great job Andy, very effective !
GB-61 1/48 FM-1 Wildcat - Carrier and Maritime Aircraft (1 Viewer)
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Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Looking the biz !
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- #83
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks everyone, much appreciated.
A few struggles this morning getting the fuselage halves together. The precision fits engineered by Eduard are almost too good in that everything has to be perfectly fitted to make the halves come together nicely. There is ZERO room for error. On dry-fitting, there were a few gaps in the nose area that refused to close without a lot of trimming of parts and clamping force. At first I thought it was something that I did with all the additions but that was not the case. I found that I had to trim down the width of both the firewall and the instrument panel bulkhead to allow the parts to come together. I can only assume that I didn't clamp the parts tightly enough to the right half yesterday and that they were ever-so-slightly proud of the mating surfaces. Eventually, I was able to get the halves fitted but it seems things are separating a bit again as the glue is drying:
Obviously there has been no clean-up of the seams yet as the glue is still drying. I'm hopeful that the slight gap on the instrument coaming won't affect the fit of the windscreen too much but we'll know better when we get there.
Below is a shot up inside the wheel well. Some of the added details are visible despite the challenges of focusing inside. Note the misaligned seam at bottom center-right. There was no getting around that so some filing will be in my near future
The wing halves were glued together some days ago and I did a dry-fit as seen below. I suspect the cap on the putty tube won't need to come off.
That's all for today folks. Thanks again for following along and for the comments and likes.
A few struggles this morning getting the fuselage halves together. The precision fits engineered by Eduard are almost too good in that everything has to be perfectly fitted to make the halves come together nicely. There is ZERO room for error. On dry-fitting, there were a few gaps in the nose area that refused to close without a lot of trimming of parts and clamping force. At first I thought it was something that I did with all the additions but that was not the case. I found that I had to trim down the width of both the firewall and the instrument panel bulkhead to allow the parts to come together. I can only assume that I didn't clamp the parts tightly enough to the right half yesterday and that they were ever-so-slightly proud of the mating surfaces. Eventually, I was able to get the halves fitted but it seems things are separating a bit again as the glue is drying:
Obviously there has been no clean-up of the seams yet as the glue is still drying. I'm hopeful that the slight gap on the instrument coaming won't affect the fit of the windscreen too much but we'll know better when we get there.
Below is a shot up inside the wheel well. Some of the added details are visible despite the challenges of focusing inside. Note the misaligned seam at bottom center-right. There was no getting around that so some filing will be in my near future
The wing halves were glued together some days ago and I did a dry-fit as seen below. I suspect the cap on the putty tube won't need to come off.
That's all for today folks. Thanks again for following along and for the comments and likes.
A4K
Brigadier General
Great stuff Andy. Beautiful fit on the wings too.
Vic Balshaw
Major General
It's always a bugger when you do the perfect innards and then the outer shell seems refuse to stay in contact. Hopefully you'll get it all sorted and like the wing joint have a perfect match. 
- Thread starter
- #87
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thank-you gentlemen. Wings and horizontal stabs are now on:
Seam cleaning. There's some delicate detail that I didn't want to lose and I did avoid it for the most part.
It's been about a month and a half since I showed the bare engine. Well, now it's painted and wiring has been added. The latter was done in short shifts over the last couple of days.
I will apply an oily wash before hiding the engine in the nacelle and clean up a couple of other little oopses that the close-up reveals. If I'm up to it, I may also add the little ties between each ignition cable pair as well.
Thanks again for looking in guys. Off to work on our Mossie again tomorrow (regular Saturday activity) so maybe I'll have something to show later in the weekend or Monday.
Seam cleaning. There's some delicate detail that I didn't want to lose and I did avoid it for the most part.
It's been about a month and a half since I showed the bare engine. Well, now it's painted and wiring has been added. The latter was done in short shifts over the last couple of days.
I will apply an oily wash before hiding the engine in the nacelle and clean up a couple of other little oopses that the close-up reveals. If I'm up to it, I may also add the little ties between each ignition cable pair as well.
