Clunkmeister

Hey Phil, Let me try to help a bit. Where to start? From the beginning, I suppose. Simply put, there are two main types of wires on all rigged biplanes. Landing wires and flying wires. Landing wires are the diagonal wires that run from the inner top to the outer lower. They support the weight of the wings when the airplane is on the ground. The other wires are the flying wires. They run opposite to and cross with the landing wires. They run from the inner lower to the upper outer. They support the weight of the wing plus the weight of the entire airplane while in flight. They are often much bigger or even twinned, like the double wires seen on a Camel. Landing wires on the other hand are usually single wires as they only need to support the weight of wing on the ground plus an occasional negative G maneuver. German airplanes usually use good old round wires and they’re usually just single steel cable or wires, where most British aircraft used flat, or more aptly, aerofoil shaped wires, and most often the flying wires are twinned. The flat wires are often referred to as RAF wires. Then you have the cross braces between the struts, and finally the drag wires from the nose to the struts. Some British and American aircraft (think Curtiss designs like the Felixstowe and Jenny, as well as the Be-2 and Re-8) also have extra jury struts landing wires above the upper wing they keep the upper wing tips from collapsing while the aircraft is at rest. Then finally, you have the various control wires, which run from the controls to the flight controls. Let me get this out of the way, I TRULY DETEST RIGGING WITH FLAT WIRES. Personally, I also actually despise Prym, EZ Line, and all the other stretchy crap for structural wing rigging use. I usually use Mono line for my builds. It adds strength, just like the real thing. On British planes, that’s a problem, so I’ve usually just faked it and used mono line. Not really cool, but you can count the number of British planes I’ve built on one hand. I used RB Productions RAF wires on a Swordfish I built and they looked the part, not 100% perfect, and quite fiddly, but looked really decent when finished. For your Camel, it’s a mighty small plane without the huge wings so you can get away with flat Prym or flat EZ Line for structural rigging. Before you mount the top wing, attach the wires to the top wing. Drill holes part way into the surface, and attach the lines with CA. Once you attach the wing, it’s simple to run each wire to its spot on the lower wing. Slightly tension the line and attach it with a drop of CA. Personally, I do the cross braces between the struts first, then do the landing wires followed by the flying wires, working from the inside and work outward. Always. Otherwise you’ll end up rigging yourself into being unable to reach the last ones. All I can say, is just try in. It’s actually really easy, and if you work carefully and deliberately, you’ll be done before you know it. For control lines, I ALWAYS use found EZ Line or Prym. That way, fumble fingers doesn’t snag one and snap it off. Turnbuckles: are another game altogether. I have my method, which I can explain as well. But there is a great tutorial on turnbuckles at Des’s site, WW1aircraftmodels. If you read through that, I can answer any questions you have, but my experience on flat wires is limited at best.

On a side note, I’ve found the secret to nirvana, the end of gouged parts when snipping them off sprue gates, and just the portal to all around happiness. Get yourself these: The DSPIAE single blade nippers. They’re not cheap compared to the crappy generic craft store stuff, but they function flawlessly and no more torn or crushed plastic!

Wing center section is flawless!

Now, the wings have several options as to configuration. With wing guns or without. Either 2, 1, or no bomb racks under each wing. I chose two bombs per wing and wing guns. If you’re going to war, have all the tools in your belt! The various inserts are all served up on one sprue. The fit here is excellent Absolutely make sure you install the gun inserts BEFORE you glue the wing halves together Doing otherwise will make for interesting results. Oh, and these parts are handed, so make sure you put them on the correct sides. One side fit extremely well, the other side needs a bit of work.

So the belly pan and fuel tank are installed.

Whew! Thanks Hubert. I was about to fill that.

So a bit of build time has been found these last couple days. The fuselage is together and the hatches are closed. There are very few gaps although around the tail fin fillet, I need to do a bit of work yet, but that’s on me, not the kit.

You know, there's one thing we always seem to miss when we build a pre war airplane. that thing is apparent on the P.11a. Without fail, the very first thing every last pilot in the entire world who flown either an open cockpit or moveable canopy aircraft learns is to toss his shouklder straps outside before he gets in and sits down. If for no other reason than that it's so much easier to pull them in and over your shoulders from the outside than iot is to fight to untangle them from the whatever the buckles end up hooking on. No matter how hard you try, the metal ends always snag something, a flap lever, seat frame, trim wheel, or whatever. Or worse, having to squirm around trying to pull them out from under your fat arse. I gotta remember to do that each and every time I build something with an open cockpit, or with an open canopy.

I'm curious to see the numbers as well. the massive spike in the USA was due to the sudden availability of large scale testing and of course it confirmed what we all feared. This is going to be a big one no doubt, and none of us are immune. It certainly gives a person a sense of their own mortality, doesn't it? Even those 12 cases in Slovakia, confirmed by Ukrainian ex-nuclear power engineer gives me so much confidence in the legitimacy of the numbers.. But good news. We have stash and time. But bad news: low on levelling thinner. The world cannot function without the levelling thinner...

