New Guy

[mmcguire14]

I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Matt. I am new to this hobby. I'm 50 years old and my wife said if I didn't find a hobby she would kill me. I remember these kits as a kid, but always thought they were to hard. I picked up the Hellcat 500 series and am in love, my wife may never see me again ensuring another 30 years of wedded bliss. I must admit that this is a blast. I am abit worried about the covering process. But the listing on this site are amazing. My question is what if any is the benifit of a jig for the fuselage rather than on the board?

[ecboehm]

Welcome! I'm at the big 5-Oh myself and these little models keep me out of trouble. My wife supports me as well and I guess if we stay out of there way we can keep them happy.
I don't use jigs but I guess they would make the structure straighter....if you use it right. I've seen jig built models get crooked just as often as board built. That's my take on it anyway. The good thing about this stuff is personal preferences make everybody different. Just enjoy yourself.

[Phugoid]

Welcome,

My wife said the same to me, but yours is probably more patient than mine (or I'm a worse menace!) as I'm a smidge younger than you. I certainly get the picture though....

I don't use a jig, there is enough wood in the guillows kits so they don't get twisted or warped as long as you take your time and don't overstress the stringers.

Don't worry about covering. I put some guidance on how I do it on wings and tail surfaces in my Piper Super cub 95 Build (I recommend this kit to try), and Scigs is a master of the art so look at his postings too. There is no definitive method though it's a matter of finding something that works for you.

It goes without saying that there are much better quality kits than the Guillows ones, I often complain about the wood density (weight). But they are cheap, this forum is great, and most of all I seem to have fun flying and building them.

So have fun!

Andrew

[lukebozek1]

I would recommend a building board to keep the frames flat, although I see many people using the jig-box. I agree that the Guillow's kits are substantial enough to resist any twisting as long as you add the stringers alternating on each side.

[ADW 123]

its usually pretty easy to avoid a warped fuse at least in the larger kits, however you have to go slow and use your eyes esp. in th smaller kits like the 95 because you have to make sure you line up the fuselage halfs properly but ive never had a need to use a jig for the fuse.

[mmcguire14]

Thank you all for the replies. Looking forward to building many more. I will probably try to fly some day but for now I am going for static. Are there any good videos for planking I've heard about. I like working with the balsa. Thanks.