clive_t

I was wondering if you would take the bait with this! I shall of course follow along with great interest

Thanks Ian, some more stumbling steps along the road to completion. The control column is now in place. I ran into some difficulty in fitting the roof at the tail end for some reason I couldn't fathom. The solution was easy enough, I just glued a spacer made of scrap sprue at a convenient point, enough to force the fuselage sides slightly further apart: imgur.com/a/JCYttue.jpg[/IMG] This is my first attempt at posting a link from Imgur's smartphone app, and I don't know if it's going to work! Edited to add: apparently not!

I would like to follow along, I have the Airfix sabre in my stash which I have been looking at for a while. I have to confess, though, to being a bit confused with all the talk of corrections to wings etc, that I've seen on other Sabre threads. Looking forward to seeing this develop.

More baby steps - the forward bulkhead is now adorned with searting and glued in - some rudimentary seatbelts cut from a strip of Tamiya masking tape: I just need to put the finishing touches to the control column, and that can then drop into the recess in the middle of the floor plate.

Another baby step - the folded up co-pilot's seat: I've also glued the rear bulkhead in place: Hawkeyes among you will notice the 2 short lengths of toothpick temporarily holding the tops of the fuselage sides at the correct distance apart - once the roof is glued on these will be removed.

Thanks Greg, yes I imagine the chances of getting the corrugations to mould properly were not great with that part already on the fuselage. Also, would have made for an interesting join line, right between two corrugations! Thanks Stuart. More progress today. I figured discretion was the better part of valour with fitting the tail - I decided to foil it (and the rudder of course) before fitting it back on the fuselage: Good thing I did, too... I had one of those 'heart in mouth' moments when I tried to remove the foil from one side of the tail section to reposition it better, and noticed that it was taking the corrugations with it! So I quickly returned it back how it was, and worked with what I had! That could have gotten messy with the tail on the fuselage! I'm a bit concerned with the strength of the tail join (or rather the lack of it) so I fitted a couple of posts made from copper wire: Here it is, dry-fitted with the stabilisers also foiled now: Happy with that!

Brilliant detailing!

A quick PS - I did a dry fit of the roof, and it fits pretty well given all the abuse meted out to the rest of the fuselage! Particularly gratifying is the revelation that the interior detail is virtually all visible from at least one vantage point!

Thank you sir, you are most kind. Thanks Ian, not to your levels of intricacy but I am happy with it so far! The corrugations were effectively copied using a mould (made from two-part silicone rubber) that was pressed onto what I felt was the area of the aircraft that had the nearest sized (and spaced) corrugations. In to this mould I spread some liquid plastic (made from old sprue lumps dissolved in liquid poly) as thinly as I could, and left it to cure for around 30 minutes. I then removed the casting from the mould, cut and trimmed it to shape, and glued it in place. Simples! Thanks Greg, I hope to do exactly that by revealing a small but significant landmark moment. The closing up of the fuselage - all bar the roof section - has been a long time coming, but we're there: Well, not quite. For some odd reason the bottom of the fuselage is a separate part: No great issue though, there's nothing visible from the inside, so fitting the part was fairly straightforward: Finally, in preparation for re-fitting the tail, I filled the gap left when I cut it off previously, with my trusty liquid plastic: I'll give that a while to cure, and hopefully tomorrow I can tidy it up and apply the modified tail! Thanks for your interest and comments, they are all much appreciated

Definitely a (blunt!) toothpick/cocktail stick. I used 'Siligum' two-part moulding material to make my mould - the mould is then highly flexible, and dead easy to remove the casting from despite it being exceedingly thin.

Another brief update: paint is on the interior surfaces - well, most of them. Still have to do the side doors, but this is where we are right now: Almost ready for buttoning up! I might leave the roof part off as long as I can, as I have some other ideas for the interior.

You might consider doing what I've been doing on my Ju52/1m, and make castings out of liquid plastic (ie melted sprue goop) which takes the mould detail very nicely, dries quite quickly ( abt 20mins is usually enough) and is also easy to trim/cut and very flexible when it comes to gluing, as long as it's done with care. Edited to add: and of course, cheap as chips!

Interesting subject, and some great work so far! Nice to see some foil going down too

Another great result, Heather

Great show today, looks to have been well attended too