I’m not at all pleased with the way the tail panels came out. See the first picture. They required lots of bending to make them fit. It was non-trivial and I think I did a poor job. This became an opportunity to try out some composite technique.

First was the play-dough, err modelling clay. You can see a rough fill of the corners. I left the panels in to give a shape to work around but they’ll go when it’s done. Then I smoothed out the clay and removed the excess. I’ve never sculpted much so this took a couple hours.

Since I was using the body of the plane as a mold, I had to take precautions to make sure the epoxy doesn’t stick to the plane. This fairing will be removable so there’s access to the tail section. I feared the epoxy would go everywhere and glue the plane in terrible ways. So I took double precautions. Mirror Wax, and Silicon spray. Both are mold release agents. I really hope they do the job.

I cut the fiberglass and peel pry. Weighed it, and started mixing the epoxy. Layer by layer I laid out the material and wetted it. The glass is quite capable of handing the curves but the peel pry, not so much. If I had to do it again, I’d cut small pieces to better fit the mold. This was using one piece per layer.

While that sets, I bolted the engine mount and fabricated some parts for the wing fold assembly.

Tail Panels Rough Clay Smooth Clay Fiber Engine Mount