Amodel I-207

[stillp]

Good idea Tony, thanks, I hadn't thought of that.
Pete

[stillp]

Well, it was a good idea, but it isn't going to work. The fuselage halves are glued to a bulkhead, which is about at the mid-point of the wing, so there is hardly any flex in the fuselage.

Filler then. :disappointed:
Pete

[stillp]

The wing gaps weren't as bad as I'd thought - I think the wing moved when I was measuring! Anyway, it's on and filled now. A big step underneath at the trailing edge, needing a fair bit sanding off the fuselage. Tail surfaces are fitted. Now I'm trying to work out how the undercarriage goes together.
Here's the instructions vague hints:

Parts 36 and 37 fix to the sides of the bay, that's easy. 38 and 39 join together in a groove on the top of part 10, but 10 just seems to float in mid-air, there's nothing to join it to. It's as if theyve forgotten a part or two.
Pete

[Guest]

A conundrum indeed! The joys of short runs! It looks to me as though the only things it can sit to are the inside of the cowl at the front and the wings at the rear.

[stillp]

Yes Chris, I thought that, but it's about 5 - 6 mm too high I think.
Pete

[yak face]

Have you fitted the fuselage top piece yet pete? If not maybe you can drop in a plastic card bulkhead at the rear of the wheel well opening and fasten the back of no10 to that ? As you say its just going to be floating in mid air and leave the undercarriage in danger of collapsing.

[stillp]

No Tony, I haven't fitted it ye, for just that reason. I'm thinking I might make a support for each end of number 10 and glue them down to the wing and the bottom of the engine cowling. If there's enough room I might see if I can hang it from the top, which will perhaps look better.
Pete

[yak face]

Good idea pete , its going to be a bit of keyhole surgery though!

[stillp]

Right, let the keyhole surgery commence!
I started by gluing the main legs together at the top, let that dry a bit, then glued them to that part 10.

Then stuck the triangular braces to the fuselage sides with blu-tack (alright, white tack) so they could move:
Put a drop of cement on the tips of those and added the main legs:

As you can see, this plane is too small for my assembly jig, so two Tamiya jars and more white tack to the rescue. Let that set for a bit, then cut a bit of sprue, filed a notch in it to fir over the ridge on part 10, and glued it to the back of the engine:

You can just make out another bit of sprue at the top of the gear bay, which I just filed to fit between the top of the wing and 10, dropped in place and dripped some cement on it.
That's it for tonight, I'm going to quit while I'm ahead! The top panel can wait until tomorrow.
Thanks for watching,
Pete

[Mini Me]

Well done!

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Great work Pete.

[Jim R]

Hi Pete
All credit to you. You're getting this sorted when many would have winged it into the bin. Well done with that under carriage.
Jim

[Guest]

All it takes is some ingenuity and perseverance

[stillp]

Thanks for the kind comments folks.
The next scary bit will be the framework that holds the upper wing - six struts, which will probably be all the wrong length. :disappointed2:
Pete

[yak face]

Excellent work Pete ,that should make for a strong assembly . In a sadistic kind of way I love tackling kits like this as it’s great to be able to get over the (many) hurdles that you come up against , in fact I’ve got a 1/72 Amodel polikarpov I-16 typ 5 in the stash that I’m wanting to get out now and start !
good luck with the struts ! Cheers tony