Nicely done.

Lou

Christmas rush is over for now...

Separated the wing valves and drilled holes for the mounting pins.

img 4337 dremel horizontal drilling fixture that makes getting angled (or straight) holes done.

img 4378 .032 brass pins at wing root

img 4379 show how the pins build in the dihedral

img 4385 transfer pins installed into drilled root. They will be used to mark the corresponding holes on the fuselage. The pins are 0.032 brass approx 1/4" long with a solder blob shaped into a point. Used like doweling pins.

img 4386 drilling holes into fuselage side using transfer marks.

img4387 wings pinned. Dihedral is set.

img 4393 and 4393 Vert fin drilled same as the wing. The drilling device helps drilling  a .032 hole in the 3/32" thick fin without blowing out the side. Although the holes are not exactly on the fin centre, the fin is held in alignment in place and then the holes are transferred to the fuselage. 

Now to the other four models.

Fantastic Cherokee. I could never get the  dihedral to set correctly, hence, I always do a one piece wing.

Lou

It is interesting how much the dihedral of the wings changes the look of the aircraft. It always a moment of truth when I cut the wings apart.
Fraser

 Well Done Fraser.

 Gordon

wings and tails glued.

Love the assembly line.

Lou

Joints cleaned up and first round of filler. The Piper required the least amount of filler so far.

Made this entry in the Cessna 140A project. oooops.
Here is the Piper in the proper place

Major filling done and cooling inlets and carb inlet carved. The Cherokee had a rather more rounded nose than the other aircraft I'm building. The close up picture do show more finessed cleanup of the inlets is in order. But, consider the hole for the prop is only .062" in diameter.

Her are some pictures ofd the Piper gear build up.

Both main gears and nose struts are air-oil oleos. They are build up in a similar manor with scissor links and axel with the nose gear having a fork fitting for the wheel. 

I discovered that inserting a .032" wire into a .125 copper tube and squaring it flat it gave a good approximation of a faired strut. So prior to squashing the tube I also inserted a .020" wire flattened to fit inside the tube nest to the .032 " strut. Then with a squash, they were effectively swagged together.

Next I drilled the axle from .062" wire and slipped it over the lower strut and bent and cut the "scissor" link to space the axel down. I held the assembly in a small vice and let the axel dangle toward. It is also not 90 degrees to the strut but at a shallow angle for when the strut is installed to the wing, the axel runs level but the strut is canted due to the dihedral.

Flux and small solder blobs added to the key points and the pass of the torch flam and all is done.

The nose gear is pretty much the same except for the fork formed from a small piece of sheet brass.

Moving along nicely.

Lou

I enjoy the added challenge I always seem to give myself.