Belly pan smoothed into the wing with evercoat filler.
Wing to fuselage joint filled and smoothed with evercoat.
Tail feathers covered with worldtex fabric covering and hinged.
Rudder built and hinged with cut pieces of G-10 phenolic sheet with music wire pivot.
B&D retractable tailwheel installed with striker plate for door actuation. The wheel hits the plate upon retraction, pulling the doors closed. Rear of plate is hinged to rudder post. Front of plate is connected by ball links to the tailwheel doors.
Hinged panel hiding switches and retract air filler port. Hinges and hatch latch are from BVM.
Cowl with hidden latches. Latches are BVM canopy retention latches that I used to secure the cowl to the fuselage with nothing showing externally. 2 small 4-40 screws hold the front down and 2 carbon locator pins hold the rear.
View inside the cowl from the spinner opening showing the BVM latches and locator pins.
Cowl view from the outside, no visible means of retention.
Rudder horn made from G-10. G-10 phenolic sheet is available from McMasterCarr.com www.mcmaster.com
Airframe is now primered with PPG K-36 automotive primer. The first primer coat was sanded almost completely off with 220 grit wet. Then imperfections were filled with Nitrostans red putty and sanded down again with 220 grit.. The same process was completed 2 more times going from 220 grit to 320 grit and finally to 400 grit wet/dry until all surfaces were completely smooth.
Wing to fuselage joint showing the panel line/wing part joint.
Another view of the wing to fuselage joint showing the panel line/wing part joint.
Airframe is now ready for rivets, panel lines and further detailing.
Pilot "R.T. Smith" checking out his new ride.
Starting the cockpit walls from scratch as no cockpit kit was available for this model. .020 styrene plastic sheets and assorted C channels and I beams used for the sides.
Basswood rails are installed to form a base for the cockpit.
R.T. checkin out his new office parts. Instrument panel, gunsight, seat, headrest, control stick and radio boxes are supplied by Rob Pike. Rob produces these excellent parts out of white plastic. They are available here: RCFINALTOUCH
Instruments are printed from images found on the internet. Pilot's seat is covered in FliteMetal.
Canopy crank, map case and seat support built from styrene plastic.
Throttle quadrant, trim knobs, headrest from RCfinaltouch.com
Canopy with small strips of styrene plastic glued to the inside to form a "ledge" for the clear plastic panels to glue to.
.30 Cal wing guns made from different sizes of brass tubing. Small screws are silver soldered onto the rear of the gun which in turn screw into hardwood dowels glued into the wing leading edge. Guns can be removed for transportation by simply unscrewing from the dowels.
Cowl panel fasteners simulated by "riveting" with a soldering iron with brass tubing. Tomahawk is now ready for paint.
Undersurfaces painted with PPG basecoat in RAF medium sea grey
Uppersurfaces in PPG RAF Dk Earth.
Camo layout masked off with 3M soft foam masking tape.
Now its time for markings..............
The 3M tape allows me to shoot all the camo at once.