Tim, 10 million people here on unemployment in the last two weeks alone. I'm keeping my men employed as best I can, but I have no earthly idea how I can keep it up. The PPP assistance for small business the gov is touting now has been approved for almost a week, and the forms have been ready for three days, but we're all in limbo because our banks won't accept applications yet. THEY'RE not ready. And, if it has see any kind of relief, and by then, it's all over but the crying. I'll lay all my guys off and hope they come back. :-/ It looks mighty bleak out there these days. All they had to do was agree to cover the business insurance waivers on pandemic coverage. we all carry loss of cash flow coverage, but it doesn't cover pandemics. Nobody's does. It would have been SO much easier....

So, is that the Stay Puft marshmallow man, the Michelin man, or the Pillsbury Doughboy? Or maybe my ex wife?

The other thing I need to do is to get to Bratislava and find out if all the people there are as crazy as the one I know from there.

hahaha. yes, I know, Rob. I'm just not an "open hatches" sort of builder. I like my models closed up and ready for flight. Everytime I see a model with all inspection panels open, cowls off, flaps fully deployed, and everything else hanging off, I think it should be up on stands, getting the gear swung, and being signed off for a major inspection, not sitting there on a ramp, fully armed and bombed up.... just a personal thing for me, although I appreciate the artistry and extra work involved in opening a model up. I know when I was flying for a living, if I had walked out of the hut and seen my airplane sitting there with all the panels open, I'd have asked "how many days will it be down for this time."

hubert, I intend on doing a couple things on the Continent in the next couple years or so, one is to get to Moson, and the other is to get to Krakow. We need to get together when that happens.

Rob, you're quite knowlegeable in these things, so I'll ask you. Does the spike in infections simply correlate to the availability of testing, or is it an actual spike due to spread? Here in the United States, once testing became widespread, the number of cases spiked. So I feel we can safely assume there are many millions of people walking around as carriers, but are non symptomatic..

Smitty, that sounds like an awesome idea. If others are onboard, I'd be right there. Hubert could then give us some live views of the waterfront. And the rest of us could do virtual tours of our benches. I think language wouldn't be an issue. Call me crass, but I think everyone here speaks English at least a bit? Except Australians. Whatever that is they mutter there isn't any form of Engrish I've ever heard.

Let’s look at the tail feathers. There is some truly exquisite molding work here. Previous to this, I have only seen this level of detail on a resin model. Truly by far, the absolute best I’ve ever seen.

We had a bit of fun tonight, finalizing the fuselage interior. As I don’t do ‘open’, I’m closing the multitude of very nicely done service hatches. The empty space between the cockpit and engine is where the jettisonable fuel tank is located

Thanks Richard. I think I have the color pretty darn close. I’m going to use it, but will modulate it somewhat on the model. But I’m grabbing some Hataka paint as well. That airplane is a true National Treasure! The only one left anywhere in the world. I will get to Kraków to see it in person one of these years. I’m surprised they even run the engine and taxi it around the field. I hope they shut down air traffic for miles when they do. I’d hate to see it get T-Boned by Mom and Pop in their Cessna Out Dvorak a joyride on some Sunday afternoon. I can understand the Polish not wanting to fly it.....

I had to do something I never thought I’d do in this Country, and that’s issue Travel Papers to my employees. No joke. It floored me. If some local cop gets hung ho and decides to pull over my absolutely essential guys who I see as family, they had better be able to show they need to be out. They’re all Hispanic, ad in Mexican and Guatemalan, so they are targets for local yokels. The good news is that I’m brushing up on my Spanish, as we basically sit around and talk all day long. I absolutely refuse to lay off my men. They have families that need them, and as soon as we can get away with it, we’ll rotate them staying home with family. We’re considered an essential business, so we need to keep our doors open. They can’t stop us from getting out in the country, as long as it’s private land. That’s a good thing here.

Yep!

Brad, there’s a lot of misinformation going on here as well. Some clown circulated that the entire Nation will be quarantined for 30 days with the threat of arrest if you leave your home. That stuff here isn’t helpful. Can you go camping for a month?

I’ve been watching those developments with interest and I like what I see. Many States are now trying it experimentally, with NY leading the way. But others got all political and banned it completely because our Pres touted it. Good Lord, politics need to be put away and we need to save our Nation and all our friends around the World. France found this because the’re not afraid to think out of the box. It would have been months here before some Docs figured it out and a drug company wanted to reengineer it to get a new patent on an old drug. Gotta be careful or Ill need to moderate myself, but I’m so bleedin’ sick of political crap these days. We ALL need to work together. France, Britain, Aus/NZ, Canada, All of Europe, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, anyone with a developed health system because we sure can’t believe what comes out of China these days. Lives depend on this. If Russia finds the cure, let’s all celebrate it as much as if France or New Zealand does.

I love Tamiya's A6M series. The -2 is the nicest of the pair I think, but there's nothing wrong at all with the Mustang, either. The F-15 is a fun kit, BUT it needs some AM, so knowing you're at least as anal as I am, it's out, so if you want a blowtorch, F-16 all the way. Every single solitary person who's built one loved it. Every Last One. Needs a resin seat, and it's your choice on the wheels.

And to stay off soft fallow fields. and oooover we gooooo. yippeeee BANG! That trick is usually tough on the fin.