Thanks again for looking in guys. Off to work on our Mossie again tomorrow (regular Saturday activity) so maybe I'll have something to show later in the weekend or Monday.
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Nice Andy and enjoy playing with a real plane.
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
One of those cables looks a little frayed.
Really beautiful job on the engine. I really like radial engined planes. You can see their engines in their powerful, machined glory, surrounded by graceful (mostly) cowlings.
Really beautiful job on the engine. I really like radial engined planes. You can see their engines in their powerful, machined glory, surrounded by graceful (mostly) cowlings.
A4K
Brigadier General
Looka great Andy. What a lovely flush wing to fuselage fit!
Lot of great work going on there Andy.
- Thread starter
- #93
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks everyone. Work continues.
The engine is now finished with the tie straps between ignition wire pairs added and a black oil wash applied overall. I didn't take final shots before installing the engine onto the fuselage and gluing the cowl on but much if it can be seen through the opening.
Next, I put the rudder together and here Eduard got a bit too cute in my opinion. The insert seen in the below pic is supposed to slide into a hollow in the one-piece rudder.
Well, it doesn't do what it's supposed to do, the fit being far too tight:
I cut a good 5 mm off the end of the insert and shaved down the thickness before I was finally able to get the thing inside the rudder. I don't know why they decided to do this as it's a lot of work for little gain. Here is the finished assembly with the elevators slightly deflected. I like the separate control surfaces as they do look much better than molded in parts. Note that I cut off the tiny antenna wire post on the top of the rudder and stashed it as it would have disappeared on it's own.
Here's how things look at present.
A few more bits need to be added before I start painting and I anticipate getting some colour down this week. Thanks again for looking in.
The engine is now finished with the tie straps between ignition wire pairs added and a black oil wash applied overall. I didn't take final shots before installing the engine onto the fuselage and gluing the cowl on but much if it can be seen through the opening.
Next, I put the rudder together and here Eduard got a bit too cute in my opinion. The insert seen in the below pic is supposed to slide into a hollow in the one-piece rudder.
Well, it doesn't do what it's supposed to do, the fit being far too tight:
I cut a good 5 mm off the end of the insert and shaved down the thickness before I was finally able to get the thing inside the rudder. I don't know why they decided to do this as it's a lot of work for little gain. Here is the finished assembly with the elevators slightly deflected. I like the separate control surfaces as they do look much better than molded in parts. Note that I cut off the tiny antenna wire post on the top of the rudder and stashed it as it would have disappeared on it's own.
Here's how things look at present.
A few more bits need to be added before I start painting and I anticipate getting some colour down this week. Thanks again for looking in.
A4K
Brigadier General
Love that engine Andy.
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Great engine and the rudder came out well considering. Nicely done Andy.
looks great Andy.
what is the purpose of that rudder insert ?
what is the purpose of that rudder insert ?
- Thread starter
- #98
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks guys.
To limber up your neck muscles as you shake your head.
The only bit visible after installing the insert is the fork detail which I guess represents the elevator bell crank. However this could have been easily moulded into the rudder.
To limber up your neck muscles as you shake your head.
The only bit visible after installing the insert is the fork detail which I guess represents the elevator bell crank. However this could have been easily moulded into the rudder.
Last edited:
T Bolt
Colonel
Fantastic work Andy!
When I clicked on your thread here just now, it opened up on post #38 and for a few seconds I thought I was looking at reference photos of one of the real things under restoration. Can't ask for anymore than that!
When I clicked on your thread here just now, it opened up on post #38 and for a few seconds I thought I was looking at reference photos of one of the real things under restoration. Can't ask for anymore than that!
- Thread starter
- #100
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks Glenn.
Progress yesterday is not worth the net-space so no pics. I just installed the gunsight and assembled some of the undercarriage bits. Pics will show up another time with more progress.
Progress yesterday is not worth the net-space so no pics. I just installed the gunsight and assembled some of the undercarriage bits. Pics will show up another time with more progress.
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