Hi Folks,
thanks for you interest. If there some questions, feel free to ask. I can't have a look every day into this Forum, but I will try to answer within 1 or 2 days.
Anyway,
here comes step 2:
After the "green stuff" putty has hardened, the fitting is brought into the desired pose. The break points are transferred from the template to the wire with a pair of compasses and then bent with pliers. In this step it is advisable to work as precisely as possible, since mistakes are difficult to correct afterwards (an arm that is too long remains an arm that is too long. No modeling skills, no matter how great, help!). Finally, the palms flattened and swoosh, ... the pilot is sitting in the machine!
In order to be able to work properly on the figure, it is inserted with its extra-long legs into a wooden base (balsa). Because our figure (later) has free hanging legs, the wires don't need to be inserted too far. Since the wire is only a thin 1mm aluminum wire, you run the risk of constantly bending the figure back and forth while working. If this happens too often, the wire breaks at some point. Then you have a problem! In order to avoid this as much as possible, I use a 1.5mm iron wire that is glued in at one end in the base and at the other end in the back of the figure (a drop of superglue - alternatively you can do it yourself help with some "green stuff").
That's all for today,
Martin