Awesome, keep those progress shots coming.

Louis

You asked for it!

Last night I was able to complete the carving on the wings.Today we had a snow day, so I was able to get the notch cut for the wings as well as shape the bottom of the nacelles and start the top of them.



The trailing edge doesn't quite line up with the template, but I'm pleased with how well the leading edge matches.

Wonderful.

Louis

I'm going to have to remake the nacelles. I carved them too small in the front by mistake. I carved them down to the size of the inner circle for the engine opening, not the outside of the cowling. Oops!

I do stuff like that al the time.

Louis

Quote from: lastvautour on February 17, 2025, 09:35:25 AMI do stuff like that al the time.

Louis

It's good to know I'm not alone! Unfortunately, we've got high temperatures in the single digits all week, so I probably won't be able to get outside and cut new ones for a while.

I was able to get new nacelles carved and rough-fitted to the wings. I still need to do more tweaking to get them situated correctly. One ended up being farther outboard than the other, and I still need to get them to sit parallel to each other. The tail pieces still need to be shaped, then the lower fuselage. I'm going to try drilling a hole for the upper turret to sit in. We'll see how that goes.

Here are the photos of my current progress:

There be a Marauder on your bench. Coming along nicely.

Louis

Are you drilling a hole for the turret? The vintage model plan that I am using calls for shaping the bottom of the turret with a concave radius.

Quote from: Dave Tunison on March 16, 2025, 01:38:10 PMAre you drilling a hole for the turret? The vintage model plan that I am using calls for shaping the bottom of the turret with a concave radius.

That's my plan, yes. I just thought I'd try a different method.

I've made some progress over the past couple days. It helped that today we had a snowstorm blow through and cancelled school, so I got to work on it a bit more.

I carved a little too much off the left nacelle and it sat too high in the wing, so I added a 1mm piece of wood (basswood maybe?) I had from previous projects (it's about an inch wide and maybe 8 inches long) to get it back to the correct thickness. I used the same wood to add "patches" to the front of each nacelle where I took a little too much off. These were applied with superglue. We'll see how well I can blend it in for painting.

I was also able to get the tail surfaces shaped. I now need to carve out the spot for the horizontal stabilizer to sit, drill the hole for the turret, then I can carve the lower fuselage and start assembling it. I still need to add the air inlets on the front of the nacelles, as well. Here are the progress pictures:

Excellent!

Louis

Nice. It is looking like a Marauder. Nacelles can be so complicated when dealing with the wing taper and the airfoil shape. Then on top of it all they have to be level and parallel to the fuselage.

Quote from: Dave Tunison on March 20, 2025, 07:06:19 PMNice. It is looking like a Marauder. Nacelles can be so complicated when dealing with the wing taper and the airfoil shape. Then on top of it all they have to be level and parallel to the fuselage.

Plus dihedral! No kidding! This is my second twin engine, after my C-119. That one required a lot of putty... 

I was able to get the tail pieces in place on their own. They are not glued, just sitting in place. You can see that they're slightly tilted to the left in the picture. I'll do some more adjusting and maybe thin the vertical stabilizer a bit more. It looks a bit "overweight." I plan on securing them by drilling holes and using that piano wire I found to help strengthen the joints when it comes time to glue them. Still to do is drill the hole for the turret and finish the lower fuselage.

Pictures: