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- #61
turbo
Staff Sergeant
I don't know if it's something to do with the 202 tooling Geo, but in addition to the warping there's a bit of flash here and there.
OK, time to get Robopit into the fuselage. The first thing I noticed was that the pit sidewalls don't go all the way to the sill of the cockpit but up to a moulded rib on the inside of the fuselage. I should have test-fitted this earlier, but no biggie I just need to paint the rib and the area above.
The next thing is that the instructions ask you to assemble the pit as a tub before fitting to the fuselage. The problem here is that the sidewalls sort of butt join the floor so it is very difficult to make sure everything is aligned properly and will fit snugly against the fuselage sides once installed. I thought of gluing the sidewalls into their locating panels on the fuselage first, but test fitting showed this would leave a large gap between the sidewall and floor which shouldn't be there. So tub it will need to be.
My solution to this problem is to use slower-setting Contacta glue to put the tub together and, before it is dry, fit it into the fuselage and prod everything into proper position and alignment. But first some test fitting.
This is where the next problem raised its head - Robopit is not going to submit easily. Because of the PE bearing, the elevator trim wheel now presses on the seat meaning the floor cannot be made level. The solution here was to file and sand the seat to extend the notch that accommodates the trim wheel.
Test fitting of the starboard side revealed no such problems, thankfully.
The moulded rib and area above it have been black based in preparation for painting verde anticorrosione btw. With test fitting now satisfactory, it was time to commit glue to plastic. The sidewalls were roughly fitted to the floor with Contacta glue and the tub quickly installed into the fuselage.
Proper mating of the sidewalls to the inside of the fuselage was ensured using a spreader made from a section of wooden cocktail stick. The tub was left to dry for several hours and then removed from the fuselage. Here it is with the IP fitted.
Good riddance to Robopit! Looking forward to moving on...
OK, time to get Robopit into the fuselage. The first thing I noticed was that the pit sidewalls don't go all the way to the sill of the cockpit but up to a moulded rib on the inside of the fuselage. I should have test-fitted this earlier, but no biggie I just need to paint the rib and the area above.
The next thing is that the instructions ask you to assemble the pit as a tub before fitting to the fuselage. The problem here is that the sidewalls sort of butt join the floor so it is very difficult to make sure everything is aligned properly and will fit snugly against the fuselage sides once installed. I thought of gluing the sidewalls into their locating panels on the fuselage first, but test fitting showed this would leave a large gap between the sidewall and floor which shouldn't be there. So tub it will need to be.
My solution to this problem is to use slower-setting Contacta glue to put the tub together and, before it is dry, fit it into the fuselage and prod everything into proper position and alignment. But first some test fitting.
This is where the next problem raised its head - Robopit is not going to submit easily. Because of the PE bearing, the elevator trim wheel now presses on the seat meaning the floor cannot be made level. The solution here was to file and sand the seat to extend the notch that accommodates the trim wheel.
Test fitting of the starboard side revealed no such problems, thankfully.
The moulded rib and area above it have been black based in preparation for painting verde anticorrosione btw. With test fitting now satisfactory, it was time to commit glue to plastic. The sidewalls were roughly fitted to the floor with Contacta glue and the tub quickly installed into the fuselage.
Proper mating of the sidewalls to the inside of the fuselage was ensured using a spreader made from a section of wooden cocktail stick. The tub was left to dry for several hours and then removed from the fuselage. Here it is with the IP fitted.
Good riddance to Robopit! Looking forward to moving on...