A quick up-date whilst I have a coffee break.
Planning and test fitting of the resin cowling and kit engine combination has been completed, and I'm ready to proceed with the assembly and painting of the first engine, and the fitting of the resin cowling.
The pics show the sequence of the test so far, and next step is to fill the single exhaust trough, then attach the nacelle to the wing, before fitting the painted engine assembly, followed by the resin cowling. The carb intake, cut from the kit cowling, will then be fitted and blended into the nacelle and cowling, and the whole assembly put aside to set fully, whilst the work is repeated on the port engine.
Once both are done, the cowl flaps will be made, and fitted along with the actuating rods.
PIC 1. Test fitting the engine assembly, complete with the now redundant exhaust collector ring, in order to ascertain the clearance around the edges. The piece of white plastic card is blanking-off the front of the exhaust trough, which will be filled with 'Milliput', moulded to shape, and then sanded once set. Considering this kit was made in 1968, the detail on the engine, which is comprised of eight parts including the prop shaft and engine mount, is quite good, and I've decided against adding ignition wires, as they'll hardly be seen, if seen at all, and I want to save a bit of time too, as this build has been dragging on.
PIC 2. Next stage was to attach an 'extension ring' to the front of the nacelle, roughly cut from plastic sheet, to provide an attachment point for the resin cowling. This was bent and attached, in stages, using CA adhesive, and has yet to be cleaned-up and sanded in this shot.
PIC 3. The engine assembly was test-fitted again, in order to check clearance around the extension ring.
PIC 4. The first resin cowling was removed from the rather large casting block, on which it's resting in the photo. As mentioned previously, this was a bit of a pain, and had to be done very carefully, in order to avoid damage to the thin rim of the cowling opening on the front. As can be seen, some minor damage has occurred, which fortunately can easily be fixed, and the 'ring' of the opening is not perfectly round. Some work with a sharp scalpel blade, a round jeweler's file, and fine grade wet and dry corrected this, but it's still slightly 'out' when viewed through a magnifying glass - or in a macro photo !
Hopefully, once painted, this won't be noticed.
PIC 5. Dry-fitting the cowling with the engine just pushed onto the engine bearer mounting slot. Once the nacelle is fitted to the wing, a further plastic tab will be fitted to the top edge of the nacelle, integral with the wing, which will locate and support the top edge of the cowling, and the cowling can then be attached, aligned properly, and fixed using CA adhesive.
The steps will then be repeated with the port engine assembly, and then the cowl flaps will be fabricated and fitted once the whole lot has fully set.
With a bit of luck, given there are no problems, I might get all of this completed tonight, with the exception of the cowl flaps, which will then allow me to proceed with the rest of the build as normal. The only other scratch-building and mods needed are on the dorsal turret and the entry hatches, plus some landing gear and gear door detail, so once the main construction is complete, I can get to the painting stage, and
might even get the model finished by the deadline - which I believe is to be extended.