No experience necessary if working from a kit. Follow the video below and your plane will be awesome. There is also a new Squirrel Instruction Sheet. You’ll need scissors, glue stick (optional but saves a bit of time if used where called for) and craft glue (any carpenter or white glue).

Working from scratch (without a kit) requires tools for cutting. Visit hobby and craft stores for raw materials. The elastic band motor is not an ordinary office elastic band so ask your hobby store about it.  A Squirrel Handbook is available.

Step 1: Lay out Parts and Tissue

Arrange your work-space into three sections as shown in video. This helps share glue with other Squirrel makers.

Section 1 (furthest from you): Drinks, parts, glue and scissors. You can share your glue and scissors this way.

Section 2: Tissue for wing.

Section 3: Tissue for tail planes.

 

Step 2: Wing Leading Edge

Glue Stick a thin 12″ (30cm) balsa strips  to the tissue as follows.

Glue it on the furthest edge of the tissue. Roughly center it so there’s at least two inches of extra tissue on each side.

Step 3: Wing Tips

In this step you will use craft glue and glue stick. Glue stick holds the part to the paper. Craft glue holds the wood two wood connections. It’s important that the wood parts are actually glued.

You’ll use two of  the 2″ (5m) balsa strips.

Don’t apply craft glue directly from the bottle. Put a blob on the glue stick cap and use a toothpick to transfer it to the model (see video). Less is more! If the right amount of glue is used it will dry quickly. Otherwise it’s excess weight and can take hours to dry.

Note: Cyanoacrylates (CA, Super glue etc.) may work but are dangerous and not suitable for children. Cyano glues add weight unless used very skillfully.

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