Makes perfect sense to me, James, and that is what I thought the Splash-holes were for when I built my first large scale aircraft. Unfortunately, any place where the holes coincide with the aircraft's centre line is an accident and when I tried to skewer the fuselage sub-assemblies on a piece of rod, it looked like something that Richard Dastardly might have dreamed up...I suppose it would be possible to determine where such a would run through the unassembled formers but I don't think that my geometry is up to itJamesPerrin wrote:I wonder if mounting and aligning the fuselage frames on a piece of square dowling would have helped utilizing the square Splash holes.
The Defiant for which I built the cockpit in the Museum Display GB at the beginning of the year is one of the very few aircraft models that has a central keel that runs longways (as I guess a keel does) for both strength and assisting alignment. If I can get my measuring and cutting act together, I am going to try adding length-ways braces between the formers to add some strength to the fuselage. I will probably also have another go and using expanding foam to create a surface on which the skins can be laid without denting - once upon a time, I found a foam that expanded in the mixing pot and remained pourable for a couple of minutes so that there was minimal risk of the foam expanding and distorting the shape as it cured...you think I can find that stuff now..? Florist foam is another possible aid that I have been looking at as well, mainly because I just found a large chunk of it in the garage yesterday...
In the end though, I think that careful cutting of parts and proper preshaping will remain the keys to good alingment and minimal gaps...