I was finally able to put together several hours at the work bench and have made some progress on this Build.
The first order of business was to touch up the nose cowling and radiator assembly, as pointed out by Gary earlier part of the radiator had been overpainted with the personal blue marking. The lowest portion is now back to it's proper aluminum finish, nice pickup Gary!
Next came that most dreaded big step of Biplane construction however getting the struts done and the upper wing installed proved a relatively simple operation. All rigging lines had been pre-installed to the GasPatch turnbuckles on the lower wings and a simple template to ensure spacing of the cabanes and inner bay main struts was used to install the pre-finished struts. Medium CA was used throughout and, once dry, the outer bay struts were installed to the lower wings as well. I should add that the model was mounted in the "Magic Third Hand" device throughout this operation; it proved an absolute "godsend" and I am now a complete fan of the product!
At this point the model was removed from the third hand, the upper wing placed top down on the work surface, the model placed inverted on the wing surface, and the struts then attached with Medium CA again to the upper wing from the cabanes outward alternating from side to side to optimise lateral alignment.
Once in place and cured with a shot of accelerator on each join the model was re-mounted on the Third Hand and the single front cabane wires were attached to the upper wing anchor points as the first step of the rigging operation. This proved to be a delicate step given the very restricted space to work in between the upper wing and the fuselage decking, guns, and windscreen.
I'm pleased with the results of this step; the wing is firmly attached and the alignment as good as it gets. There's a few small spots of CA to cover up with some satin over coat and all should be well.
Next comes the main rigging exercise, she's starting to come together now!
Cheers,
Lance
