In the past I have used masking tape or other types of tape to protect the sheeting as I am grinding down the leading edge stock with #80 sand paper. Put a strip of tape or two, depending on the tape width, behind the leading edge stock onto to sheeting full length span wise.  This should protect the sheeting as you sand.  When you get the leading edge stock close to shape, you will start to sand into the tape, but the tape will be protecting the sheeting until the leading edge stock is almost perfectly flush with the sheeting. About then I change my #80 paper out to #120 or such and carefully blend any remaining extra leading edge stock into the sheeting. A nice long flat sanding block helps a lot.  Have fun.  

  I sure don't want to "gouge" the l/e sheeting when shaping the leading edge, so all help/suggestions will be appreciated.

   Put a line of masking tape on the sheeting right behind the LE wood, root to tip, on both sides. Use a razor plane to carve away the majority of the excess wood, leaving the cut surface tangent to the sheeting Finish both top and bottom that way, and make sure that the "flat spot" at the LE is centered on the marked centerline. Then sand it with a long sanding block with maybe 180 grit all the way to the tape using light pressure. If you feel the tape start to ball up, stop, and replace it. Then start knocking off the corners with the plane again, keeping it centered. As you get close, change to moving chordwise, cross-grain, with a pull from the sheeting to the centerline, rounding everything off. When you think you are about finished, remove the tape, sand conventionally to smooth it all out.

     If you do get some gouges in the wood, wet them with straight water, and then hit it with a monokote iron.

        Brett

What Dan and Brett said about the tape.  That's what I do.  But there is also another good tip to doing a better job.  Take the time to build yourself a jig to securely hold the wing in a vertical position, at a comfortable working height.  That will really inprove the quality of your work.  When I realized I needed something like that (about 6 wings ago) it only took about 2 hours to put something together from scrap materials I had laying around.  Even if you had to go buy the materials it would only be about 20 bucks.  Best investment of 2 hours time I ever made.  I can also put the wing in the jig facing down to work on the hingeline.  If you want to have perfect LE's and hinge alignment, start by building a jig.  Will dig up some pictures later.        
The JigMan

What Dan and Brett said about the tape.  That's what I do.  But there is also another good tip to doing a better job.  Take the time to build yourself a jig to securely hold the wing in a vertical position, at a comfortable working height.  That will really inprove the quality of your work.  When I realized I needed something like that (about 6 wings ago) it only took about 2 hours to put something together from scrap materials I had laying around.  Even if you had to go buy the materials it would only be about 20 bucks.  Best investment of 2 hours time I ever made.  I can also put the wing in the jig facing down to work on the hingeline.  If you want to have perfect LE's and hinge alignment, start by building a jig.  Will dig up some pictures later.        
The JigMan

    Good idea.

    BTW, the cross-grain/chordwise part with a rigid sanding block is really important. If you sand entirely spanwise, the tendency is to sand more in the middle than the ends, and you end up with a LE that is curved in plan view, and blunter in the middle than the root and tip.

    Brett

       10-4 Jig Man, lookin forward to seein the jig pictures...

Base is 3/4 plywood, like I said, scrap that was hanging around looking for something to do.  I have plenty of scrap.
Ripped a piece of 2 by 4 about 2" wide, thats the spacer at the bottom between the 2 "claws".
Claws are made from 1/8" pressboard,  stiff but flexible to conform to taper of wing.  
U shaped cutout in middle of claws has 2 purposes.  
1>Allows clearance for bellcrank post before its cut to final length.  (I dont cut the post till after it's in the fuse)
2>Divides the left and right sides of the claw so they can flex opposite to each other to match the tapers on both wing panels.
The two clamping screws are just long carrige bolts (1/4x20) with black plastic knobs (about $2 at the hdwe store)
Forget about the long strips of aluminum, I just used that in place of washers because it was laying around.

Put a couple pieces of soft rubber tubing over the carrige bolts between the claws to protect wing from getting damaged by the threads.  
Sometimes if just doing light sanding work on wing and dont need it to be held real tight, I will just put wing between claws and let it rest on the bolts.
Invest a couple hours in a wing holding jig and you'll be glad you did.  

Allan,

All kidding aside. WOW!!

You do good work. Kudos!

BTW. The wing looks perfect! Looks like you also picked the balsa wood special for that wing. Does that wing belong to a kit?

Your Jig? I know what modelers will say, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Every time I thought jig, the design would be over designed and I would never get to it.

You nailed it!

I actually have the .75" base and the 2x4 which I can rip on my neighbors table saw, which is kindly taking up space in my garage.

If knobs aren't available, wing nuts would be fine, just have to be careful.

You know, a couple of dowel holes, at the top to support a base, and your jig could hold a fuselage.

You could also contact cement carpet foam to each side of your claws.

Well I asked for photos, and I'm more than delighted with them.

Thanks for that!

Charles

Allan you are very close to being a genius.   

And your Humble too !!!

Great looking jig.  What is the length of it?  

Base is 20" wide,   15" deep
Jaws are 20" wide,   12" high

When I use it for shaping / sanding LE, I clamp it in the jig offset to the panel I am working on.  I put the wing all the way down till trailing edge rest on the 2 clamp bolts and then tighen the jaws so its secure.  I will either clamp or screw jig to workbench, or sometimes put heavy weight on backside of base.  The wing is held tightly (with no damage) and I can do pretty much what I want and it does not move.  That makes it much easier to do your best possible job, and develop new skills along the way.

I have also clamped many times a balsa sheeted foam core wing with ZERO damage to the sheeting.  The Novar wing was in and out of this jig probably 20 times in the course of shaping LE, TE, and hinge installation.  

This one works fine, but if I was to make another one, I would increase width to 24"~26".