I've finally made some progress, got all the buckles drilled in and installed ( 110 on the wings and fuselage alone) and the lines attached to the lower wing. It's a little "busy"!
Sorry for the poor quality photo, kind of looks I was seeing after that marathon!
Next step was mounting the struts. I elected to install the cabanes and the inner bay wing struts, adding the outer bay mains after the upper wing was installed. The two grey damaged spots on the lower wing are where I "pinged" off the brass tube fairleads installed previously for the aileron control cables, they'll be replaced later. The wing edges are taking a real beating from the constant handling during the rigging process, it will all need touching up further on in the sequence. I used my standard quick template to align the cabanes, especially handy as I'd broken one of the mounting lugs off a rear one and lost it!
Once the upper wing was mounted the outer bay main struts were popped into place and CA'd.
As you've probably noticed this Build no longer represents Hawkers 5694. I rather elected for 24 Squadron's B Flight 6011, shot down and captured on 11 July 1916 and well represented in the Data File as it had the specific scheme I wanted. The fuel line from the overhead aux. tank will be plumbed in later in the build.
Presently I'm up to my ears in rigging this little devil. She looked like a demented bunch of Lilliputians had run amok with some spools of mono before, now with each line completed and trimmed she looks better as the process goes on. I'm using a combination of rigging plans from the Kit Instructions, the excellent tutorial on Bob's Buckles Website, and the Data File three views along with numerous photos; there are contradictions present in the mix, particularly on the cabanes but the majority wins............
This Kit is not for the Beginner nor faint at heart however it's doable with patience and pre-study at the various steps. I certainly wouldn't want to attempt it in a smaller scale, as the man said in the movie, "I'm really getting too old for this ........."!
Cheers,
Lance
