Fixing uneven wing root gap with scotch tape

[Woody V]

If you are building the Trumpeter SBD you will encounter the infamous uneven wing to fillet gap. Other kits may have the same issue so this can pertain to your build too. Filling this seam, sanding and re-scribing isn't something I'm very comfortable doing, especially the scribing part. I suck at scribing.

 

A lot is made of this gap flaw and if you’re going for good basic construction, it has to be fixed. 

Please note that this is my SBD mule.

 

Quite by accident I discovered that Tamiya white putty won’t stick to clear Scotch tape - the glossy stuff, not the frosted which I haven’t tried. So I put the tape on the fuselage and filled the gap with the Tamiya putty.

 

I let this set overnight and the next day I flexed the wings down very slightly and the putty popped right off the tape leaving this.

 

Here’s what I got after sanding the excess putty off the top of the wing. Not much penetration, but enough. After several test fits the putty did not chip. It’s a lot stronger than I thought.

 

Moving from the mule to my model now, you can see the gap is closed now, and to my eye looks just fine. The gap at the trailing edge closes up when I suspend the model from the wingtips and put a LITTLE weight on the fuselage. Some super-thin and Perfect Plastic putty should finish this off nicely.

 

[nmayhew]

nice, thank you for the tip

[Out2gtcha]

Yes, very good tip!

[Gazzas]

Great idea!  Thank you!

[dodgem37]

Great tip.  Thanks a heap, Bro'.

 

Sincerely,

Mark