Thanks Guys. At last I'm able to post some photos of the recent work. Firstly the Camilla rest bunk. This lies in the fuselage section between the front and rear main spars. I think that the term 'rest bunk' is a bit of a misnomer, as I'm sure it was only ever used when someone was badly injured or wounded. For instance, I can't imagine the pilot ever saying to the engineer; "You take over for a bit, I'm going to the back to catch forty winks..." But that's enough rambling. The shot below shows what comes with the kit. It's all plywood and looks a little thin and I think the joins in the panels look ugly.
I wanted to make it look more cushioned so I 'upholstered' it using some plastic foam covered in masking tape, while I had a think about the ugly joins.
The next parts tackled were the oxygen cylinders stored under the bunk. These are one piece die cast metal tanks and just needed to be sanded and painted. The signage is from some old decal placards and the dials were just touched in with a sharp pencil, which in the size is more subtle than paint. Have a good look at them, because once they're installed they won't be seen again!
When dry, they were installed under the bunk, one by one. I then decided to panel over the rough joins in the wood rather than filling and painting, which I think looks better.
Finally, the next 4 shots show the finished bunk from a couple of angles and how it fits into the fuselage. The instructions advise putting it aside until later in the build - but no indication how much later - which I'll do. I know that there's tanks and pipework to go into that section also and it will be easier to fit those without the bunk in position. Also that entire cruciform section of the fuselage/wings still needs to be painted, which I'll try to get around to soon.
So, while I was waiting for various parts of the bunk to dry I had started on the next assembly which is the back of the pilot's instrument panel, with associated wiring. This came as 23 separate parts with the backs of the dials lined up with their contacts either vertical or horizontal and all the receiver holes had to be widened - talk about fiddly! Anyhow, after much swearing, I got it together and when glued, gave it a coat of black paint. When it was dry, the paint was sanded from the raised contacts.
Then the real fun began, with the wiring. I followed the instructions for this as I have no visual references. Again, the air was turning a distinct tinge of blue, as not only was I attaching the cables but had to strip them down to individual strands and attach those to each contact (see photos).
Photo 1 shows the first two layers of wiring.
Photo 2 shows the addition of a further layer of yellow wires. Also shown is a tank that sits behind the console. The metal straps for this are made from lead foil, as the instructions had these hanging from thin silver wire which looked wrong.
Finally, following the instructions, the console was installed into the nose section, which, first, had to be painted. Not sure what happens to the trailing wires. Hopefully, that will be explained further down the line.
Photo 1 shows the console installed and
Photo 2 the tank added in front of it - hiding half of the work!
That brings me up to issue 36 now. The next few issues will be doing some more basic work on the wings. Hopefully I'll get going on that and also finish the trailing edge containing the dinghy compartment. I'll post again when I have something interesting to show.
Gerry