F-14 Tomcat Sheeting

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I have most of the bottom sheeted, and the nose wheel is test fitted into place.

Sheeting the bottom of the plane goes VERY slowly. I used 3/8" strips of balsa, and planked the bottom with them. I used aliphatic resin to glue the strip into place, which has a slow (30 min) curing time. It's slow going, but I end up with a much better, and sand-able finish than doing it using CA glues.

Took me well over a month of evening and weekend gluing to sheet the bottom of the plane. Here it is, starting to fill now and sand. I use lightweight wall putty to fill in the cracks and divots.

Whoops! Problem. The sheeting doesn't line up right with the fuselage edge. Notice the lip. I had to break this joint loose, and re-glue it with a shim in place to hold it out so it would be flush with the 3/32" balsa planking I was using.

Here I have started planking the turtle-deck area to get ready to work on the cockpit.

Working on the inlet ramps here, and completely sheeting the wing gloves. Lots more filling and sanding to be done. My arm is sore at this point.

Nose gear is now permanently mounted into the plane. I built up a mount out of spruce, plylite, and epoxied the gear mount down using carbon fiber laminate.

Main gear now mounted into the plane also using spruce mounts, reinforced with carbon fiber laminates.

Carving a nose out of pink foam. I cut a foam blank from the per-plan 2d pattern, and made a 3d foam blank. It took me 5 tries to get the blank the right shape. What a huge mess I made! Pink foam all over the garage.

After some initial shaping, I mounted the pink foam blank on the plane, and sanded to shape. A little bit of wall putty to fix the tip of the nose, and the transition, and then I was able to cover the nose with 1/2oz. glass cloth and resin. A little wet sanding later, and my nose is looking permanent. Here is a photo of the recently sanded nose, pre-glassing.

Starting to look like a Tomcat now!!!

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