Thanks fellows for your continued support! It means a lot to me. I'm happy that I have more progress to report. I'm a bit gun shy after having a serious issue with setting the cabanes in my D.VII project so I decided to try employing a jig this time around after seeing how well it works for Lance in his builds. It's simple to make and works like a charm. I'll be using one of these for all of my future projects.
Lance also had good luck in pre-rigging his cabanes which is something else I've never done, and seeing how the wing stagger might make it a difficult task, I followed suit and did it myself using Maxima Chameleon 2 lb monofilament as usual.
When I installed the top wing I ended up with one cabane line that sagged a bit but that was quickly rectified with a bit of heat from the tip of a soldering pencil.
The interplane struts all went into place in both wings without any issues and even without any rigging to brace the structure, it's quite sturdy on its own. I have to say that the stagger on the wings made reaching some of the connecting points somewhat of a challenge for my sausage like fingers. In particular, the cross-bracing between the struts was hard to get at.
The line that runs from the rear strut in the inside bay passes through the wing and anchors to the rear strut of the landing gear.
It's shown to good advantage in one of Jamo's Snipe photos as seen below. I hope you don't mind me borrowing it Jamo!
I used a 2 mm piece of brass tubing as my connector and found that it was too long. It's a tight space here by the time you factor in the eyelet!
I switched gears and replaced the 2 mm tube with a 1 mm piece and this fit perfectly.
The only other recourse would have been to pass the line fully through the landing gear strut, glue it in place, and forego using a connector. Luckily, it didn't come to that.
The cross bracing forward of the cockpit isn't well illustrated in the instruction booklet so it was a bit of a guessing job for me. The lines need to cross at the fuselage mounting points or else they'll touch the MGs.
With the wings rigged, I moved on to the landing carriage. Again, I found the instruction booklet less than adequate here but Jamo to the rescue again! He has some excellent photos of the rigging in this area. I don't know where I'd be without his excellent research and I applaud him for sharing it with us.
The model was leaning a bit to one side but that was easily corrected by applying some extra tension to the appropriate bracing line. Again, the landing carriage is quite stout on it's own and with the addition of the bracing, it's very sturdy.
So here's where she stands right now. About all that's left to do is paint the rigging, add the aileron control lines, install the engine, cowl, and propeller, and she's finished.
Thanks for looking in!
Cheers,
Chris
