Awesome double entry, my friend @sandbagger! Looking forward to them!

Hi all,
The cockpit has been completed and the fuselage closed up.
As usual, working on 3D printed complete assemblies, such cockpit frames and engines, can limit what can be achieved with painting and assembly.
However, this kit didn't present too many problems.
That said I did replace the kit supplied cockpit instrument decals and pilots seat straps.
I used appropriate instrument decals from the 'Airscale' WW1 generic instrument set.
Also the kit supplied photo-etch seat belts, which are basic to say the least, are too short.
They can't be attached to where they should be on the cockpit side frames and still reach over the pilots seat.
So they were replaced with 'HGW models' fabric belts made up from my 'spares'.
I've added the following:
Throtle control rods (0.4mm Nickel Silver tube).
Fuel level indicator (0.5 mm Brass tube and copper wire).
Pulsometer pipe ('MFH' 0.4mm flexible tube).
Tachometer drive cable ('MFH' 0.4mm flexible tube).
Unidentified pipe on cockpit left (copper wire).
Machine gun trigger cable (lead wire).
Rudder, aileron and elevator control cables (0.12 mm mono-filament and 0.4 mm Brass tube).
Cockpit side, bottom and seat frame crossed bracing wires (0.12 mm mono-filament and 0.4 mm Brass tube).

The cockpit opening of this aircraft is smaller than most, so even less is visible once the fuselage is closed up.

Also the engine is complete.
The only additions made were adding valve push rods (0.4mm Nickel-Silver tube).
Spark plug ignition leads ('EZ' black line).

Mike

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Excellent job as always, my friend @sandbagger!

Quite a challenge, Mike @sandbagger
Lots of work ahead.

Hi all,
Well I'll start with the flight surfaces.
I've sanded down all of the over scale rib tapes on all of the flight surfaces.
I've also filled then sanded where the wing internal support rods protruded from the wing tips.

The tail plane locating recess on the rear of the fuselage has two huge 1.2 mm diameter holes.
I assume these were intended to be used to locate the tail plane onto the fuselage.
However, the underside of the resin tail plane has no locating stubs and is smooth.
To ensure the tail plane located correctly, I resorted to inserting 1.2 mm diameter tubes into the fuselage holes, with 0.5 mm diameter rods fitted in the tubes.
I drilled the locating holes through the tail plane and fitted it down onto the rods.
The fin is just a butt join to the top of the tail plane - not good.
So I drilled two 0.5 mm diameter holes in the base of the fin, so it could be located onto the protruding rods.

The rudder is also a butt join the the rear of the fin, so these were drilled and rods inserted to support the rudder.
I did the same to attach the elevator to the tail plane, which enabled me to angle the elevator down slightly.

The 3D printed tail skid support and the tail skid are again just butt joins.
Therefore, I drilled and pinned the tail skid to the bottom of the rudder post on the support frame.
This should provide a sturdier joint for the tail skid.
Also I has to sand down the over-scale thickness of the tail skid to a more 'in-scale' thickness.

The lower wing halves are intended to have rods fitted to support them in the fuselage.
Whilst the wing roots can be drilled far enough to add sufficient rods, the amount of fuselage support is minimal.
Drilling to far into the fuselage means you'll hit the cockpit internal structure or components.
The wing rods are good enough to locate the wings into the fuselage.
But I think most of the wing support will be from the adhesive joints between the wing roots and fuselage.

The upper wing halves are intended to be joined together using inserted rods, which pass through holes in the top of the 3D printed cabane struts assembly.
However, the spread of the printed cabane struts is too wide to fit into the fuselage recesses.
Pressure needs to be applied to get the struts located and given how brittle the printed resin is, they could break under pressure.
Also the ends of the struts are not shaped to fit into their locating recesses in the fuselage.
I reshaped the strut ends and managed to drill and pin the struts onto the fuselage to hold them in position.

So now it's onto sorting out the upper wing installation.
Pretty good for the kit only cost 145 GBP ?

Mike

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Hi all,
Again, a problem to overcome.
The interplane struts are 3D printed so have no internal support rods.
Also, they have no end locators.
However, the upper and lower wings have locating recesses.
I assume the original intention was that rods, from presumably resin struts, would use these locating recesses.
So I drilled 0.3 mm diameter holes into the end of the struts and added Brass locating rods.
These will hopefully provide better location for the 3D printed interplane struts.
That is assuming that the brittle resin struts don't break during assembly or under the weight of the solid resin upper wing halves - we'll see,

Mike

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

Awesome extra job, my friend @sandbagger! Let's hope the strength will be sufficient.