I am like you OM: I too rush into a project thinking that all will be fine....until it isn't! However with your skill anything is possible - just takes a little longer that is all.
Super work on the underside of the lower wing - a challenge but one which I too would enjoy.
Stephen.
Thank you. It is a tricky shape, but it was fun to do.
It's never as straight forward as we hope it will be, but that's part of the challenge. You're rising to that challenge and the way it's going this is going to be a beauty!
Ian
Thank you. It's the improvisation that makes it fun. As the man said, no plane survives contact with the enemy....
Well, I have finally buckled down to the chore of dealing with the wing panels. I will be getting back to 'El Sonora', and in somewhat the same vein, but the general madness has been too distracting lately to keep my mind clear for the numbers juggling needed for making the pieces that project now needs.
Here is a look, courtesy of a nose-over, at what the wings looked like:
The 'half-ribs' (actually more 2/3rds ribs) do show, but not definitely in some instances. The Windsock drawing indicates tapes on the full ribs.
To indicate tapes, I am scribing in their 'borders', a technique I used a while back on this model:
By happy chance, the portions of the C.II kit's wings outboard of the center sections are just about the right size for the wing panels of the D.I.
Here is the first step:
The far piece has just been smoothed down. On the near pieces, the port panel has ribs and short ribs laid down with pencil, while on the starboard panel, the 'plane' has been broken between the full ribs and short ribs, by scraping with a curved blade and use of emery 'salon board' tips.
Here you can see the next stages on the upper surface of the panels:
The near piece shows the scribing of the tape borders. I use a flexible piece of thin plastic to guide a needle in a pin-vise for several scrapes, then use that as a guide for a #11 blade with its tip broken off, to give a chisel front, with which the lines are deepened. All on one 'side' of the tapes on a panel are put in, then the other 'side' is done, with the guide positioned so the earlier line can be seen, and tge Mk. I eyeball has a chance to get widths more or less regular. Each single step is not particularly difficult, but there are an awful lot of them, and that's what makes it a chore. The upper piece shows what ithe fully scribed surface looks like after a first spray of primer. There will be more primer when the separated panels are fixed to the center sections, and then brushed paint, so everything will be a bit less prominent once completed.
Here are the undersurfaces, at the same stage:
The somewhat distressed surface of the primed panel on the right (actually a port undersurface) reflects the difficulty one may encounter when a better way to do something comes to mind in the middle of a project. On the upper surface, the presence of a detectable 'ridge' helped keep the scribings narrow and regular. On the undersurface, there is no need to 'break the plane', and lines can be be scribed in directly after layout in pencil. Going for both sides of the drawn line did not give me results I was too happy with on that panel to the upper right, and going to the next panel it occurred to me I could, after scribing in one 'side' of the tapes, rub a lot of pencil onto the panel, then wipe it all down with a lick of spit on a fingertip (The more fastidious may employ damp paper towel or cloth). Doing this leaves the scribed line full of graphite, and starkly visible, so when doing the other 'side', it is easy to see the width being scored. Filling in the scribing on that first panel, and going over it again with the new technique improved things somewhat, but I am not too happy with it even so. I am going to live with it, though, because I suspect further efforts at repair will only do damage --- the wing pieces are pretty thin, and I would not put it past this brittle plastic to snap while being scored if it is abraded down too thin.
So the next step will be getting the panels on the center sections, so final placement of the wings to the fuselage can be gauged. There is no stagger, positions of leading edges have to match. Some small scalloping must go in at the trailing edges, and the panels chosen for the lower wing have to have their tips trimmed back by one rib, as the lower wing had a slightly shorter span. I expect the piece with the substandard panel will provide the makings for the lower wing,
The great chore, however, is out of the way....