Well, the time had come to fit the aft skins (temporarily). Fitting these skins was exciting. Fitting these skins was a pain. Alignment, for the most part, was not very difficult. The aft section was pretty straightforward. The skins resist the bend but the holding power of the clecoes makes quick work of bending them […]
Installing the sills and gussets (cabin… gussets, I guess–not the forward fuselage ones) was a lot of work, but not a lot of stress. Tight areas required the compact tungsten bucking bar (I’m not sure what you’re doing with your life if you don’t have a a few tungsten bucking bars). After some universal and […]
An uneventful yet crucial part of the aircraft. The forward fuselage gussets. These were primed with the sills, and installed prior to the sills. Drilling these pieces was a bit of a hurdle, if I hadn’t mentioned that yet (see video) but installation was fairly straighforward.
Priming the cockpit sills has offered some perspective on the white priming process. The “gloss” white primer has been a difficult aspect of the build since introduced to the project. After various thinning and application techniques, I’ve come so some realizations. At times, I believe I was overthinning MEK, lacquer thinner, and acetone all provided […]
The completion of the aft deck was as satisfying as the initial fit. Again, this area just fit together beautifully, with all lines parallel, and the aft end of the piece lining up in every aspect with the aft bulkhead. Again, a testament to the kit quality, not necessarily the build or builder here.
Also fit around the time of the aft deck was the cockpit sills and gussets. These pieces, which haven’t been touched much since the beginning of the fuselage, took some work then and again now to get into place. But the careful work on these and the skins showed. When clecoed, gaps were minimal and […]
The aft fuselage deck, or stabilizer deck, was fitted. This required leveling the whole fuse–which was 90% there from the careful work done during the flip. Often, adjustment is necessary in a build to get this piece level with all other pieces. Not the case with my build, though I don’t think that is necessarily […]
After some final riveting, the time had come for the big flip. Originally only two of us were going to attempt this, but required a third person to step in. You really need two up front and one in back at the least–as far as I could assess. Dropping this thing would have been a […]
This hole in the bottom of the fuse drove me nuts. It’s incredibly close to a rivet (edge-distance aside, I’m nearly shaving the factory head of this rivet!), a very specific shape and position, and generally just a harrowing ordeal to modify this skin in such a manner. I’ve viewed at least a half-dozen other […]