Evening all!
Since today I put paint on the other 2 kits I'm working on, I decided to do a little more on this one.
I had already done some work on the tail and wings, which for some reason I didn't post so I'll update that too.
For the tail, the kit parts are very thick. The vertical parts were thinned easily enough by sanding and I'm happy with those.
But the horizontal stabilizer is beyond saving. Even if it wasn't, the way the kit is designed gives a very awkward joint towards the front, with the foremost part being cast as part of the fuselage. I decided to make another part from plastic sheet stock. The fuselage moulding was removed and a new part (ok, 4, but only the last one was any good) was made.
There's also a kink towards the front of the kit part, but I don't see that on pics or plans of the Etrich version, so I won't include it.
The wing trailing edges have been drastically thinned and sanded to shape. I'll add the scallops once I've marked out the ribs. Today I looked again at the wings and realised that the kit parts are designed to butt against the fuselage, with a nice curve at the joining edge.
Very nicely done, but incorrect, as shown in photos in the Datafile which clearly show a lack of shadows where the gap between wing and fuselage exists. So the ends were sanded flat, which then showed that one was shorter than the other! It also revealed that the rib extension on the front to support the landing gear is too far outboard so that will have to be removed and replaced too.
Here's the extension fitted to the root end, it will be sanded to shape and correct length once dry.
There are also, unfortunately, some adjustments needed on the fuselage. Most noticeably between the cockpits. The panel there, over the fuel tank, is not flat on top but slopes downwards from both cockpits to give a shallow V in the middle. The kit also has the front of the rear cockpit too low, and the back lower corner as a sharp angle, which it isn't on the aircraft I'm modelling. Cutting the front off the rear cockpit, bending it, (the plastic is very soft on this kit), and regluing it has resolved most of the forward issues, it will be tidied up finally once it's all together. The rear edge will be looked at later.
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Finally for today, I found a white metal prop in the spares box and cleaned that up. For some reason this kit doesn't have one, although it has a lot of other white metal parts!
A big improvement!
One last question. Does anyone have a photo of the induction (right) side of a Benz BzII 6 cylinder engine? There is a good cutaway of the left (exhaust) side on the web but I haven't found any detail of the other side, or any details of how it was mounted with the cooling tank etc fitted.
Thanks for looking in, and stay safe!
Ian
