Evening All,
Thanks Gregory, Rick and Andreas for your very kind comments. I hope to finish this very soon now Andreas, so hopefully you will not have much longer to wait....
At last the end is in sight: I have been finishing some pieces which have I have been working on and off during the build, and have almost all of the final details completed.
First up is the frame and trolley on which the aircraft was carried on the rails. I looked at as many photos as I could and came to the conclusion that frames were made individually for each aircraft. What I have produced is the best match that I can make to the photographic evidence available. The trolley was made from brass rod soldered together to make a rectangle, axles were from 60 thou plastic rod and the wheels from N guage Graham Farish accessories. I pushed the wheels off the Farish axles and back on to the longer plastic rod ones.
The main sections were made from I section plastic strip and the large pads at the rear were carved from scrap balsa wood and given a couple of coats of talcum powder and dope filler before being painted. The leather straps were from 10 x 20 thou Evergreen strip.
The wood in the last photo was visible in the contemporary photos - I used obechi strip to represent these beams. The arms on the sides were to allow ground crew to push the assembly on the turntable.
I made some furniture which again is visible in various photos: this will be distributed over the hangar floor based on photographic evidence and will help to fill what will otherwise be large voids in the display. A couple of boxes, two trestle tables (the tops were made from mixing sticks), and some beams of wood. I have also constructed a box camera which will be present in the display.
The rails have the fish plates added and have been painted and dry brushed with some rust, and are now fixed in place on the base:
All that remains to add now are the pulleys on the ramp, the furniture on the hangar floor, the trolley to the turntable and some figures. Then I can mount the aircraft!
Thanks for looking.
Stephen.