Well guys here we go.

After blowing off the gear bays I decided to start building. This will be blow by blow.

First cut the intake openning. Use a dremel tool.

Next cut the doors open. Use masking tape to mark the edge. Then use an exacto to start a small openning large enough to get the tip of a razor saw in and start cutting.

Goes very easy with the rasor. A great tip I got from Gregg.

razor saw

After you get them cut out mark them left and right, up down and forward.

I taped them back in place and found that they close perfectly. I think a fabrick hinge may be the way to go. We'll see but they swing open and closed very easy and line up great!

Now to cut the nose wheel doors out.

You'll notice as luck would have it that the gear door looks off.

Not so, it's the seam.

The plug moved durring the lay up process and I didn't catch it.

Do not go by the mold seam. The doors are straight. Another reason I'm looking for professional mold making.

I decided to cut the door out in one piece. I can later cut the door into two doors although I've noticed that drawings from the period show it with a single door and two. It's up to you. I personally think the single door will be less trouble.

Use the same system to cut it as the mains. All this went very fast and easy.

The next thing to do using the canopy as a gide is to cut away the cockpit area. This is where you'll slide in the batteries.

When your all done you'll have something thing that looks like this.

Next will be to place the formers in the fuse and the rails between them for mounting the gear.

More to come.

Steve

Your gonna beat me into the air with this one Steve!


Barry

Maybe not. I have a mess of Messerschmitts to make next week.

Well here's the solution to the bays. This will allow lots more room to work too.

What I'm doing here is modifying F1 with the rail mount holes. The white foam (thanks Bruce) is that new former F2a. From this former there will be another set of rails for the mains. Ran out of would so I can't show it tonight.

Needless to say all this gives back the strength that was lost from cutting the main doors open.

On the first 16 kits going out there will be templates to modify F1 and to make F2a. Piece of cake really.

Steve

Close look at the nose retract. The rails are not trimed which is why there's all the excess.

Ok this is going to work very well. I think backing up the rails with a CF tape might be a good idea at these lengths.

If your uncomfortable with the stance there's enough room to angle the mounts more. But this is the scale location, which Barry says is very stable.

Here are some pics of the set up for the mains. Tomorrow I'll get some more ply and cut the new former and assemble all this stuff.

Steve

In the above shot the fuse is upside down. The gear is just laying in place. When screwed to the rails it will not rub against the fuse as it appears.

Here's a shot looking in through the back of the fuse.

Steve