Aligning Fuselage Halves

Hello!

If I have to sand off the pin, I can later drill a hole in the right place and put a short piece of wire there - that gives me a new, better pin that is temorarily removable, before I glue the parts together. But sometimes the pins are missing from the start - in this case I glue several tabs made out of plastic sheet to both halves of the fuselage (making sure that they don't "colide") and that helps. Also, using liquid glue (I use lacquer thinner) helps, because it gives you time to fine-tune the alignment while the glue sets (and it takes some time). I hope it helps you - good luck with your builds, please post some pictures and have a nice day

Paweł

I often find that even with pins, they don't line up all that well. I do it with touch and eye. And as pawel says, liquid weld gives you time to move the halves to get them right. I just start at one end and keep checking as i add the glue.

If the pins and sockets create problems, I first try to fix them.  Usually, drilling the socket hole a bit bigger and deeper fixes the two main problems, slight registration errors, or pin bottoming out in socket.  If that still does not fix problem, or if kit lacks pins, I use slow drying glue and do best I can.

One big problem that has no easy fix is when the height of one side of the kit is different than the other side. In that case no amount of shifting can eliminate the steps, only minimize them.  Sometimes a couple of those new clamps with micro adjustments can reduce the problem by creating just the right amount of squeeze on the larger side, but never seems to eliminate the steps entirely.  Lots of scraping, filing, and filling are the only recourse on these kits.

Thanks all for the suggestions. Not having trouble with the F4F but was thinking of doing the 1/32 P38 and, since that one is a bare metal plane, it might be a bit easier to hide the seams if I sand off the alignment pins. I will post pics when I have a camera other than the one on my phone. 

Also I work from the top down. If a misalignment is inevitable, I'd prefer it on the bottom.

Hi;

   Promise not to laugh ? I take the fuselage pins off all my aircraft .Then I run the fuselage edge down on 800 grit wet sandpaper . Twice only for each side and not much pressure either . Now glue the top together .

 Yup , let it dry !  Now , clamp and glue the bottom together . Sometimes you can squeeze a little , aligning it perfectly and let dry very well .Tha clamping does two things . It keeps alingnment and lets a wee bit of glue softened plastic to ooze out . When dry you sand this and you won't hopefully need any filler .     T.B.