Starting a batch of 3 - Halifax MkIII's in 1/72 scale. Two will be gifts for friends whose father flew in an RCAF Halifax Mk III.
Fuselage and wings are rough cut. Station lines for cross sectional templates have been penciled in on one fuselage Not sure yet how on approach for attaching the wings to the fuselage. One fuselage is drilled for tenons. The other is cut out to accept a single wing combined with a fitted filler piece. Also not sure yet how to go about shaping the tail turret. I've left sufficient material in the cut out to carve it as part of the fuselage. Or alternately, I may shape it separately and then glue it in place.
I've shown the tools used for laying out the wings and fuselage. The vernier is much easier to work with than a ruler when transferring some dimensions such as centrelines from the templates to the wooden blocks. The fuselage incorporates a tang used for clamping in a vice for shaping and sanding. It will be removed near the end of the build.
A few of the requirements such as the nacelles and smaller diameter impellers will no doubt stretch my abilities. I've tested making 3 blade plastic propellers using Lexan which seems to be promising and creating a first row of cylinders of a faux Hercules engine. Once the build is ready for these items, I'll provide pictures.
Looking forward to your progress.
Lou
Have started to rough finish the fuselage and wing.
Photo 2 shows the the fuselage with the tang in the carving clamp and the dust collection tray underneath to collect the shavings. The fuselage cross section is very boxy and the lines from the cockpit to the tail are very straight so I opted to use a chisel to true up the lines after bandsawing. Thin slices were removed to crop the high points as well as remove some of the kerf lines left from the bandsaw blade. I could have used a plane, but the grain was a little rough and I was afraid of the wood tearing rather than being shaved. Didn't want to use sandpaper yet, as residual aggregate particles can dull the edge of chisels.
Photo 3 captures the trimmed fuselage with the template stations added for reference during shaping.
Photos 4 & 5 illustrate the use of a low angle block plane with a bench hook to rough shape the underside of the wing and wing leading and trailing edges. A sharp low angle block plane makes quick work of this. Since the wing has a dihedral shape I was not able to utilize the plane to rough finish the top wing surface.
Photo 6 shows the chisels and bench hook used to rough shape the wing's upper surface. Due to the size of the surface I opted for chisels similar to shaping the fuselage but a little wider ( 3/4" & 1" - 18 mm & 25mm). Due to the width of the wing, a longer chisel was used to allow the chisel back to "float" on the surface and control the thickness of the shavings. The grain was a little tricky and I had to be careful not to allow the chisel to dig in. The key to this method is to hone the chisels before use to ensure the cutting edge is very sharp.
I also prefer a wide chisel for shaping all parts. Thanks for the update.
Lou
Since the fuselage is rather straight forward, I thought I would start with the wings first.
Photo 7 shows the reference lines for the air foil shape. Typically I pencil in the chord line on the side. The Halifax airfoil chord is lower to the underside than the top side. I also pencil in the high point of the air foil top and bottom and key points were the curves take a sharp change in direction. These reference lines aid me in creating a uniform shape along the length of the wing.
Photo 8 captures the rough shaping of one half of the wing. I'm opting for a single wing design rather than two half wings for this particular model. Although not finished, the leading and trailing edges are taking shape and aligning with the top surface reference lines. The initial shaping was performed using a chisel and my new vee block bench hook which cradled the wing very well. Once the initial chiseling was complete, the surface shapes were refined using a couple of files. My trusty honing board to touch up the chisel's sharpness can be seen to the side of the vee block bench hook. Nothing more dangerous than a dull chisel!!
Photo 9 shows both sides of the wing rough shaped. The bow sander with some rough sandpaper (80 grit) was used to smooth the surface. I'll start to use a couple of templates from this point to create the final shape. Files will be used from this point onward to fine tune the wing shape.
Nicely taking shape.
Lou
Thanks Lou - It's getting there slowly.
Continued work on shaping the wing and fitting it to the fuselage.
