/16″ and the sides are 1/8″, so don’t round off so much that you break through to the other side. Just take the point off. After you build a few planes you can usually get a nice radius with only a sanding block, but if you’re having trouble with consistency along the length of an edge you can do most of the work with the block, then finish with a few swipes with a piece of sandpaper held in your hand.
Just sand the edges first, and after you finish that, then round off the pointy corners at the top of the dashboard and the four corners of the firewall.
You can finish the struts any way you like, or if you’re using electric power you can leave them totally unfinished if you prefer. If you’re planning to apply a finish you can use paint, thinned epoxy, or dope. My preferred method is to color the struts with a Sharpie marker, then brush on epoxy thinned with several drops of denatured alcohol. The best time to apply paint or epoxy is after the covering film is applied.
If you’re into it, this is a good time to color your struts with a marker.
Color the cross dowels as well.
To facilitate installing the dowels, sometimes you need to ream dried glue out of the holes with a drill bit. Then install the dowels.
If there’s any binding, you can check alignment by sighting from above to make sure you’re not pulling the assembly out of shape. The wing saddles should be parallel to the fuselage sides. In the following photo you can see just a sliver of the fuselage side along the edge of the saddle, which means this assembly is straight.
To hold everything in place, glue from the inside edge with thin CA. Then trim off the protruding ends, sand them flush with a sanding block, and color the ends to match the outside of the saddle.
You can apply CA to the outside to thoroughly glue these dowels into place, or if you plan to finish the struts with epoxy you can wait until then. The epoxy will seep in and fill the gaps and firmly glue the joint. It’s your choice.
Now the fuselage is done, and we won’t need to do anything with it until we get to the Assembly section.