It's been almost a month since my last update, but I've been slowly working away at the project. I found that the cockpit assembly fits like a glove in the fuselage and there was only a dab of filler required on the seam just behind the observer's station.
The cockpit combing is a tight fit around the cabane struts and it poses some problems for painting. I decided to paint it separately and then glue it into place on the fuselage. Note that the image below shows it dry fitted and the yawning gaps alongside the observer's station disappear completely with only just a bit of finger pressure applied when the part is glued in place .
With the fuselage buttoned up, it was time to glue the engine/radiator/combing assembly in place and it was here that I ran into some difficulty. When I mounted the engine assembly on the engine bearers it came to light that the slot in the radiator cowling for the radiator header tank was rotated away from its 12:00 o'clock position. I traced the problem to the installation of the intake pipes which obviously weren't in the proper orientation. When I installed them, they fit perfectly, so
it's clear to me now that I shouldn't have built the engine out of sequence with the instructions. It should be built after the cockpit assembly so the builder can check the orientation on the engine bearers as he progresses. I was able to remove the engine mounting plate and with some minor surgery, I successfully rotated it into the proper orientation, and now everything fits fine. Whew!
Moving right along, I decided to change my marking scheme yet again, to one of Pheon's more colourful schemes, as shown below.
I can be a slave to convention at times so I followed the standard practise of painting light colours first, ending up with the darkest last. That meant that I had to cut out an internal mask for the dark grey blob on the right wing. I fought with that several times and just couldn't get a result I was happy with. I stripped and re-painted the top wing
four times until I was happy. Okay, I'm stubborn too!
Away I went and applied the Pheon decals. They went on perfectly and looked superb.
And then disaster struck. I had idiotically forgotten to paint two stripes on the centre section of the wings, so I masked off the wings and shot them. Along the way, I inadvertently and
carelessly allowed the masking tape to cover two decals and when removing it, I partially lifted both, ruining them completely. Note how the tape also pulled up some of the sealer too. Arrrrgh!
There was nothing else to do but strip the wing again and start all over for the fifth time. Luckliy for me, Rowan graciously replaced the decals so that this project can continue. You're the best Rowan!
That's Jenny, my Brittany helper, who is taking a keen interest in stripping the wing. The way she looks at me at times, I'm sure she's losing confidence in my abilities.
No matter how I manage to shoot myself in the foot though, she's right there with me offering her support.
Cheers,
Chris
