Gap seals can aid in reducing not only drag and interference but flutter as well. Radim Horky is using them on his Arcus models and they are a useful and aesthetic replacement for wipers. Too, they emulate the seals on full-size sailplanes when done correctly.
Most moldies are live-hinged so there is really no need on the hinge side from a performance standpoint. If your model has no wipers on the opposing side, a gap seal may be very effective. There is no problem with adding them to both sides for that special scale embellishment. I use them on both sides on knuckle-hinged models.
There are any number of ways to achieve effective seals. There are ready-made gap seal tapes available that will do the trick. Getting that scale look requires a bit more work so it might be interesting to see what options are out there. If you have sources for materials and/or techniques, chime in and share.
I'll start first.
Most full-scale(FS) sailplanes use pre-curved Mylar material and range in width from 22mm- 78mm with 35mm being a pretty common size on most modern glass ships depending on which surface it is and whether it is on the top or bottom.
The 35mm size works well for my purposes on most models and this size translates to about 7/16" wide at 1/3 scale. I use matte polyester (mylar) film in .005"-.007" thickness and cut it to the widths I need as I'll explain. I bought a 200 foot roll of .005" material from Grafix Plastics many years ago and have
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