Today’s update will be called one-step forward and 2-3 steps back!!!
Ok the good stuff…
The wings are pretty well done, just a couple of spots to tidy up and they can go on. So to get to here…
From the last update, the tips were given a good sanding to get their profile right. Laminating with plastic sheet was certainly the way to go as it made this process so much easier.
Next some filler in the gaps and around the original wing/new wing joint. There are some noticeable hollows in the resin towards the tip, think it was a result of where the tip gear is. Anyway after a good sanding again it starts to look very nice.
Ends were fitted to the wing root ends and this section also cleaned up and profiled, This is a much later photo as I forgot to take one while doing this!
Next up the flap fairings needed to be fitted….there should and use to be 6 of them, in three different sizes! But some how I have managed to loose the 4 smaller ones….knowing my luck they’ll show up after I have finished it. So I had to make up some new ones, one sanded one not.
Now she’s all sweet, a final lite rubdown and done.
Ok the tail, it still shared a similar outline to the old wings. I had thought of completely redoing the tips but as it was complete and pretty well finished I decided to cheat a bit, so out with the big sanding stick. The tips were squared off, then it was given a smoother leading edge curve, while the trailing edge was slightly reduced. A subtle change but it matches the wings a little more closely now.
So with the wings and tail pretty well done as mentioned……at this stage I was getting ready to fit the wings, but things started to go down hill at this stage!
Now the backward steps, I’ll go from no so bad to crap!
Ok I had some plastic strip cut to the profile of the wing and was going to fit it to the fuselage first with CA glue and pinned with plastic rod through the fuselage. Then with pre-cut out holes the wing I would have a nice plastic to plastic join for them…..that was the plan.
During the test fitting stages it turns out the port wing is 5mm lower than the starboard one! No drama I just had to ensure that my alignment holes were correct. This all went together perfectly, the joins were good and everything was even. Then during some more test fitting I notice that the wings were completely level with the fuselage! They had the correct droop 6
o anhedral but their incidence was nearly dead level 0
o, which is not right. They should have some while on the ground, even in flight they still have some. So the original alignment holes on the RHS were in correct (maybe the LHS ones were correct…I don’t want to think about that!!!) So all my lovely work was in vain and now I had to remove the ones I had glued on with CA glue!! So after much cursing they’re fixed, not as clean and tidy as before, but at least they are where they should be!!
Ok now to the crap………
I had been finishing the final shaping of the canopy surrounds and had a quick peek under the tape just to check how things were inside (I had head something rattling inside. To my shock and horror the canopy had lots of hairline cracks in it along with half a ton of dust! There was nothing to it but to remove the canopy, which did little damage to the surrounding area. Looking closely at the canopy you could see lots and lots of small cracks. What to do, well there was some cursing and the dust bunnies probably learnt few words they didn’t know before today! But it’s really not a biggie, just more work I didn’t want to do, but the canopy wasn’t the best to start with so I should have figured something like this may happen.!
Polishing and dipping in floor polish didn’t help. I tried the smash mould a new one but just couldn’t get it right, and I have managed to put a small dent in it now!
So after some searching Falcon VacForm has come to the rescue, they do a canopy set which includes a canopy for the B-57. Worse case I may just have to buy another B-57 kit and use its canopy! Though they would look nice together!!!
In the mean time I will redo the canopy frames, which should be easier now that I have positions to work from.
I have a semi-reasonable canopy I made that might work, as I think I will leave the canopy open now. So for this I will have to make a custom frame up…..will just have to see how time and motivation goes.
If I hadn’t had the canopy issues that wings and tail would have been on now….but why would we want to make life so easy for us!