Getting symmetric dihedral in balsa plane wings

...is really quite easy if you have a socket set. (what is dihedral?) The easy way to do it is to place a socket of the appropriate height under each wing tip. Sockets are made to precisely the same height so you can be sure that you will get symmetric dihedral. If the dihedral is non-symmetric then the plane will consistentlly roll to the left or right when you fly it.

Spray laqcuer + spray paint = ugly paint job.

When I finished my cool Spitfire model, I found that I had a new problem: How does one paint a balsa and paper airplane? After some searching on the net (and the net is surprisingly silent on issues related to balsa and paper airplanes), I found that one guy said he painted his plane with a base coat of spray laqcuer and then used regular spray paint.

Sounded easy. And it was. The problem was that my otherwise beautiful airplane looked like a mottled piece of cheese. The paint clumped on the surface and the color was uneven. Not a good idea. Do not try that at home on your plane.

Laser cut or die cut kits? Laser cut.

Laser cut balsa wood kits are going to cost you a little more, but they have one compelling advantage: they don't require you to sand the pieces after you free them from their balsa sheets. My first kit was a die cut kit. My least favorite part of the whole process was sanding and triming the pieces after cutting them from the sheets. You can't imagine my joy when I did my next kit with laser cut pieces. No sanding and the pieces were perfect every time.