Little Green Man Prototype Build, Part 4, Fin Revision and Balsa Laser Layout

The larger lower fins needed some subtle shape change.
For two reasons - 
1. More strength after seeing the balsa grain ended up and
2. A better angle for less drag with the "T" foot piece glued to the outside edge.

The original fin is on top, the revised fin is under it.

Here's the revised upper and lower fins.
The fins were photographed with the 1" length for reference.
I can drop the jpeg picture into Corel Draw, size it to the 1" reference line and trace the new shapes.

Looking ahead, I wanted to see how all the balsa would fit on a 3" or 4" widths of balsa sheet for laser cutting.
The top picture shows the pieces set on a 4" width. The length was 7 1/4".

It's like a puzzle. Laying out the pieces takes many tries.
Using cut balsa you can see the correct grain direction.
The pieces have to be spaced so the laser cuts can't overlap.
I ended up fitting them all onto a 3" X 9" area.
On a 36" long balsa sheet I can cut four sets of fins.

Little Green Man Prototype Build, Part 3, Still More Fins

The main leg fins were also pinned and gang sanded.
Grain direction breaks are possible but sanding the fins together helped keep it from happening.

Forward strake ears were fitted to the nose cone using the rounded side of the sanding block.
A good fit here saves filling the joint later on. A fillet of Titebond M&TG should be enough.

Two more forward arms are cut, pinned and gang sanded.
I know, what does this shape represent?
The first fin template shapes are being changed for better fin strength and easier grain filling.

Little Green Man Prototype Build, Part 2, More Fins

Here's an old school idea - 
Pin the fins together when gang sanding. This is helpful when the fins are hard to hold together when sanding and trimming.

You can see I pinned the pattern right on top of the stacked fin pieces.
Go easy when pressing the fins through the wood. It's easy to split the balsa down the grain.

The concave side curve was sandedusing the side of my old Warner sanding block.

The sharp inside corner was shaped with the angled side of a diamond file.

The pins were pulled and the pieces separated.
The pin holes will be easily filled with CWF.

Little Green Man Prototype Build, Part 1, Fins

This build will show the steps (and changes) made in a kit prototype build -  of the new Little Green Man.

The fins have a complex shape, both inside and outside curves.
This is old school, no laser cutting until it becomes a kit.
All the sides were cut square and rounded edges will be shaped using dowels and files.
This isn't even all the balsa, I realized I forgot to cut two pieces after the picture was taken.

The patterns were printed on 110 lb. card stock and cut out on the outside lines.
The like, rough cut balsa pieces were stacked and sanded using the pattern piece as an edge guide.
These two pieces are the easiest to gang sand.

Here's the first two pieces ready for filling.
No, they are not the same size.