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Gerry
Staff Sergeant
I've been working away on skinning the fuselage sections that I repaired in my recent post but it's a bit more involved that I thought. Unfortunately, the skins I had to remove to access the repairs were damaged in their removal and I think it will be easier and cleaner to replace them. Fortunately I was sent extra metal sheets when I was collecting the magazines. This first photo shows the variation between what was supplied for skinning in the early editions of the series and in the later issues.
The skins on the left arrived as shown (but flat) and are parts that are relevant to the fuselage section I'm working on. They were punched and cut and only need riveting, painting and contouring to fit the fuselage. The large rectangular section on the left is the section of the roof of the rear fuselage from the rear spar to just aft of the mid upper turret (the rectangular opening). The two panels to the right have slots for the tailplane and underneath them are the long panels for the under fuselage around the tail wheel and fairings around the rear turret . Some other parts, such as wing leading edge nosings, were not only cut to shape but pre-bent to follow the contours of the leading edges.
By contrast, in later issues, all that was supplied was metal sheet and the card templates as shown, with some fairly complex shapes and windows to be cut and contoured. The riveted and painted piece here is for the under fuselage immediately aft of the bomb bay. The section I'm working on comprises both types and obviously the pieces were in both early and later issues. If I were to follow the build sequence I would be skinning in non-adjoining areas which isn't ideal. The templates are printed on card that is thicker (about 1.5mm) than the metal sheet and is difficult to bend to shape around the curved sections of the formers. Initial experiments show that adjoining templates don't, in some instances, join up without leaving gaps so I need to correct for this.
The easiest way for me to achieve this was to work this out accurately was to collect all the relevant skins and templates from the various issues and make tracings of all the panels separately which are Sellotaped together and adjusted to fill any gaps between the panels. The thin tracing paper also allows for easy bending around the curved upper and lower surfaces of the fuselages, in this case the fully skinned port side. It's also handy for marking the stringers and formers to ensure continuity between adjoining panels.
This next photo shows the starboard side and allows me to make various adjustments to the sections I will have as cut outs (marked on the tracing paper with crosshatching). Admittedly, it's not pretty but much better than having to make the adjustments on the metal panels. I now feel that I have a complete "pattern" for the skinning of this section which will allow me to complete it in one go. I'm also anticipating that the thicker metal may not contour as neatly as the paper but I'll allow for that when cutting the metal and trim, if necessary, to adjust.
That's really as far as I've got and I'm being roped in to help my daughter move house next week, which might delay progress a little. I hope that when I post again I'll have most, if not all, of this section skinned.
Regards,
Gerry
The skins on the left arrived as shown (but flat) and are parts that are relevant to the fuselage section I'm working on. They were punched and cut and only need riveting, painting and contouring to fit the fuselage. The large rectangular section on the left is the section of the roof of the rear fuselage from the rear spar to just aft of the mid upper turret (the rectangular opening). The two panels to the right have slots for the tailplane and underneath them are the long panels for the under fuselage around the tail wheel and fairings around the rear turret . Some other parts, such as wing leading edge nosings, were not only cut to shape but pre-bent to follow the contours of the leading edges.
By contrast, in later issues, all that was supplied was metal sheet and the card templates as shown, with some fairly complex shapes and windows to be cut and contoured. The riveted and painted piece here is for the under fuselage immediately aft of the bomb bay. The section I'm working on comprises both types and obviously the pieces were in both early and later issues. If I were to follow the build sequence I would be skinning in non-adjoining areas which isn't ideal. The templates are printed on card that is thicker (about 1.5mm) than the metal sheet and is difficult to bend to shape around the curved sections of the formers. Initial experiments show that adjoining templates don't, in some instances, join up without leaving gaps so I need to correct for this.
The easiest way for me to achieve this was to work this out accurately was to collect all the relevant skins and templates from the various issues and make tracings of all the panels separately which are Sellotaped together and adjusted to fill any gaps between the panels. The thin tracing paper also allows for easy bending around the curved upper and lower surfaces of the fuselages, in this case the fully skinned port side. It's also handy for marking the stringers and formers to ensure continuity between adjoining panels.
This next photo shows the starboard side and allows me to make various adjustments to the sections I will have as cut outs (marked on the tracing paper with crosshatching). Admittedly, it's not pretty but much better than having to make the adjustments on the metal panels. I now feel that I have a complete "pattern" for the skinning of this section which will allow me to complete it in one go. I'm also anticipating that the thicker metal may not contour as neatly as the paper but I'll allow for that when cutting the metal and trim, if necessary, to adjust.
That's really as far as I've got and I'm being roped in to help my daughter move house next week, which might delay progress a little. I hope that when I post again I'll have most, if not all, of this section skinned.
Regards,
Gerry
