Evening All,
The first thing to do after the top wing was in place was to add the cabane struts and sort out the rigging - I had many lengths of monofilament thread hanging from the starboard (right) top wing and parts of the fuselage nacelle and these were constantly getting in the way. The double rigging wires were difficult because some of the threads would not pass through the lower wing - the brass spars were in the way. Also attaching the cabane strut wires into the underside of the top wing was a problem because I could not drill holes all the way through the hollow wing and be sure that the ends of the thread would pass through. Well all of that got sorted out eventually, (after a delay caused by a back problem which meant no modelling for nearly a week), and I riggied the port (left) wing at the same time. Now I just have the anti-drag bracing wires which run from the forward outer wing struts rearwards - they are currently wound around the wing tips. The elevator control wires ran parallel with and outside the lift wires at the rear of the inner bay of the wings - effectively this meant that I had to add the pulleys over which the wires passed. These were fixed to plates at the wing root and at the top of the inner rear struts: ading the extra control wires to run parallel to the lift wires was fun....! The rigging took three evenings by the time I had corrected various mistakes on the way. I have learned several things from this exercise for future reference if i ever choose to build another 1/32 model.
Now I could add the other booms and the horizontal tail surface that I had constructed some time ago. This was a simple procedure when compared to the rigging and a good deal quicker. I had already drilled holes in the rear of the starboard wings to insert the ends of the booms, so a mixture of 2-part epoxy provided the sticky bit to hold them in place and in they went. The upper boom needed support because of the weight of the horizontal stabilizer: to stop it from drooping and make sure that it was properly aligned with the rest of the structure I used a modified mk 1 jig and left the assembly to cure. A dob of CA at the V of the upper booms also helped to hold that part in place:
The set square to the left of the model is there to check that the booms and rudder post were vertical: they are and the upper and lower booms are directly in line. I was relieved that they structure has set like this - I have repeatedly been checking these alignments because if any of them is ever so slightly wrong the whole model would be a fiasco. I can live with errors of 1mm but I seem to have been able to reduce them to less than this. Yippee!!!!
The resultant structre was stronger than I had anticipated and allowed me to move it about freely ready for the next steps: adding the rudder post and lower boom cross bracing.
The rudder post is brass rod. I used CA to fix it to the upper boom because the presence of plastic precludes any idea of using solder. The addtional advantage was that the rudder post was held in place so that when I soldered the lower joint I did not need any extra support. The cross bracing between the lower booms was also brass rod - I held that in place using two pieces of blue-tack on a wood block:
Finally I added the horizontal bracing strut in the port horizontal surface from brass rod and soldered one end to the boom:
This structure is strong: there was no danger of anything beoming distorted by an accidental knock. To finish the boom structure I could add the struts - these were carved from thin basswood sheet like the other struts, sealed with talcum powder and dope mixture and painted. The horizontal tail surface structure was made up from 20 x 30 thou strip and the leading edge wire between the boom and starboard side was from a piece of telephone cable wire. I have not completed thie remainder yet as it is rather exposed and liable to damage while I still work on other parts of the model. I have however painted the booms and wood structures:
Now as is usual with scratch builds, I have to make up and finish some more parts including the fin and rudder, undercarriage, etc. I am also trying to work out how much of the boom I should rig before proceeding to much further with construction. In addition I have to be away from home again for an uncertain period so the next update will probably have to wait for a time until I can do more on the model and have something to report on.
In the meantime, thanks for looking.
Stephen.
