Here is what I've done. I have an inexpensive ($65) Brother laser printer and I would recommend not using an inkjet if you can avoid it. The way the inkjets print may leave more room for error when it comes to lining everything up. (And ink is way expensive for printing something black and white!).
I run a test print of the page that has the scale/ruler on it and measure it to see if the ruler on the printed page is actually the size it should be. If it is too small or too large I'll adjust the print scale setting up or down a bit until I can print a ruler from the plans that is within 1/16 of an inch of being true scale. Again, only print out the page that has the ruler/scale so you don't waste paper/ink/time.
Once I've got the print settings right make a note of it somewhere with the file name and settings. Each plan you get may need different print settings to get a correct scale, not everyone designs their plans the same way. (All the tiled FT plans I've downloaded print perfectly for me and it is a credit to all the work FliteTest puts into everything they do. Kudos guys!)
Once I have my pages printed I'll spread them out in order to see where they will need to match up.
In this case since I've got six tiles/pages I'm going to trim off the edges of a few and tack the pages together into a large sheet with the lines all matched up. This was my first ever so I just trimmed off the inner borders of some of the pages and used tiny bits of masking tape to just hold them lightly together incase I needed to move things around. If you want to take a closer look at how and where I trimmed the sheets to matchup you can look at the
larger resolution image here.
Once I have the lines all matching I carefully turn the whole thing over and tape the sheets together from the back with masking tape.
This is what actually holds the pages together as one large set of plans and it keeps the front of the sheets clear. Once I have this large sheet I turn it back over and cut out the individual pieces with scissors, taking my time and using a blade for the inner cuts.
Once I have these patterns cut out I then write the name of the model on each piece somewhere just so I don't later try and cut a FT Flyer tail for a FT Nutball.
Then I'll arrange them on a new sheet of foam core. I played around with the arrangement of the pieces to try and get the best use of the sheet. Since this is going to be my first RC plane and I know I'm going to need replacement parts and I want to make a FT Nutball body for my 8 year old son to learn to fly I'm getting one wing two tails and two power pods out of this one sheet.
I just put the patterns down and took a mechanical pencil and carefully traced around the edges of the pattern pieces. If you have problems with the pattern paper slipping while you are tracing you can try taking a couple sewing pins and pinning the pattern right to the foam core to hold it in place. Slipping is another reason I like to use the paper masking tape to hold the sheets together. Having the masking tape stripes on the back of the patters gives the patterns more of a non slip grip than if I had used smooth wrapping paper tape.
Once you have your tracing make sure you are over your cutting mat or a surface that you can cut into without your wife screaming at you for doing it later. Then
CAREFULLY take your blade, your metal straight edge and cut out your pieces. I actually use surgical scalpel blades rather than hobby knife blades, they are much thinner but do dull faster.
Once you have the parts cut free of the sheet and any of the holes cut you're ready to start refining and doing the complex cuts.
At This point I'll put my patterns back over my newly cut parts and mark the start and end points of my straight cuts for things like the B folds of the power pods, hinges, and polyhedral of the wing. Once you have those marked
DOUBLE CHECK WITH THE PLANS before you start cutting into your new parts. Make sure you know that you are cutting into the right side of the part, if you are cutting half way or all the way, if it is a hinge how is it going to swing?
And follow Josh's FliteTest videos.
After more cutting, a few bevels and hinges, all under clear guidance of brother Bixler I had a successful test fit of both power pods to my new FT Nutball airframe.
Again, I'm new to the hobby and this is all from my first build. I'm still waiting for Hobbyking to ship me my transmitter but I've started to document what I'm learning and how I've come to the hobby
on my site in the 'Start from zero RC' section.
Hope this helps.