I've finally got around to doing bit on the Beau! It doesn't seem much, but this took bl**dy ages!
After many test fittings of the fuselage halves, and the wing centre section, I knew it might be a bit of a problem to get everything to line up correctly, and I wasn't wrong!
The tail wheel assembly had to be installed before joining the fuselage halves, as there was no way it could be fitted later, so, when this had set, the fuselage was joined. This involved some careful manouevering, an increase in my vocabulary of curses, and the application of three different glues, working in stages, from the nose to the tail, tackling the upper joint first.
The wheel bays were then added to the cowlings, and the upper, inboard wing sections glued in place, again neccessitating some fiddling about in order to align everything correctly. Once the two main sections had set, the fuselage was aligned and glued to the completed centre section, ensuring that the internal fittings and bulkhead didn't foul the internal fittings in the main fuselage.
Everyhing seemed to fit snugly, after much pushing and squeezing. But, when I checked the alignment, I was horrified to notice a very pronounced anhedral !
The centre section looked more like a 'Stuka' than a Beaufighter, and some very drastic measures were needed to correct things. It appears that the internal notches and flanges on the wing roots hadn't mated correctly, so, a long, flat-bladed screwdriver was inserted through the open ends of the engine cowlings, and the wing-root faces forced into place, whilst the trailing edges were forced down at the root fillets, using a pair of pliers!
(I now have an extra 23 colourful curses in my vocabulary!!)
This has left some slight gaps around the nose area, and a very slight ridge at the wing-root joints, but they match similar anomalies along the length of the fuselage, so at least things look equal!
The gaps and ridges can easily be corrected with sanding, filling and more sanding, and this will be done before the outer wing sections are fitted.
PICS 1 and 2 show how the cockpit now looks, and some of the gaps are evident here.
PIC 3. The radar monitor, now correctly positioned, at a slight angle to the fuselage.
PIC 4. The tailwhel in place, painted, and weathered with 'sand'. This will be masked during final painting of the model.
PIC 5. How the model looks to date.
The sheer size of this thing is now becoming apparent, with the centre section span being bigger than the average 1/48th scale fighter, and it's going to sit rather tall too, once the landing gear is in place.
Work has begun on cutting out the cannon shell ejector ports, and scribing the cannon accesss panels, and the next stage will be to fit the main wing panels. Once this is done, the engines will be built and fitted, and I haven't yet decided whether to display one engine, with the cowlings off. As they are quite good mouldings, crying out for some detailing, I probably will display at least one engine, but this can be decided nearer the time.
I'll hopefully post some more progress pics soon.
Thanks again for your interest and kind words.