A cardboard template was used to continue shaping wing airfoil. The wing has been left a little thick to allow sanding to the finished thickness and profile. I certainly enjoy the new bench hook vee block for shaping the wing using chisels. In the past I was always concerned about the wing jumping the backstop or moving sideways using a standard bench hook. With the increased height and vee shape of the backstop, this is no longer a concern.
The fuselage wing slot was finished using a razor saw, chisels and file. It was cut a little narrower than the width of the wing to facilitate a tight fit. The skew chisel is a great tool for creating sharp clean interior corners. Once the fuselage slot was finished, the wing was fitted using a chisel to remove fine shavings from each edge. The wing has a slight angle of attack so each edge needs to be slightly angled rather than being square to the fuselage centreline.
With the wing fitted to the fuselage a filler piece has been cut and fitted lengthwise. Prior to shaping the fuselage in this area, the wing and filler piece will be glued in place. The filler piece will then be shaped with the surrounding fuselage profile to hopefully create a seamless profile. If not, a little filler will address any imperfections.
On to rough shaping the inboard nacelles and fitting to the wings. The inboard nacelle is located on a horizontal part of the wing and it will be straight forward to cut out the wing profile. The outboard nacelles will require an angled wing profile cut out to account for the dihedral.
Blanks for the nacelles were cut on the bandsaw. Additional length was included for a tang to clamp the nacelle in the carving clamp for shaping. The tang will be removed after final shaping and sanding is complete. I am planning on 4 components for each of the completed assemblies - nacelle section + cowl flap section + engine cowl section with faux engine + engine cowl front section.
The wing profile was fine tuned using the nacelle template and the fuselage centreline. This was an iterative process involving material removal and checking the nacelle template against the fuselage centreline. The wing chord is not parallel to the fuselage centreline but has a slight upwards incline (angle of attack) of approximately 3.5 degrees. The picture shows the final fitting with the template having a slight upwards tilt compared to the fuselage centreline.
The nacelle template was used to layout the nacelle outline on a blank. The outline and wing profile were cut using a scroll saw. But if a scroll saw is not available,a coping saw can be used. With a coping saw, it may be advantageous to first drill a hole of the appropriate diameter at the wing tip contour rather than trying to cut the tight radius by hand. The wing profile of the nacelle was adjusted using a combination of round (rat tail) and flat files with the tang clamped in the carving vice. This is an iterative process involving repeated material removal and installation of the nacelle onto the wing to check contact and orientation to the wing chord. Since the wing chord was set up parallel to the top surface of the wing section which fits into the fuselage, the top of the fuselage section it can be used as an initial reference for parallelism. Final fitting and check for parallelism / alignment to the fuselage centreline will be performed after finished sanding of the wing is complete.
Looking good Ken.
Gordon
Thanks Gordon. I'm slowly making progress. This model is a little more challenging than the Spitfires and Mustangs which I've previously completed.
Fitting the outboard nacelles to the wing profile is a little more complicated than the inboard nacelles. The wing tip has a compound angle (dihedral and leading edge taper) while the wing profile has a dihedral angle and a thinning cross section to account for.
A scrap piece of wood was planed on opposite sides at an angle equal to the dihedral of the wing. This piece will be used for cutting out the wing profile from the nacelle and drilling the wing tip in the nacelle. Slots were cut into each tapered section to minimize the thickness of material to be cut by the scroll saw when cutting out the wing profile shape. To account for the wing leading edge taper, a small piece of wood was cut with the same angle as the wing taper. This small angular piece will be used with the base for drilling the wing tip at the correct compound angle in the nacelle.
The blank with the nacelle outline is placed on top of the wing taper section and base ready for drilling. The combination of the base and the tapered section on top results in a mirror of the compound angle. I have found it is easy to become confused on the required orientation of the blank when dealing with compound angles. To minimize errors, I placed a pencil indication of the required directions on the blank to ensure the blank is correctly orientated. I also apply the rule "check twice, drill once".
