Ok, I have the cockpit lower side walls, the IP, and seat bulkhead glued up and now removed from the fuse sides. I went this way due to a concern of keeping everything aligned and, more importantly, squared up. The first picture is a scan of page 2 of the cockpit assembly.
Pic 1:
What concerned me was getting everything to line up and square and to STAY that way. So, I decided to use the fuse halves to keep everything squared up and aligned. What I did was:
1) tack the lower walls into the fuse halves with PVA
2) Settle the fuse halves together and then tape the tops only:
3) Wrap the fuse halves with rubber bands to
just add some tension to hold the fuse halves together
4) I then slipped the seat bulkhead and IP into place carefully and slowly and glued them
only to the lower cockpit walls.
5) I then removed the rubber bands and tape from the fuse halves. I then used my handy needle on a stick (dubbing needle for you fly tiers) to gently pry away one cockpit wall from one fuse half, then the other. As you can see, the sub-assembly is nice and square and aligned now. I do need to make sure I push the pressure tank connector back into place just prior to placing everything back into the fuse.
I need to finish the final detailed work on the cockpit then reinstall it all.
Ok, a question for you all... did the Mk IX
ever have the flare rack on the front edge of the seat? Terry's pics indicate they did not. I am asking as I just drilled out the flare rack and shoved some rod through to mimic flare cartridges. I want to be sure before I finish that piece up and improperly use it.