Squarehead
Glad you’ve found the thread useful; any specific questions just ask and I’ll do my best to help.
Grahame
Both top wings are complete and ready for the ailerons, so before I start on the bottom wings I decided to have a change and go back to the fuselage and build the under pan.
Some SE5a’s had louvers and some had holes; to aid cooling I’ve gone for the latter. It’s very important to have ample escape routes for the hot air; I aim for twice as much as the cooling air that enters the cowl. Here the under pan, made from 1/32nd ply is ready be covered with litho plate, which has been marked out ready for the “rivets” to be embossed.
The litho plate will be glued to the ply before the holes are cut out.
The litho plate is unsupported at the rear because it has to extend back further than the ply backing, for this reason the litho plate is best used non-annealed. Because there are only the 2 side bends and no compound curves the litho plate is still workable in this state.
The finished under pan in position; just the attachment “hinges” to be fitted but as these are quite delicate I’ll leave them till much later in the build.
Glad you’ve found the thread useful; any specific questions just ask and I’ll do my best to help.
Grahame
Both top wings are complete and ready for the ailerons, so before I start on the bottom wings I decided to have a change and go back to the fuselage and build the under pan.
Some SE5a’s had louvers and some had holes; to aid cooling I’ve gone for the latter. It’s very important to have ample escape routes for the hot air; I aim for twice as much as the cooling air that enters the cowl. Here the under pan, made from 1/32nd ply is ready be covered with litho plate, which has been marked out ready for the “rivets” to be embossed.
The litho plate will be glued to the ply before the holes are cut out.
The litho plate is unsupported at the rear because it has to extend back further than the ply backing, for this reason the litho plate is best used non-annealed. Because there are only the 2 side bends and no compound curves the litho plate is still workable in this state.
The finished under pan in position; just the attachment “hinges” to be fitted but as these are quite delicate I’ll leave them till much later in the build.
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