Once the leading edge hole was drilled, the rest of the wing profile was cut from the blank. For this, only the wing dihedral angle needed to be accounted for, so the blank was placed directly onto the tapered base with the wing profile section placed over top of the base cutouts. The underside profile was cut close to the line, but the top surface profile was cut inside the line to provide some removal material for fitting.
After cutting out the profile, final shaping was performed using several rat tail files. As with the inner nacelles, fitting is an iterative process of filing, test fitting, identifying areas for further material removal and repeating until an acceptable fit is achieved.
An alignment and paralleness check was performed with all nacelles placed on the wing. The tang extensions provide a means to check the parallelism of the four nacelles by sighting over the top surfaces. If a wing contour is incorrect, the sighting will show the nacelle to be lower or higher than the others. I purposely incorporated a little looseness in the nacelle wing profiles to allow minor movement when they will be glued in place. Any gaps will be filled using wood filler.
Good job on the nacelle mating.
Lou
Thanks Lou - The joints are not quite as tight as I would like. But I have two more wings and sets of nacelles to fit so I'm sure my skills will improve.
Now that I have the nacelles rough shaped and fitted to the wings, I've moved over to the faux engine. The plan is to complete the faux engines, cowlings and air vents before finishing the nacelles. Because I will be fabricating the engine cowlings from wood, the outside diameter of the engine will be smaller than a scale engine to allow for the cowling thickness. The Hercules engine incorporated 2 rows of 7 cylinders but I an not sure the second bank will be very visible. During one of my surfing sessions I came across a build of a Revell model Halifax. In this particular kit, only the first row of cylinders was modeled. So for this model, I'm opting only for one row of cylinders with a non scale diameter to provide the false (faux) impression of an installed engine.
There are 7 cylinders in each cylinder bank so the drilling and shaping etc. is based upon a heptagon (7 sided shape). To facilitate fabrication some templates were created to facilitate drilling cylinder holes, shaping the crankcase cross section and winding paper around a wooden toothpick to obtain a scale cylinder diameter.
The template for drilling cylinder location holes is taped to the dowel which is placed in the vee block for drilling. The length was determined by multiplying the dowel diameter x 3.14 (pie). This length of the centreline was then divided into 7 equal section. The side lines will be used later as guidelines for cutting the dowel to the correct width.
After the holes have been drilled, the dowel is re-clamped in the vee block. The sides of the vee blocks provide a guide to cut the pieces square to the axis of the dowel. AS previously mentioned, the side lines on the template provide the guidelines for cutting to the correct thickness.
I initially struggled to find material which could be used to model the cylinder and also incorporated an extension to mount the cylinder into the crankcase for positioning and strength. After some playing around I opted to use a wooden toothpick as the base for mounting into the crankcase and winding a strip of paper on the outside to obtain the cylinder diameter. It took a little trial and error to obtain the required length of paper. But once the correct length was determined, a template of paper strips was created. The template strips of paper are cut to the correct length and width. Each strip of paper is passed through a pool of carpenters glue and then wound around a toothpick. Once dry, the cylinder assembly is mounted in the vee blocks and cut to the correct length.
To obtain the crankcase cross section, a paper template of a heptagon with centrelines was glued to the end face of the drilled crankcase using a glue stick. The centrelines are visually aligned with the centreline of the previously drilled holes around the circumference of the dowel. A sharp chisel is placed along each segment of the heptagon and struck with a single blow. Since the material is thin and a softwood dowel was used, the waste material is easily cut. Once shaped, the template is easily removed as the gluestick does not provide strong adhesion. The paper covered wooded toothpicks are inserted into the location holes to create a cylinder bank. If I had opted to go with two rows of cylinders, I would have created a second cylinder bank and then glued the two banks together with the rear cylinder bank rotated to align with the gaps between the front cylinder bank.
Awesome engine build up.
