Short 184, Aeroclub, 1:72

[ALBATROS1234]

very nice, looks like a nice kit of a cool subject

[coyotemagic]

She's shaping up beautifully, Ian!  Fantastic job on the innards.
Cheers,
Bud

[IanB]

I got a bit more done today, mainly starting on the lower wing mountings.

 I started by cutting off a little under 1mm from the inboard end of each wing, along with the mounts, and replaced the lost width with a piece of plastic strip.



The fuselage was modified by adding strips of .010" card to lower the wing, and making a small cutout at the front to enable the parts removed from the wing to be fitted flush to the sides.



The pieces that had been removed were then modified by drilling a hole on the front spar for the locking pin and reshaping the front and rear ends.



 The modified parts were then fitted to the fuselage and the gaps filled.



 Tomorrow I'll tidy it up and maybe make a start on painting and preshading.

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

[radio]

Fantastic build up to date Ian.
Martin

[IanB]

A little more progress.
 I realised after fitting the wing mounts that the front spar locking bar didn't match the front cabane. Fortunately after measuring and checking the plans it's evident that the strut needs to move forward about 0.5mm so problem solved easily!



I spent this morning thinning the wing trailing edges and tidying the scalloping, then decided I needed something in the engine bay. So I added the front mount, cut up some plastic stock, stuck it together, and ended up with a rudimentary engine - good enough to fill the void!







Thanks for looking in.

Ian

[coyotemagic]

Excellent work, Ian!
Cheers,
Bud

[radio]

Very great work.
Martin

[Royston]

All and any type of scratch building is good in my book Ian.
You are progressing along nicely with her.
Watching very closley due to the fact i have to build one but in a rather insane scale
Keep up the good work

Roy

[IanB]

Thanks guys. 
With a project such as this it obviously pays to plan ahead, so I've been looking at the rigging - I'm not yet sure how I'm going to fit the outer bay wires which are pulled upwards at the outer ends to clear the tail when the wings are folded....

 The Datafile plans are also wrong on some of the rigging - they omit the additional single flying wires which run to the mid-point in each bay, and the drag wires from the nose are shown incorrectly - the lower two (only one is shown on the plans) run to the upper fittings of the inner and mid front struts and were detachable at the nose end to aid wing folding, the upper one runs straight back to the forward cabane strut, not to the mid front strut as shown. They also show the outer bay rigging incorrectly. The flying and landing wires in this bay did not run front/front and rear/rear, but crossed over each other - front lower running to rear upper, and rear lower to front upper, just to make it even more awkward! This was again to aid in clearing the tail and its rigging when the wings were folded. The aforementioned extra single flying wires were fitted as normal in this bay. Curiously the plans include drawings from the RAF Museum which clearly show this arrangement!

Ian

PS does anyone have any detail or plans of the 14" torpedo?

[Naimbs]

Perfect work!

Good luck for the rigging solution!

[lone modeller]

I have only just caught up with this one - you are making a wonderful job of it especially with the added details. I really like the engine - just what modelling in this scale is about.

I too have found that sometimes the DF's have small errors in them which can be annoying, but you have found them in plenty of time. I am really taken with the idea of the wings being folded - not easy to reproduce but certainly different. And I really like the different and unusual.

[WarrenD]

Ian,
      This is really great, sorry to arrive late for this party. A friend of mine built one of these, and it made me sorry I never picked one up for the stash.

Anyway, you're doing some wonderful work on this kite.

Warren

[Des]

This is really coming together beautifully Ian,I like the mods you did to the bottom wing mounting and your mock-up engine is a clever idea.

Des.

[IanB]

Thanks to all for the comments, much appreciated!

 The mock-up engine was a little too short so I added a spacer under it to bring it up a little, then refitted the nose and added the exhaust. It does show if a light is shone at the front so it's been worth the time spent doing it. The cowlings are now on and just need a little more sanding to fix the fit issues.



 I have added "hinges" to the lower wing mounts, and the bar at the rear of the fuselage that locked the wings in the folded position. A dry fit shows that the bar matches exactly to the rear strut location of the folded wing, which is a good thing as that is what it locks onto!




I've also been working on the floats and upper wings. I drilled out the float mount holes to take 2mm rod, glued that in place and added several layers of Mr Dissolved Putty to blend it all in. It will be sanded to the correct shape when it's good and hard, and the rod will be drilled to take the float spacer bars.



The upper wings were separated from the centre section, which was then in 2 pieces, so they were joined and filled. The cutouts at the rear were removed to allow for the wings to be positioned folded. So far it all matches up nicely and I should be able to add the "hinges" on the top wing very soon. The plan is to assemble and rig the wings separately then attach them as completed items to the centre section/fuselage assembly..... we'll see how that works later......



 Thanks for looking in!

Ian

[lone modeller]

This is coming on really fast! A very interesting update, especially the details on the folded wings.