@ Gary:
Thank you for your positive comments. I am a (silent) admirer of your exceptional detailing and weathering skills and I think your Holt tractor and Morse gun diorama are second to none.
@ Richie:
Thank you for posting this picture. This is very interesting, because it shows lots of screws in a fixed pattern. This confirms that it is not solid, but hollow.
"With the double aim of saving weight and avoiding the use of long lengths of spruce, all the longerons and struts, except in the extreme nose of the fuselage, were made from hollow spars of circular or streamline section, rolled up from laminated spruce in the manner patented by the Southampton yacht builder McGruer."
(Source: C. H. Barnes - "Handley Page aircraft since 1907”)
And yes, this was a big beast with a wingspan of 126 ft. The only bigger WWI aircraft was the Staaken with a wingspan of 138 ft 5 in.
I am waiting for some AA brass I ordered to do some testing on the lower stabilizers to attach them to the actual fuselage.
The work on the flying surfaces of the tailplane is tedious to say the least, but it is nearing completion (no pics yet) and I will be glad when I have finished them. Several times I have been at the point of picking up a hammer and, well you get the idea...
I have been working on them for so long now, that I can hardly wait to start on an other segment of the model.
The fuselage will be next, and I'm taking a look at the cockpit area. I'm making sketches of a few cross sections and I'm trying to figure out the form, so I can plan the size of the instrument panel, which carried a lot of dials and switches.
BTW, I've been keeping record of the number of parts (Styrene sheet, strips, balsa and brass) used in this build so far.
With all 15 surfaces (4 fins, 4 rudder, 3 stabilizers and 4 elevators) including hardware completed, the counter is at 511. And twice as much in the scrap box.
My pace will even slow down more the next couple of weeks, with family visiting from Switzerland, but,
I'll be back.
Willem