1/24 scale DH Mosquito for rubber power.

[Prosper]

A balsa hoop ring . . .

Yes. That was the kind of thought I was having before turning to the rest of the fuselage (got to keep the whole thing moving roughly in concert). I did use the balsa form to plunge mould a 1mm plastic card 'nosebowl' - that might come in handy - and also I stuck one of the existing test plunges back on the balsa form, and then plunge moulded another transparency over it, which of course has a larger radius . . . that was fun - I didn't know what would happen - would the hot PET melt the PET stuck to the form, and generally make a complete mess? No, it worked fine. So there are 'options on the table', as we jet-setting business magnates like to say.

Also yesterday I made the other fuselage panels - Two forming the main section and two the rear fuselage. These were a doddle compared to the nose  - there's very little double-curvature involved. Today I wielded the long sanding block to get the long edges ready to meet, whereupon the top seam is glued with thin CA. The end-caps of the moulds are unscrewed so that the skins can be clamped back on the mould (fingers being the clamps) and each end of the skins is sanded carefully flush with the mould (pic 3). That's why I cut the original one-piece fuselage mould into three: by allowing the ends of each fuselage section to be sanded exactly flat, the butt-joints between one and the next are easy. The skins at this stage are springy/ floppy - trying to sand the ends flat and square freehand is difficult and time-consuming.

There's work to do on the internal structure, which I've started but no pix yet. Mostly careful measurements, and dealing with the difference from the test model caused by the bulging bomb bay of this Mosquito variant. The picture with the long sanding block shows some thin card slotted into a razor-saw cut in the main fus. mould. The cross-section this provides is for the critical main former (the one that bears the wings and also the pendulum).

Stephen.

[Prosper]

Starting on the internal structure: making various templates for the four fuselage formers. I may choose or need at least one in the nose, but I hope not. Of the rear formers, one is light but has a stiff crossbrace, and the tail former is fancy. The fin spar slots into its forward face, and the tailplane spar presses into its rear face. All the flying the test model has done is with the fin/rudder not fixed to the airframe: the fin can be drawn from its slot. Positioning these formers for fitting involves skewering the former on a bamboo stick, in the case of the tail former, and pushing the crossbrace into a split end of the same stick, in the case of the mid-section former. Then lots of tamping and hooking (bent piano wire) to align the former. The weight of the little tail former worried me - it's stiff 1/32  0.8mm. The test model is irritatingly tail heavy . . . but the former turns out to weigh only 0.15g, so no grounds for complaint I suppose.

Stephen.

[Prosper]

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[OZPAF]

Your multipurpose rear former( 0.15g - getting a bit heavy there Guv.) is clever Stephen and I like your skewer assembly approach.

Will the elevators be hinged as well as the rudder?

John

[Prosper]

Oops - I'm back after an unscheduled absence. I hope to get on with this model now. I've started on the main formers. The one on the left has a strong crossbrace because it's located where I will hold the model for launching. I learned from the test model that this was the natural spot for a balanced launch (as much as I can ever achieve a balanced launch that is . . .). The former I'm assembling on the right is The main former - the one that holds the wings and the pendulum.

John, yes the elevators are articulated and yes the tail former/slot/spar arrangement could be lighter .

Stephen.