TJTX

The kit cowl flaps suck. The dont fit in anyway like the real ones and I just couldn't shake how they were sitting. I slept on it last night and came up with a solution this morning. I thinned the kit parts, laid a thin sheet of plasticard over the kit parts and sanded to shape. A little piece on the side to extend the sides up as well makes a much better looking piece. Next I'll work the right side in the same way then I'll see about the lower door.

I just wasnt happy with the cowl flaps, so at this point might as well go all in. Pulled them off and I'll try and rework them.

Wings are on. Fill, sand, and prime now in multiple areas over the fuselage.

As I reach a point of letting things dry on and off with the Trojan,I pulled out my next project. I wasnt going to work on it yet, but it kept calling to me. I've got an ambitious goal for it, so we'll see if Ican do it.

40 little rockets installed.

Cowling is together. Tighter than a fully stretched rubber band, but together. Now I'll clean a few joins on the nose then turn my attention to finalizing the wings and attaching them.

2 minutes and a file and we're all good. MUCH better.

Yes, very much so. That's how they fit so I assumed it was that way for a reason.

Cowling is on except for the lower center seam. I'll attack that after everything else dries. A little filler in a few places and some cleanup and it'll be good to go.

I'm thinking something else but still armor.

Loving it Harvey. Your build has been making me contemplate getting my first bit of armour to mix in something new.

Making some 2.75 inch rockets for the pods. Doesnt make sense to load up empty pods.

Prop fixed, ordanance started, tail plains in progress. Hopefully with a touch of paint the cowling can go on tomorrow or Monday then its seam cleanup.

I think the lockdown is creating a lot of problems with my neighbors. I have nothing else to do, so I've been bbq'ing a lot and I'm not sharing! 6 am in Texas and the ribs are going on.

Good news is the added nose weight looks like I guessed right. She sits correct. Next thing is, does that dihedral look correct? I know it's a trainer so stability is the goal but dang!? Wings aren't glued, just dry fit.

I've got a bunch of fishing weights tucked behind the engine and that seems to have worked. The wing to fuselage fit isnt so bad, there is a bit of a gap. It was the spots on the left wing that were for different lights I presume. Pictures of Bs over there didn't seem to have them.

Thanks Harv. Ernie has been invaluable in helping me by giving me heads up on where and what to watch for. The kit is a wonderful canvas to work off of with countless schemes and uses to build it as.

Spent the afternoon working on cleaning the wings and trying to fit the cowling. I'm using the sprue in tamiya cement filler trick for two ports on the wing that aren't on my T-28 wing. The cowling.....oh the cowling. I've gotten 4 out of the 5 pieces test fitting well. The 5th one surrounding the oil cooler is a bit of a bastard. Cleaning the fuselage area along with a little trimming inside the cowling piece has it almost lining up. This is almost such a nice kit, almost. Anywho I'm having fun with it and I think it'll look great and unique once done. Also painted the prop, but some paint pulled up on a blade so now I've got to redo one.

Fuselage halves have been hammered together. She certainly ain't a Tamiya kit!

Starting to look like a Trojan.

Got the wings halves together, and a quick test fit. Theyllhneed a fair amount of cleanup and better fit to the fuselage. Gonna paint some interior engine areas today and then do some seam work on the ordanance.

Excellent stuff Iain. These are some pretty fascinating aircraft when you look at everything they did they were never designed for. Cockpit is coming along. It's not 100% correct but it gets the point across and I've busied it up a bit. I'm working on making seat belts this evening since the kit ones are PE and I hate PE belts. Also been painting engine parts this morning and hope to have it together in a day or two. The pushrods and ignition parts do NOT want to behave so itll be a bit of a battle. Then I need to figure out how in the world I'm going to partially paint the cowling so I dont have to mask off weird areas later.

That's the truth! My grass has never been mowed so much before.

Haven't slept well lately so I was pretty run down today, but I did get a bit done up front.

Got it. I'll get the plasticard out and take care of that.