Evening All,
Many thanks Lance, Alexis, Rick, Dave, Guiseppe, Ermio, Frank and Richie for your kind and encouraging comments. I have been in sore need of those recently as this update will show!
Well I nearly lost my mojo again. I finished sanding down the ribs on the horizontal surfaces and then turned to constructing the nacelle. My original intention was to push mould it in two halves, so I dutifully carved the male mould from basswood and after a couple of attempts I had two halves. Then I saw the problems which I had not given sufficient thought to, namely that I had a seam down the nose and the leading edge on the nose was rather blunt. I then did what I should have done at the start - look at a similar nacelle which I had made for a previous build. I refer to a Voisin III model which I made some years ago which has similarities in shape with this one:
The leading edge of the nacelle is sharp and the sides are flat so that the angles are quite sharp. The front of the nacelle is slightly curved and very prominent - any joint there is going to be a b.... to fill and hide. When I looked up how I had made the nacelle the answer was a blinding flash of the b.....obvious:
Make the sides and bottom from flat card and mould the top surface! This method means that the sharp edges of the lower part of the nacelle are easily reproduced, (no rounded corners resulting form the push mould which have to be sharpened), and the top surface has no seams! Easy when a little thought is given to the problem, or even simpler if I look up how I did something in the past....!
So back to square one and start again... by making the sides and bottom from 30 and 20 thou card respectively. This also made the cutting of the two rectangular and one round window in the bottom of the nacelle easy - no trying to match holes on each half of a nacelle moulding. I could curve the rear of the underside by repeatedly bending it with a pair of tweezers. I put some supports along the fuselage sides to hold the floor in the correct place, added some simple framing, painted the insides, made a blanking piece which represents the fuel tank behind the observer and a throttle quadrant, and it was ready to be assembled:
The seat in the image is a spare resin from Barracuda - I am not sure if it is accurate but as nobody is likely to see it I am not too concerned. Similarly I have left the interior details to a minimum - I will add an IP and control wheel but nothing else will be visible. The fuel tank blank helps to support the fuselage sides until I can fix the top in place. The rear of the fuselage was blanked off with 60 thou card to allow for the necessary filing and shaping. Filler will be needed here later too.
I moulded the top using the male fuselage mould and a new hole cut in plywood sheet. At this point I again ran into problems. Generally I can get a decent mould after two or three tries - not this time. Male moulds made from balsa wood seems to need a smaller gap than those made from basswood so I had to keep sanding down the male mould. Then I could not get the front of the nacelle to mould properly: I was close to putting this project on hold and starting something else. I decided that I would give it one more try and slightly change the angle when I pushed the male mould into the plastic sheet - and it worked immediately! I think that I am beginning to lose my touch with this moulding process as I have never had quite so many failures before.
Quite a lot of plastic had to be removed but that was straightforward so that I am at last at this stage:
The engine will consist of a row of rod pieces glued together with the top of the engine detail: I do not intend to make the lower parts as they will be completely concealed on the finished model. This was dropped into the fuselage so that I could measure the size of the hole which I need to cut into the moulding later.
I am hoping that I can now complete the nacelle and engine details and proceed with painting.
Thanks for looking.
Stephen.