It's been a busy couple of days, whilst waiting for the arrival of the 7th cavalry to save me from the horrors of making 8 identical cylinders I thought I would make a start on the fuselage frame. The bottom of the fuselage is skinned with plywood on the real aircraft so I could use 0.5mm styrene to give a bit more rigidity, the top deck is made the same way. I cut the shapes out, tacked them together and filed the outline so they were identical. After separating the frame was added. I found it helpful to use an old tablet as a lightbox, with the brightness on full the drawing shows through the styrene.
BE2c fuselage frame start by
Richard Williams, on Flickr
These were then joined together, I used a pair of engineers squares to help keep things in line.
2021-08-20_01-15-50 by
Richard Williams, on Flickr
Stringers were added from 0.5mm styrene strip, these are pretty flimsy so I will need to be very careful when it comes to adding the turtle deck, this is a long way down the line so I will worry about that when the time comes. I am pleased with how this is going, the Bristol Scout frame took so many attempts before I had something useable. There is a lot of excess superglue but I think I can easily chip it away or just face the exposed side of the bulkhead with thin styrene or even wood veneer.
20210820_153408 by
Richard Williams, on Flickr
Just as I was gluing the last stringer a knock on the door signalled the arrival of the rescue party in the form of a package from Willem
20210820_154139 by
Richard Williams, on Flickr
This is a Wingnut Wings RAF 4a engine sprue Willem so generously donated to me, this forum community is a great place to be! This engine used the same cylinders as the 1a engine and the kit comes complete with all the fiddly little rockers, valves and other such minute details. So the next step is to finish the engine and the front of the framework so I can see how I can mount it securely.
Have a great weekend everybody, thanks for reading and another massive THANK YOU to Willem!
Richie
