Category: Build Diary

Last week we finished up the undercarriage and painted some pieces to be put inside the model.

This week we will be building a second engine, assembling the small parts from last week and adding the first skin panel to the model.

To start with as always is the unpacking of the parts for this week’s build.

Before starting on the work proper by putting aside everything metal which needs painting and spraying the pieces with primer.

Whilst that was drying I moved on to marking up the skin panel for rivet lines, using the starboard wing trailing-edge section as a guide for where each row of rivets should be.

Then I did much the same with the smaller piece of skin which covers the life-raft using the frame which will be attached to the underside of the hatch (shown in the second picture).

Next, I moved on to assembling the main structure of the engine prior to painting.

Whilst I was waiting for the glue to dry I glued the bench/stool like piece built last week into its position inside the wing main-spar section of fuselage.

Before adding the large tank from the same set of pieces.

Whilst the glue was drying, I assembled most of the other parts from last week.

Then I glued the assembly into the fuselage.

And then installed the two small tanks.

The final action I took with last week’s parts was installing the partition wall (seen here before the glue had dried).

Then I built the port-side wing leading-edge.  The assembly was almost identical to the one of the starboard side component.

At this stage I took everything which needed to be painted interior green and applied an airbrush to them.

Then I masked off the interior of the skin and did the same with anything which needed painting black.

That done, I was able to complete assembly of the engine (having removed any excess paint).

And add the wing-root detail to the cockpit section on the port side.

Next I painted the life-raft pieces.

Before placing some inside their alcove, and gluing others to the hatch.

After testing that the hatch fit in place,

I attached the skin.

Before testing the fit again.

This brought this week’s work to a close.

Next week we’ll be building the starboard cover for the inboard fuel tank, and adding some more internal details.

Last week we started on the undercarriage.

This week we finish off the undercarriage and prepare some parts of the interior.

First Step as always is to get out and unpackage the parts for this week’s work, some parts of which are instantly recognisable.

The next thing I did was prepare all of the parts to be painted.  The most obvious of these were the parts for the interior of the model.  These had to be assembled as shown.

Then I primed everything that needed painting. I put aside anything that wasn’t part of the under carriage for later.

Then I painted the parts of the undercarriage black.

Then I removed any paint that wasn’t necessary to reveal the metal beneath.

Before adding a number of “Bolt heads” to some of the pieces.

Then came adding some wire to mimic the cables, the hardest part of which was tying the wire to the main assembly.

Then some black wire was added to mimic brake cables.

Next I had to attach the two short arms to the main assembly with a pair of screws.

Before connecting the whole thing to the arms installed last week.

Then I bolted the short arms from this week to the longer arms from last week.

Next, I put the smaller cross-brace into the two hollow arms installed last week, and then connected them to the main assembly with another pair of screws.

At the same time I added the square frame into the back of the undercarriage bay.

Then I added the “locks” at the corners of the main hinges to prevent the joints from over-extending.

Following this came the time consuming and delicate task of adding the cabling in the undercarriage bay.

The final stages of the undercarriage assembly involved putting a metal collar onto the axle bearing arms, and adding “bolt-heads” to the sides.

Before assembling the wheel, by inserting the hub, and then gluing on the two hub caps.

Next I took the two springs and bolts shown in this photograph:

And used them to secure the wheel.

Finally, I returned to the interior parts I set aside at the beginning of this diary, starting with a divider and a stand/bench.

First I removed them from their fret.

Before applying the green paint.  The wing training edge appearing here is a replacement for the original one, which the instructions told me to build back-to-front.  This new one actually matches up with the frames in the port wing.

And then added black, white and silver paint to the relevant sections.

Bringing us to this week’s conclusion.

Next week I’ll be building a second engine, the port-side wing leading edge, installing the pieces put together in this diary, and putting the first piece of skin on the model.

Last week I built the starboard leading edge of the wing and floored and painted the aft-most sections of the fuselage.

This week I mostly worked on the starboard undercarriage and the bay it goes into, with some work on other internal details.

To start, I found and laid out all of the bags for this week’s work.

The first set of pieces are for the air intake which lays behind the leading edge I built last week.

This section would end up being one of the most difficult due to needing to straighten the bundle of wire in the bottom left of the above photo.

The first step was installing the two intake holes into the wing leading edge section as shown below:

Next, I installed the brackets onto the air intake.

Then I installed the two small curved pieces of metal into the holes in the vent.

Following that I had to measure out and then drill two holes into the wing to mount the whole assembly.

Then I added a pencil line to represent the point at which the fuselage meets the wing.

I then proceeded to paint the air intake, and glued it to the wing.

Further, to this I began adding details around the intake, including wires.

In the picture above a small hole has been drilled to allow a wire to be threaded through to the fuel tank.

And this issue was finished off with the addition of two thick pieces of copper wire.

Next I unpacked the next issues pieces.

And began marking the two side pieces up for adding rivet marks, using the other piece as a template.

