Thanks gents.
The nice thing about the RE8 is that the cockpits are large and behind the wings, so a lot of the detail can be seen. I finished the observer's stool and added that....
and then the fuselage was joined. There are no location lugs on this moulding for some reason, so a little careful adjustment, and then some masking tape to hold it all. ....
I then added the fuel tank front, and went over all the seams with Mr Dissolved Putty. So now it's sitting until tomorrow. Since there is still a lot to do on the wings, I moved on to those next, starting with corrections to the span and tips.
The lower wing had the ends clipped first, starting with the left side...
This gave the correct span at the widest point. The leading edge span was then marked and the tip sanded to the correct shape. Repeated for the right side.
The upper wing was quite a bit too long....
The same procedure was used, first marking the widest point and clipping the tips to the correct length (plus a little for the sanding), then marking the leading edge....
The curve at the trailing edge was added, then the tips were sanded in a straight line from the tip of the curve to the leading edge mark, with constant reference to the drawings of course! Finally the end of the leading edge was curved, then the whole tip was sanded to the correct thickness. Repeated on the other end, and I now had 2 wings of the correct thickness, length, and tip shape.
I then looked at the root of the lower wing. The moulding is not very crisp here, so I decided to sharpen it up and lengthen the wing roots slightly at the same time. I filed the edges square and added small strips of plastic card. These will be sanded to match the wing aerofoil section when they are dry and should give the wing roots the correct dimensions and sharpen up the edges too.
The same thing was then done to the upper wing centre section where the cutout was too large. Mr Dissolved Putty was added....
and that where it sits for tonight!
Thanks for looking in.
Ian
