**** DONE: GB-52 1:48 Boeing B-29 - Heavy Hitters IV

[fubar57]

Slow progression. Added the rear bomb bay bulkhead and crawl tube. The tube needs to be glued to the front bulkhead first and then finagled into the rear before glue can be placed. Halves are just push fitted to keep all aligned

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Just need to glue in the wing spars and the side domes on the fuselage and this beast can be glued together. Speaking of the domes, they are attached to the innards by upper and lower nubs, the gluing area on each is about 1²mm. Dry fitted, the dome pivots freely. It doesn't touch the sides at all except at the attachment points. Working on a solution but it will involve plastic strips

 

[Airframes]

Doing well Geo.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Good momentum going there. Keep the flywheel turning.

 

[rochie]

good stuff Geo, starting to see just how big this is now !

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far George!

 

[fubar57]

Thanks guys. Lost a bit of sanity trying to put together the three part spars

More sanity remover but expected. The "fit" around the nacelles is suspect to say the least but after much sanding and carving I got it close enough. Also more carving can be seen on the rear of the right cowl. A work in progress

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The fit of the cowls to the nacelles is sketchy; not much gluing surface. One builder added a whack 'o plastic sheet layers to the back of the engine fire wall and used this as a gluing area. I don't feel like cutting out a bunch of plastic and gluing them together. My plan is to cut off the ends of the "not to be used" fuels tanks. Glue one end to the not yet installed firewall (A) and then slowly sand away the excess and glue the nacelle (2)

 

[rochie]

sounds like a plan

 

[Capt. Vick]

I had no idea this kit was such a dog.

 

[Wurger]

Aren't the engine cowls going to be attached to the nacelles with the engines together? If these are it means that there is no reason for removing of anthing. In other words the engines should be the gluing surface and the cowlings should be stuck to the engines firstly.

 

[fubar57]

The cowlings butt join to the nacelles and the engines are glued to the front of the cowlings, almost an inch from the nacelles

 

[Wurger]

fubar57 , I have had a look at the kit assembling instruction and it looks like the wall with the engine (part 119) should be glued to the rear surface of the cooling inlet inside of the engine nacelle ( part 103). I marked it with the red (A). The protruding piece from the semi-wall of the engine nacelle seems to be a protection of the prop shaft ( part 121) against falling out from its slot in the part 119 or just it is the support of the entire engine wall at its top area..
The engine cowling (part 103) should be glued to the nacelle front edge on its perimeter (the green marking C). The nacelle front edge should go inside of the cowling part slightly. So the walls with the engine moulded have nothing in common with sticking of the cowl to the nacelle.
If there is a trouble with getting inside I would remove some of the polystyrene from the cowling inner surface at the cooling flaps area. Or just gently sanded down ( tappered ) the engine nacelle front edge on its perimetr (C).

Also you may use four of plastic pieces ( squares) glued inside the engine cowling as you can see in the pic below. These should be stuck with a distance D in order to keep the correct setting of the cowl and the nacelle together. Then the front of the pieces you may glue to the front edge of the nacelle. The join should be fine and any additional wall is needed. Of course these pieces should be added after the semi-maquette of the engine with the wall already was glued inside of the cowl.

 

[Crimea_River]

Showing great patience there Geo.

 

[fubar57]

Thanks Andy but starting to wear thin. One wing is now glued up so I installed the spars, taped the fuselage together and the placed the wing over the spars. As mentioned in other builds, the spars are there to sit pretty and not offer much support. Basically the wing/fuselage is a butt join. Anyhoo.....the gang of four: Tamiya German Grey, Titanium Silver and Flat Aluminium

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I'll chamfer the backs of the other three cowlings tomorrow and then glue the engines in. The one I worked on yesterday, (see Post #112) provided a much better fit. Not perfect but at least I now have a gluing surface

 

[Crimea_River]

Doing great.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Totalize]

Really humming along now Geo. Great stuff.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far George!

 

[fubar57]

Thanks all. Looking for stuff to do before the bus and I noticed that the wing intakes were flashed over....surprise!!!!!!

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As the de-icer boots have been removed on the aircraft, the leading edges will be NMF so seams will need a lot of work which is in progress

 

[Wurger]