The Little World

I cannot say when my new jig kits were shipped from the port of Pressburg, but presumably it was before the Covid shutdown.

My wife was able to order them from BNA in Melbourne a week before Christmas and they arrived in time to sit under the tree. I spent Boxing day with a new tube of 5-minute Loc-Tite epoxy assembling them, and a merry time it was, too.

The kits come in Eastern European boxes – sturdy and re-useable. This is fortunate because the nature of the jigs mean that they can be taken apart between uses and you need somewhere to put the bits. The reason one might have two, or three , or more of these is that they cater to different scales and styles of aircraft. I got the universal WW2 and the modern jet styles. They do differ in detail, though not in basic idea.

The material they are made from is acrylic sheet – about 4 mm thick. Very well delineated, I suspect they are laser-cut by some means. The sheets arrive with a layer of blue plastic protector adhering to both sides and you get to wear away your fingernails peeling it apart – a good occupation for Christmas night. You can also spend some time puzzling through the Slovakian-flavoured instruction sheet. Not too heavily spiced, but you’ll chew a bit…Do not lose it in the building and preserve it for future reference.

The choice of adhesive is either cyano-acrylate or epoxy. I opted for the latter as it would allow me more time to set things square as they were made. I’ve got a tiny set-square that will stand upright from a datum plane and let me get the most important parts plumb. It might not be too important, but I like to be precise with as nice a present as this. Also there is an escape-and- clean clause with most epoxies that you are denied with the super-glues.

The cutting of the acrylic is very precise – I have not opted to correct it by sanding anywhere – I don’t think It could be improved upon. It is so clean that the 5-minute epoxy forms a perfect seal. The main thing is to have patience – glue together one set of components at a time and let them set for ten minutes before starting on the next. And ditch the post-it note palette between each glue mix.