 PLACE
THE ENGINE
Begin by bringing in the finished engine model from the previous tutorial (you
can either merge the file, or use the engine as a linked Xref object) (SCREENSHOT).
This is not precisely necessary, but I used this as an opportunity to verify
that my engine model was going to work with the scale of the airplane model I
was about to build.
Once the engine is placed and scaled, freeze it so that you can work around it
(SCREENSHOT).
If your computer has limited resources, and the engine will slow you down, do
not place it at this time.
Set up each of your viewports so that you can easily see each of the plan angles
(side, front, top) (SCREENSHOT).
Select and maximize the side angle. We'll begin by laying down the outer wooden
frame.
 MAKING
THE MAIN FUSELAGE FRAME
The wooden frame is made up of fairly narrow pieces, considering the stresses
involved, so I set a base size of 2" square. This may not be 100% accurate, but
will suffice for my purposes. Feel free to alter any dimension you think are
wrong.
In the side viewport, I use the Line spline and create a line that follows the
outer edge of the frame, with a vertex at each junction (SCREENSHOT).
By turning on the Enable in Viewport option I can see how the rendered spline
will look. I also set the spline to be rectangular, rather than round.
Switching over to the top viewport, we see that the spline is flat, and does not
yet match the curve of the fuselage (SCREENSHOT).
Using vertex editing mode, edit the spline until it roughly matches the curve of the
fuselage main frame member (SCREENSHOT). You may need to change some segments from
line to
curve or some vertices from corner to Bezier corner (SCREENSHOT).
Right-click to activate this menu. Convert the Line spline into an
Editable Spline when you are done (SCREENSHOT).
Finish editing the curve until it exactly matches the wooden framework (you may need to turn off
Enable in Viewport
to allow for fine control of the spline) (SCREENSHOT).
The final result should look like this (SCREENSHOT).
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