Lou
It's a real pleasure to watch everything come together. Well done Ken !
Gordon
Thanks Lou and Gordon for the positive feedback. Hopefully there's a few tid bits of the build which folks will find interesting.
Switched over to making the parts for the engine gearbox and assembling the faux engine.
The gearbox portion of the engine is comprised primarily of two circular sections so I opted to model these using 5/16" and 1/4" diameter dowels. To facilitate alignment and the future propeller installation, holes were drilled axially in short sections of each diameter of dowel. The dowels were clamped using using the V blocks orientated in the vertical direction. Holes were drilled in each end to maximize the number of components which can be cut from each dowel. The drill bit's tend to wonder, so a centre drill was used to start the holes.
After drilling, the ends of the 1/4" dowel were rounded per the corresponding engine component.
Because the engine parts are short and must be squarely cut to consistent lengths, I put together a jig with a movable stop which can be positioned to facilitate cutting the dowels (or any other material) at different lengths. The fixed vertical guide and movable stop allow consistent lengths to be cut when multiple parts of the same length are required. When cutting the drilled dowels, minimal downward pressure is applied due to the thin walls. Otherwise material tearing occurs. - I learned that lesson the hard way!!
The two gearbox parts were glued together to form the gearbox. This in turn was glued to the crankcase. I am a little worried about mounting the propellers due to the scale, so a 3/32" outside diameter brass tube was installed. The tube extends beyond the gearbox to mirror the engine shaft. The propellers will be attached to the shaft using a 1/16" diam. solid brass rod which fits inside the 3/32" brass tube. With the 3/32" tube temporarily installed, the faux engine is complete and ready for a light sanding. Just prior to mounting the propellers, I will position the 3/32" tube with the correct length extending and epoxy it into position.
After sanding, the engines will be placed into a container of shellac. The shellac should impregnate the paper and act as a long term bonding agent as well as providing a sealer / primer for painting.
Wow are you making 12 engines?
Yes - 12 engines will be created. It's not as much effort as one may imagine. The hard part was figuring out how to make the first engine and the relevant fixtures. Once that was accomplished, I've been cutting out the components for all engines at the same time. Wrapping the cylinders takes a little time, but again, I have a production line going for them as well and do a few each night.
Next item on the agenda is the propellers. Wood seemed to be inappropriate due to the scale and the fear of the proverbial "Do they rotate? Sorry I broke it" syndrome, Plastic seemed to be the best option. Resin casting was considered, but deemed too expensive. I pondered rotating propeller discs, but preferred the shape of a stationary propeller. Upon reviewing the various plastic materials, I opted for Lexan which is a polycarbonate material. Although clear like acrylic, it is more ductile and much tougher to break than acrylic. It can also be bent and twisted at room temperature for specific geometries.
A trip to the local big box hardware store revealed a reasonable selection of polycarbonate. The piece purchased was 11" x 14" x 3/32" thick which was the thinnest material available. A local plastic supplier had thinner material, but the sheet size was much larger. A couple of test propellers were cut using the scroll saw and the propeller twist was imparted without the requirement to heat the material first. However, blade breakage was an issue, not due to the material, but caused by the sharp turns at the base of each blade. So based upon the trial tests, the plunge was taken.
A template with multiple nested propellers was created and glued with a glue stick to the plastic protective sheeting. The nesting minimizes material wastage and provides larger pieces of material to hold onto when cutting out the shapes.
Pilot holes at the propeller time and roots were drilled to allow for easier blade turning to minimize breakage. A red cut out line was created to separate the two propeller nests creating two sheets of 6 impellers. Pilot holes were also drilled at the corners of the cut out lines to facilitate cutting. A 15 TPI blade was used to cut the material. No melting occurred when cutting the material on the scroll saw, even at the higher speeds.
