I don't get why people don't like to sand things. I think it's a hell of a lot of fun and also kinda therapeutic. Though, before you do too much of it, put a lot of thought into dust management. Trust me, the stuff gets everywhere and and will eventually coat everything in your workshop. Shop vacs are a must...
How much of a perfectionist are you in terms of sanding? For me at least I go down to 1200 grit and sometimes more primarily because it improves both the finish and adhesion of the covering material. Any serious geometrical adjustments can be done with 60-100 grit. With balsa though, the best way I've found is let the paper do the work, don't muscle it. I'm always hyperattentive to everything the paper touches because you can't unsand things.
Are you using sanding blocks? They're great for applying uniform pressure to a surface so you don't accidentally sand sections of the wood down more than others and create depressions in things or sand curves wrong. Having one in every grit you plan to use is the bare minimum, I have that plus a million other weirdly shaped ones for getting into strange places. You can get nice ones, but I prefer to make my own with just a 2x4 cut down and staples, as sandpaper does wear down itself over time and will need to be replaced. Also designate a set of blocks to be wood-only, as if you do things like sand plastic it will leave little bits of plastic embedded within the sandpaper which will leave scratches in the wood.
For large sections that have to be taken off, like a nose cone, scroll saws or even a straight balsa saw coupled with a mitre box is really nice. You can use a belt sander, but that takes a lot more time and generates a million times more dust. Here's my full-size GL nosecone which I cut to shape off the plane and then sanded with the rest of the fuselage, then I went over the seam with just a little bit of filler putty to clean it up. With the covering on, the seam is invisible. I'm honestly quite happy with how it turned out.
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