Balsa USA Smoothie RC Plane Kit Build No 27, filling gaps with Bondo glazing and spot putty.

In this video I show some reinforcement to the nose of the fuselage using cut balsa stock to help support the front end of the cowl area. Hopefully this will reduce vibration from the OS 46AX2 engine and also strengthen the nose. I also show how to use Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty to fill seems or gaps in the wood.

The Balsa USA Smoothie kit is a 40 class (size) sport plane and has been around for a long time and is still readily available on the Balsa USA website. Balsa USA also has a larger version of the plane called the Balsa USA Smoothie XL. I will be using an OS Engines 46 AX2 glow engine to power it and Futaba S3004 servos, receiver, and 6J transmitter.

For this balsa kit build I use traditional rc plane kit building techniques. In each build series episode I will focus a different aspect of the build including the wing, fuselage, tail section rudder and elevator, engine mount, landing gear, tail gear, rc glow engine set up (OS Engines .46 AXII), fuel tank, servos and receiver (Futaba), Sullivan control rods and horns, Monokote covering, carving and shaping wood, using CA glue (Zap CA glue, Starbond CA glue), epoxy (JB Weld, Bob Smith Industries, Z-poxy finishing resin), Titebond Wood Glue, tools and everything thing else involved with building a radio control plane kit (RC Airplane kit).

I have been building, flying, crashing, modifying, and repairing radio control planes (RC Planes) for many years and enjoy sharing what I do with the radio control plane community, so I started RC Plane Tech channel for fun. I am not an expert, there are many different techniques to building radio control planes. A good way to learn about flying and building rc planes is to see what others are doing, that's what I do and that's why I like to share what I do. Thanks for watching my channel. Have fun!

[marcobuonavita]

Grazie, sempre utile il video per scoprire soluzioni utili per migliorare il risultato finale

[sebastianryan]

Thanks for the update, seems like we are at roughly the same point in our build although im working on the original kit and had to make up some parts from scratch like the wingtip blocks which were lost during a 20 yr storage of the kit, ill be installing a Rossi 40 engine which has a slightly longer shaft it seems so no matter how far back i moved it on the mount it still stuck out a bit further than a normal 40. I came up with something similar to what you did on the nose and added a full plate of balsa which basically shrouds the engne. it came out quite neat i must say. thank you for the vid blog. 👍

[brooksmith]

been watching the vids great job However-- although I haven't used bondo as filler before I think Elmers wood filler is a way better choice for this its cheap you can get it anywhere and it sands nice just my 2 cents great job on the kit and ill continue to watch these posts

[Max]

I use lightweight spackle for filling. Much lighter than Bondo filler and doesn't shrink. It's white and not dark red like the Bondo filler.

[lleston]

I heard plastic wood from DAP is very good too. It doesn’t leave the red residue.