To facilitate shaping, a Dremel sanding mandrel with a 120 grit sanding sleeve was chucked into the drill press. I was afraid the high speed of the Dremel tool might melt the plastic. The lower speed of the drill press worked great and I wasn't worried about ruining a propeller if I pressed too hard as this combination of speed and sanding grit did not aggressively remove material. If a drill press is not available an electric hand drill can be used.
With the edge sanding complete, 4 propellers are ready for twisting and tapering. An arrow was placed on each blade to indicate the twist direction.
Continuing with shaping the propellers.
The back side of each blade was tapered using a very sharp chisel and a standard bench hook. The polycarbinate material is very tough and a great deal of pressure must be applied to the chisel for it to bite into the material. The chisel tends to slip over the material, rather than bite into the material so one needs to be careful. I had both hands on the chisel (one on the handle and one on the shank applying downwards pressure so my hands were not near the chisel tip in case it slipped).
Two pliers were used to bend the propeller blades at the root. A set of needle nose pliers held the root of the blade while another set of pliers was used to twist the blade. The material twisted without an issues and no preheating was required.
Back over to the sanding mandrel in the drill press to shape the leading and trailing edges of the propeller. A moderate pressure is required to force the material into the sanding drum, otherwise the blade skips over the sandpaper surface with no material being removed.
A picture of the shaped set of propellers.
Well Done Ken!
I'm enjoying this project of yours.
Your explanations and pictures explain things very clearly.
Cheers
Gordon
Gordon ;
Glad you are enjoying the build. I'm certainly having fun figuring out the intricacies of a multiple engine model. The engines were a bit of a challenge to figure out the build approach. But hopefully they will turn out successfully. I thought I was off to the races until Lou upped the level of detail on his Argus by detailing the full compliment of cylinders. That's what I enjoy with all the building boards. There's always new approaches and techniques being presented along with a wealth of information for newbies such as myself.
I'm never quite sure on the appropriate level of detail to capture for a build. Thanks for the feedback.
-ken
Starting the engine cowling and nacelle shaping. I'm sure there is an easier way to do this, but I've started down this path, so I'll stick with it. I'll begin with the engine cowling which will retain the faux engine.
The first step was to cut some blanks from a 2x3 with the thickness a little larger than required. I found when drilling the hole to receive the faux engine, if I didn't leave sufficient material at the back of the hole, the forstner drill bit would break through. The engine compartment hole was drilled in the end grain to facilitate shaping the outside diameter and to align the wood grain along the axis of the engine / nacelle assembly. After boring out the engine compartment with the forstner bit, the dimple of the forstner bit was extended with a small drill bit to create a centre hole. The small hole was the diameter of a wooden toothpick which was the pivot point on the adjustable jig described below.
Although I was able to approximate a circle by chiselling the outside diameter, I opted to put together an adjustable jig which allowed me to spin the engine cowling against the disc sander to obtain a more uniform outside diameter. The jig consisted of an adjustable slide with a wooden toothpick as the pivot point. A second adjustable stop was installed on the underside of the jig. To sand the outside of the engine cowling the roughed out item was installed on the jig pivot pin. The jig was then pressed towards the disk sander until the underside stop contacted edge of the disc sander table. The engine cowling was then manually rotated against the disc sander to create the circular diameter.
Because the blanks were thicker than required to prevent the forstner bit from breaking through, a second sanding jig was assembled using a dowel the same size as the forstner bit. The dowel was inserted into a scrap block of wood. The engine cowling was installed inverted onto the dowel to allow sanding of the back to obtain the required length. The block was then simultaneously pressed against the disc sander miter gauge to ensure the end was sanded square and against the sanding disc to remove material. Since this was a through away jig, I didn't take the time to create an underside stop and instead simply sanded while periodically checking the length with the vernier until the required length was achieved.
On to the other parts of the engine assembly
The vent section disc was shaped using the sanding jig. Since the vents are angled outwards the disc sander table was set to the appropriate angle. I was intending to notch the grooves for the vent flaps, but once I had created a few vent sections, I became worried about scoring such a thin section of wood and so will simply stay with the flared section.