Before setting aside the pieces to be painted later.

I then unpacked the other two issues’ pieces.

Before beginning to add rivet marks to the two bulkhead pieces.

The second piece has a couple more lines of rivets than it should because I misjudged the distance that the central rivet lines should be apart.  Also the curved line of rivets on the bottom edge was challenging.

Again these two pieces (and several others) were set aside to be primed and painted.

Next, I painted the engine control board and the forward hinges for the undercarriage.

I also assembled the engine oil tank.  Part way through attempting (and failing) to install it I decided that the simplest course would be to completely remove the engine mount from the model.

I also installed the hinges mentioned above, and glued a piece of the black wire between the two mounting points for the engine.

Then, I added a collection of wires to the back of the engine mount as shown here.

At about this point I installed the four bulkheads into the undercarriage bay following painting them, and finally began work on the structure of the undercarriage.

The pieces shown above were then screwed together as shown in the next photo.

Then I added small pieces of metal to represent bolt heads.

Before gluing the two arms into the proper place in the undercarriage bay.

I also added a pair of valves to the upper set of wires.

And the last thing for this week I added a piece of wire down the back of the two lower arms of the undercarriage assembly.

Leading to this week’s conclusion.

 

Next week I’ll be finishing the starboard undercarriage, and starting on the over-wing hydraulics.

Last week I covered the construction of the second trailing edge section, the step onto the forward fuselage, and the rivet marking of the floor for the aft-most sections of fuselage.

This week I started by unpacking the pieces for the starboard leading edge of the wing, the bunk, the flooring for the aft section of the bomb-bay and all of the pieces to make the back of the pilot’s instrument panel.

As with the pilot’s instrument panel I passed the parts for the reverse of the panel to my father who was again eager to help.  Unfortunately, we both neglected to take photographs through this process, so we only have the final result:

The first thing I made this week was the leading edge of the wing, these are the parts:

The first step of this was to remove all of the pieces from the fret and cut a small notch at the apex of the two pieces 188a to accommodate stringers:

From there it was a simple matter to assemble all of the parts into a block:

I also added the curved metal details to either end:

From this point, I then had to add stringers, and then remove the back part of the frame:

Finally, I had to add metal pieces to the interior of the rear edge and remove a short length of stringer from the front of the piece:

Next, I moved on to the floor panels which were part of this week’s inventory:

First I had to measure them against their intended destination, which involved altering them to fit:

The line on the far right of the panels seen here shows the length of the block that they are supposed to fit into.  Then I had to measure the proper width, and file to fit again:

Quite a lot of filling later this was the result:

The lines are to mark out the places to put rivet marks for the ribs which you can see in the next picture:

As you can see in this picture the lengthways marks have been added which I marked next:

I then put these pieces aside to paint.

The next stage of the build was the bunk, the parts for which are shown here (the bag contains the Oxygen bottles which will be stacked underneath):

Which came together quickly and simply.

Next, I added stringers to the fuselage block, and wing trailing edge.

Once the stringers had been attached it was time to paint everything.

And it was finally time to put in the decking from last week:

Next I first primed:

And then painted and attached the oxygen bottles to the bunk:

Finally, I attached the wing root shape to the cockpit section of the model.

Leading to this week’s conclusion.

Next week I’ll be working on the vent which goes behind the leading edge assembled this week, and make a start on the starboard undercarriage.

Last week I covered the assembly of the aft most portions of the fuselage, and the mounting points for the mid-upper and rear turrets.

This week, I started (as ever) by unpacking this week’s set of parts.

The first step was to take the aluminium sheets at the left of the above photograph and trim them to fit the proper positions.

  

Next I used a thin marker and a ruler to mark out the rivet lines.

Once this was done I used a pinwheel and the same ruler to inscribe rivet lines into the metal.

Which had this result.

And once you turn the plate over:

I then set these aside to be painted later.

I then took these parts:

Plus a wooden dowel, and a short length of metal wire.

First I shortened the dowel to the required length, and assembled the pieces in the fret above to make a box like structure to fit around the base.  Then I assembled the whole structure, adding a thin metal sheet part way up the dowel.

I then added a piece of masking tape over the metal to protect it during painting.

I then set this piece aside for later.

The next issue focused on the Flares, and the flare-racks to be placed in the fuselage directly aft of the wings.

 

First I painted the flares black:

Before adding red paint to the tips, and to replicate the text on the sides.  I then secured them in groups to the flare racks, make sure to get the distance between the racks correct.

Before touching up the paintwork.

Lastly, I glued the racks into the fuselage section:

Following all of this I added stringers to the aft-most fuselage section:

Before starting on the construction of the starboard wing trailing edge.

This involved these parts, pretty similar to the same structure last week:

The main difference lies in the rectangular section at the right of the above image, which form the recess for the life raft to fit into as shown in this image:

Leading us to this week’s conclusion:

 

Next week I’ll be working on the leading edge of one of the wings and some more of the trailing edge completed this week.