ISSUE 85-Wheels.
Issue 85 contains one main wheel,a bit long winded supplying one wheel a week but there you go,assembling these wheels is a fairly simple operation involving glueing the two main halves together,spraying the hubs red and pressing on the tyres,the spindle just needs a little clean up to make sure the wheels spin freely.
In view of this lack of anything to do on the model I decided that it was time to do a bit of assembly work,obviously they are holding back because they imagine everyone is intending to cover their creation,not myself as there is just too much work in this model to get covered up,so I set about assembling the tail,as outlined in issue 84 the tail struts need alteration as they will not fit as supplied,quite frankly a trip down to the local model shop to purchase some streamlined strut material would be a better option,then to crimp the ends and attach them.The strut locations where they meet the tailplane are incorrect but there is not a lot that can be done about this dilemma,they actually attach to the elevator brackets but this is not feasible to do on our model,next was the rudder,the brackets supplied are very brittle and snapped on mine,I made some new and better ones up from brass strip bent around a piece of piano wire and glued them into place with epoxy,also note that I have added a small piece of wood to the sternpost,this allows a groove to be cut for the rudder horns otherwise they bottom out against the metal sternpost when the rudder is moved,here is a view of this area-
The elevator horns have yet to be added as I am not sure of their exact position yet,once the exit cable points are clear then they will be fitted,a final run around all of the tail attachment points with araldite completed the operation.
Next I decided to fix the fuel tank,this was fairly traightforward except for a bit of juggling with the brackets,then came the ammo box which would not bridge between the upper longerons,this was soon rectified with two pieces of brass tube cut into two,these were inserted like collets into the existing brackets,this rectified this area,to show where the guns locate I have simply aligned them into the ammo box,the ejector chute arrangement is not strictly correct and eventually I will make a new box,but this will suffice to help people who want to use the parts supplied.
You will notice that my mid wing is screwed into position,to do this I made a ply bridge between the upper longerons and held it in place with thin litho plate bent around the edges and epoxied into place,the fuel tank also is screwed into place with one tiny screw so everything can be dismantled if required later.
This is what this area now looks like-
Note that the mid bracket attached to the fuel tank is doing nothing,it should actually reach between the upper longerons ! the reason for this is that it was made too short in the first place,as it is firmly attached to he tank I need to work out how to extend it.
Here is a view from the rear of the same assembly,the rudder bar has still to be fitted.
And finally could not resist adding the upper wings to see what she will look like,the interplane struts simply plug into slots in the spars.
At long last she is starting to look like an aeroplane,it has been over one and a half years since this part works first started,the two year supply of parts is just too long and many people have already lost interest in this project,it would have been better to have supplied double the parts and finish the series in one year,the general publics interest has waned.
Issue 85 contains one main wheel,a bit long winded supplying one wheel a week but there you go,assembling these wheels is a fairly simple operation involving glueing the two main halves together,spraying the hubs red and pressing on the tyres,the spindle just needs a little clean up to make sure the wheels spin freely.
In view of this lack of anything to do on the model I decided that it was time to do a bit of assembly work,obviously they are holding back because they imagine everyone is intending to cover their creation,not myself as there is just too much work in this model to get covered up,so I set about assembling the tail,as outlined in issue 84 the tail struts need alteration as they will not fit as supplied,quite frankly a trip down to the local model shop to purchase some streamlined strut material would be a better option,then to crimp the ends and attach them.The strut locations where they meet the tailplane are incorrect but there is not a lot that can be done about this dilemma,they actually attach to the elevator brackets but this is not feasible to do on our model,next was the rudder,the brackets supplied are very brittle and snapped on mine,I made some new and better ones up from brass strip bent around a piece of piano wire and glued them into place with epoxy,also note that I have added a small piece of wood to the sternpost,this allows a groove to be cut for the rudder horns otherwise they bottom out against the metal sternpost when the rudder is moved,here is a view of this area-
The elevator horns have yet to be added as I am not sure of their exact position yet,once the exit cable points are clear then they will be fitted,a final run around all of the tail attachment points with araldite completed the operation.
Next I decided to fix the fuel tank,this was fairly traightforward except for a bit of juggling with the brackets,then came the ammo box which would not bridge between the upper longerons,this was soon rectified with two pieces of brass tube cut into two,these were inserted like collets into the existing brackets,this rectified this area,to show where the guns locate I have simply aligned them into the ammo box,the ejector chute arrangement is not strictly correct and eventually I will make a new box,but this will suffice to help people who want to use the parts supplied.
You will notice that my mid wing is screwed into position,to do this I made a ply bridge between the upper longerons and held it in place with thin litho plate bent around the edges and epoxied into place,the fuel tank also is screwed into place with one tiny screw so everything can be dismantled if required later.
This is what this area now looks like-
Note that the mid bracket attached to the fuel tank is doing nothing,it should actually reach between the upper longerons ! the reason for this is that it was made too short in the first place,as it is firmly attached to he tank I need to work out how to extend it.
Here is a view from the rear of the same assembly,the rudder bar has still to be fitted.
And finally could not resist adding the upper wings to see what she will look like,the interplane struts simply plug into slots in the spars.
At long last she is starting to look like an aeroplane,it has been over one and a half years since this part works first started,the two year supply of parts is just too long and many people have already lost interest in this project,it would have been better to have supplied double the parts and finish the series in one year,the general publics interest has waned.
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