Practice Kit

Finished off the practice kit today. It's far from perfect but also not terrible. I learned a lot that will make building easier which is the whole point. Definitely use a squeezer whenever possible. Hand riveting isn't hard but it requires more finesse with more opportunity to quickly screw something up. I finally know what most of the tools in the Cleaveland kit are for.

I think the best part of the practice kit is that the basic techniques and parts are now a bit more obvious to me. There's going to be enough to learn with each step of the build that I don't need to be confused by the basics. 

I'm not crazy about how the front of the control surface came together. I think I did a decent job of it, but the instructions seemed to say just rivet the halves together wherever. I was looking for something more precise that followed a form, but I guess it's just practice. 

Bare aluminum shows every ding and scratch. I'm not sure if I'm going to leave as much blue plastic on as possible or just pull all of it off. I've tried the soldering gun trick and even being careful I still managed to scratch the surface. 

I scuffed the outside of one skin while scuffing the insides for priming just so I could compare it with the bare aluminum on the other side. Scuffing definitely hides the random scratches that my clumsiness commits. That makes me not worry too much about minor scratches during the build since I'll be painting the airplane. 

I'm really happy with the quality of the AKZO primer. I put it on too thick and need to reduce the flow when I prime the airplane parts. Thanks practice kit!

The last rivets in a control surface are impossible to buck. I don't have anything small enough to get in there. I even ordered a new bucking bar with a small foot and that really doesn't fit. The result is horribly bucked rivets, but it's good practice. Hopefully the real airplane won't have anything quite this tight. if so I'll know to be extra careful.