The sanding jig was modified to incorporate a larger diameter stub for shaping the front section of the engine cowling. The end of a 2 x 3 was again bored and thin slices cut to the appropriate thickness. Shaping consists of two steps. Step one - sand to the correct outside diameter. Step two - set the disc sander table to an appropriate angle to sand a bevel on the outside edge. This bevel will be further rounded when the assembly is glued glued together.
An engine and cowling assembly was dry fitted to check fits etc. Still have some work to do, but so far so good.
Fantastic work Ken.
Lou
Ken,
I agree with Lou. Fantastic work.
Look forward to more progress reports.
Gordon
Thanks Lou & Gordon for the ongoing encouragement.
I'm not sure if I'm going down a "too detailed" road or not or how good things will turn out. But hopefully things will all come together shortly.
- ken
Now that I have the engine construction figured out, it's on to the 2nd and 3rd fuselages & wings. The fuselage station lines have been drawn and the wings have been fitted into the fuselage cut out. Not sure yet how to make the rear turret. I'm going to try carving it as part of the fuselage. But if the required spherical shape can't be obtained, I'll cut out the section and glue on a separately made spherical turret.
Several reference lines are drawn on the upper and lower wing surfaces to aid in shaping. The station lines for airfoil templates are drawn. The upper and lower crowns of the airfoil are indicated with a solid line along the length of the wing. The airfoil "crown segments" (the upper and lower arc portions of the respective crown) are indicated by the long dashes. Marking the "crown section" aids in creating the appropriate tapers to the leading and trailing wing edges. It also assists in the sanding process to obtain a gentle rounding near the top of the airfoil. The nose and tail chord line centres which are closer to the wing underside are drawn on the edges. These are also used as references to aid in shaping the wings.
Great progress. Thanks for the updates.
Lou
The three of them together will be sight to see.
Gordon
Thanks Lou and Gordon - Progress is slow, but things are progressing.
Wing is fixed in the clamping vice. One half of a wing has been rough shaped using a skew chisel, file and bow sander. A template of the root profile which fits over the wing has been used to facilitate shaping along with the airfoil reference lines. The wing shaping will be fine tuned with the bow sanders and sanding blocks once the wing has been attached to the fuselage as part of the final sanding process.
Santa brought me a set of Narex left and right skew chisels from Lee Valley. They work great for slicing along the edges and back side of the wing profile. The skew requires a little more finesse to sharpen than a standard chisel, but if you have a chance to try one you may be pleasantly surprised with the results. The skews tend to be a unidirectional chisel if you use the backside for support and guiding. It was difficult to find a supplier of left and right skew chisels but the Narex seem to fit the bill perfectly.
Great detailed update Ken, thank you. Regards Paul J.
Your jigs and building aids are also works of art, I would like to see a build and use guide to those, tall order I know, but I believe the way each of us builds the same model through different methods and with our own choice of tooling is the hallmark of true craftsmanship.
Thanks for the compliment Rae. But the jigs and aids are just functional items - noting special. I try to capture these during the build to spark ideas for others. I'm sure folks have incorporated enhancements to meet their specific requirements.
With respect to the guide which you suggest, I think it's a great idea. I would propose the "Tools" posting section is a great spot to capture - tools, jigs etc. and the "Techniques" posting section to capture the unique ways for making specific components etc.
Just a couple of thoughts for consideration and discussion.
How is the Halifax fleet coming along?
Lou
Wow! I just saw this thread. Model Maker - I love your precise, detailedl work! Reminds me that I really need a drill press.
Halifax is on temporary hold due to some construction in the basement. Hoping to restart in a week or so.
Not sure the Halifax is as detailed as other models on the site. But hopefully it will be a fair representation.
