Last week there was a very long build diary covering all of the work I had to carry out to catch up to where I should have been.
This week we focused on some of the interior of the model. But as always first we begin with a picture of this week’s parts.
The first thing which I did was glue the metal parts together into subassemblies. Including the six small metal panels which went onto the elevator. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any photographs of the elevator this week, but these are the other metal subassemblies.
Next, I added rivet marks to the piece of “skin” which was to go on the underside of the starboard wing trailing edge.
Having done this I put all of the metal parts aside to be primed and painted later.
Then, I began putting together the flap corresponding to the same trailing edge as the skin.
First, I removed all of the pieces from the fret.
Then I put it all together.
And put it aside to be painted.
Next was building the stand for the hydraulic pumps which would be added to the model later.
I then modified the starboard wing trailing edge with two metal strips and two of the pieces from the fret with the flap to form a small triangular cut-out at the rear-inboard edge.
As you can see in the photo above I also masked off the assembly for painting.
Next came the most difficult part of this week’s construction. The installation of the hydraulics required working in extremely tight confines.
So the decision was taken to remove the side of the section in question.
This made it somewhat easier to access the interior of the model.
I then put this section aside until I had finished painting the various subassemblies.
And then put some of the pieces together even further (Hydraulic pumps, doors, and rails and a parachute).
I next decided to place the doors into the rearmost fuselage. The main problem was, how to hold them in place long enough to get both doors in? I settled on creating a jig out of five cocktail sticks and an elastic band which can be seen here.
This provided a temporary ledge I could place the doors onto as the glue dried.
Then I installed an oxygen bottle and the four hand rails into the aft-most portion of the fuselage.
And a ladder into the area just above the door.
Making this section nearly complete (except for the turret, skin, a light and the two ammunition feeds).
I now installed the skin onto the wing trailing edge.
And finally moved onto installing the hydraulics for which I had removed the side of a section of fuselage.
And I placed the parachute behind the pilot’s position in the cockpit.
This brings us to the end of this week’s work. I have left the side off of the model as there are several more additions to make to the hydraulics in that section before it’ll be complete.
Next week we’ll be adding the port-side vertical stabiliser and rudder, and adding an electrical panel and its attendant wiring to the cockpit.