Gluing Balsa

I've never built a balsa wood model, but picked up dumas aircraft's
F4U Corsair as my first one as it inspired me.

I have my first parts pinned down to a 1/2 foam core board ready for gluing, but now I'm questioning the glue sold to me for this which was
Testors Cement for Wood Models. I see several posts about yellow (wood) glue being best.

I also see several posts about 'painting' the pieces with a 50/50 mix of white glue and water.

I was wondering if there was a series of posts like Bill Zuk's series on building a model, but for balsa not plastic and if there was a good website or book that might be of assistance to me in this.

Lastly, I live close to Portland, Oregon and while I know there are modelers here I am having a hard time finding a hobby store with more than 5 kits. If anyone knows of any good source and local modeling chapters I would appreciate it very much.

I also travel to Eugene, Oregon on a semi-regular basis (I visited the shop on 11th) and will make a stop in Boise, Idaho this week if anyone has any suggestions for those areas.

Thank you all for any suggestions and advice.

I'm hardly an expert but I can suggest 2 books that have helped me over the years.

1. Flying Models by Don Ross- ISBN 0-938710-54-9

2. Rubber Powered Model Airplanes by Don Ross- ISBN 0-938716-19-0

Even if you don't plan on flying your models, these 2 books have many excellent building suggestions that I've used in many static display models.

Good luck

Thanks for the suggestions, I shall look them up. I am pleased to see a book that actually addresses Rubber Powered.

When I visited one of the shops and asked about Rubber Powered balsa wood plane kits the hired help said they didn't know what that was.
They then showed me where their kits were and of course in big letters across the kits it said "Rubber Powered."

A couple of recommendations:

1. Testor's wood glue is not a good choice, IMHO. I use yellow carpenter's glue (Titebond, etc.), or super glue. Both are great for balsa.

2. There are a lot of resources available for "stick and tissue" builders on the web. A couple of good ones: www.smallflyingarts.com
The Yahoo group "FFcookup" Moderated by John Ernst, this is a very friendly bunch.

3. Painting the pieces with diluted white glue is an option for applying the tissue to the frames, but does nothing for you during construction of the frames themselves. There are a number of techniques used to cover models with tissue, from the traditional dope to glue sticks and spray Krylon clear. Covering techniques are discussed in both forums mentioned above.

-Bill (Who currently has a DPC models 16" span Sopwith Triplane framed up and almost ready for covering.)

Testors cement is okay, and was the standard for decades, but this was before good vinyl (white) glues and CA.

White glue is VERY good for balsa models, though you have to be careful not to use too much or you end up with a heavy model, not a problem if you don't intend to fly it much.

Gap filling (thickened) CA also works well, and really speeds up building time.

The fifty fifty mixture of white glue and water is for covering, not for building the structure.