Yes - a drill press is very handy!! I have a couple, but gravitate to the bench top one for most of my work. I was able to pick up a new bench top model very cheap ($70 cdn) from one of the big box stores when it went on sale. But there are lots of used ones listed on kijiji in the same price range.
Ken, from what I have seen you have great modeling skills. Unlike model contest atmosphere, I build for myself and although I know there are some critical flaws in my work(Liberator Mk V tail plane), I really don't have anyone to please except myself. Keep on posting those progress shots. I look forward to seeing them.
Lou
Ken,
I look forward too seeing the brace of Halifax's together
Cheers
Gordon
Ken are you taking the summer off ;D? Haven't hear from you in a while.
Lou
Yes I have had to take some time away from building. Have started back at the three Halifax models, but as the old saying goes, 2 steps forward and one step back. Had a problem with profile shape of one wing, so had to scrap it and make a new one. In my haste, I was a little heavy with the chisel cuts and paid the price. In addition, had a problem with one of the templates for the nacelles which resulted in the inboard nacelles not being parallel to the outboard ones, so had to redo the outboard ones. Dare I say, I'm getting better at creating solid nacelles to fit the wing profile!!
However, things seem to be back on track now so I should be posting some progress shots shortly.
-ken
Any progress?
Lou
Not very much. Nothing worth posting. Once I finish the Christmas gift model(s) I'll switch back to the Halifax models. I also have three P-51's which require painting and have also been on the back burner so I'll run all 6 through the painting process at the same time.
Thank you for the update.
Lou
How are your projects coming along?
Lou
Hi Lou;
The progress is much slower than I had hoped due to competing items. I was able to construct a tail section for a Halifax last week. Am hoping to complete some additional detailing before capturing and posting some pictures. Stay tuned!!
Thanks for following up. - ken
Finally back at it! :) As usual, the fuselage tang is held by the carving clamp to provide stability and free up a hand to assist in tool control.
Fuselage of first plane rough shaped. Tried a "new toy" - a micro plane for shaping. It's sold in kitchen supply shops for grating, but does a great job on wood. It's faster and smoother than using a file. It may be a little large for smaller scales, but works well on this size of model. Recess for rear turret cut out. I wasn't comfortable trying to carve the turret integral with the fuselage, so opted to shape it separately and glue it to the fuselage.
Fuselage flipped over and slot cut to accommodate wing. Separate belly pod dry fitted.
Wing and filler piece dry fitted prior to gluing and shaping. In hindsight, I should have attached the nacelles to the wing before gluing the wing to the fuselage. It would have been easier to confirm a uniform alignment of the nacelles. Will modify the assembly sequence on the next two models.
Rear turret glued in place. Slot in fuselage for horizontal stabilizer started. I like to carve the end points before removing the material in the centre. This help ensure I don't remove too much material in the centre. Also show is the rough shaped rear turret. I wanted the turret installed so I could obtain a good fit up with the horizontal stabilizer.
Horizontal stabilizer and vertical stabilizers dry fitted. Both stabilizers are relatively thing and long, so I opted to make them from maple rather than pine for added strength. I was also worried about the strength of the connection between the two stabilizers, so I opted for the mortise and tendon approach with the tendon going completely through the vertical stabilizer. This seemed to produce a strong joint even when dry fitted. Top turret dry fitted as well. I'll add the gun barrels to both turrets after painting is complete so I can centre them inside the painted frames. Will use 1/32" piano wire for the barrels. Ordered the corresponding 1/32" drill bits from the local hobby shop last week so I will have them on hand when required.
Control surface outlines created using a wood burner. Will see how this turns out during the painting process. Hopefully they won't become filled by the primer.
Looks great and quite representative of the Halifax. I am happy to see you back at it.
Lou
Any progress?
Lou
Hi Lou
They are still in there storage boxes. Currently trying to finish painting the P-51D's. Then will switch over to finish these.
-ken
Mustangs done, looking forward to some progress.
Lou
Should be time to unpack those Halifax bombers.
lou