Thank you, once more.
I admire your precision drilling ability - what do you use for this? Just a pin vice and a small bit, or do you have something more sophisticated?
Indeed, it is a pin vice and 0.4mm drill bits. I used to use 0.3mm ones but they were breaking very frequently and I also had difficulties with pressing the eyelets into the 0.3mm holes. Now with 0.4mm ones I have more resistant drills and more ease with mounting the eyelets (for these I use a 0.125mm fuse copper wire, so they are 0.25mm dia after twisting).
I admire your precision drilling ability - what do you use for this? Just a pin vice and a small bit, or do you have something more sophisticated?
Prze,
I too am very impressed with your drilling and eyelet installation. I built this kit in the same scheme 10 years back and mentioned in the Build Log ( my Desk Top doesn't want to provide a link today but you can find the Build Log in the January 2016 Under Construction section if it will be of any assistance) that I had difficulty (self induced!) with installing the eyelets in the various delicate parts of the strut and lattice areas, you have cruised right through that challenge with some very clean and impressive work! This model has weathered the years very well and remains one of my very favorites and I'll be following your progress closely as you produce yet another of your spectacular Builds! Oh yes, the eyelets, I stopped counting at 118 with the Landing Gear assembly, center line bomb rack, and flight controls still to go!
Lovely work already showing and looking forward to the rest of this project!
Cheers,
Lance
Well, I understand that drilling in the tailbooms elements is a bit tricky, but Fee has them so big that imho you can quite easily drill at a slight angle off perpendicular, which is just fine. I remember your build and I will try to find it, your models are always worth referring to, even if with two Fees at my belt I daresay this kit cannot surprise me anymore
Anyway, I managed to mount and check for pull out all the eyelets. The counter stands at 230 (not counting the interior ones, about 50 of them).
And I fully agree with you, Lance. This WNW kit is a full pleasure to build, besides their Felixstowe and DH.9 family, forming my favourite trio.
I have two DH.9s and a DH.9a, only one Felixstowe (display space limitations) and now I am with the third Fee. Yet, if I have a chance to get a decently priced Early Fee, I will buy and hopefully build the fourth one ☺️
Back to this one, I have also mounted six turnbuckles for four drag lines and two rear cabane lines. And out of the sudden it seems the beast is ready for paint!
With this I had a plan to leave the struts and booms in natural wooden colour as per the Hendon Museum replica. It would be a nice colour touch to that otherwise sombre camo. But having studied the photos of four night Fees, including that striking night shot of A852 I am building, I had to admit that WNW were right with black painted wooden bits. Pity, but I have to stick to reality...
