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Short Sunderland MkII


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Morning all,

I dug the wings out over the weekend in preparation for work to commence - as you can see the Sunderland is one LARGE aeroplane. The wife isn't overly impressed. Never mind.

51246091723_92acfabaed_b.jpg

 

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Lots of scribing and reinforcing work ahead...

Tom

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I've had a few pleasant evenings watching Euro 2020 and scribing the wings at the same time - certainly makes a rather boring task more entertaining - unless you're watching England of course...

I don't think the pictures show the panel detail all that well, but you get the general idea from these shots. I scribe the wings whilst still on the backing sheet as this reduces flex and makes the task much easier - here they are with the main lines done:

51253945798_49676889a1_b.jpg

 

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51253744241_03779ef396_b.jpg

I've since removed them from the backing sheet and removed the bomb runners and landing lights on the leading edge of the port wing. I need to give the mating surfaces a final sand and then I'll be adding the lower wings to the fuselage and construct the spars before sandwiching them with the upper wing surfaces.

51253945993_72e1694abc_b.jpg

Stay tuned...

Tom

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1 hour ago, FME erk said:

Every line is a straight one  . .  .

 

It is great work.  And...  I don;t know why, but when I'm scribing, the tool often chooses to make detours.

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On 6/19/2021 at 9:04 PM, FME erk said:

Every line is a straight one  . .  .

 

Indeed. Certainly makes life a lot easier. However, scribing around the complex curves of the bow and rear fuselage was far from fun!

On 6/19/2021 at 10:48 PM, GazzaS said:

It is great work.  And...  I don;t know why, but when I'm scribing, the tool often chooses to make detours.

Fear not, I always have a tube of CA for quick repair jobs - it’s happened on a few occasions even with relatively straightforward scribing on this one. 

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11 hours ago, ThomasProbert said:

 

Fear not, I always have a tube of CA for quick repair jobs - it’s happened on a few occasions even with relatively straightforward scribing on this one. 

I keep hoping that there is another remedy other than another application of CA....    but I guess that's it.

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11 hours ago, GazzaS said:

I keep hoping that there is another remedy other than another application of CA....    but I guess that's it.

Theoretically a swipe of filler would do the trick, but the CA dries so fast you can repair as you go...

 With the lower wings scribed, I have been working on making the internal wing spars this week. The plastic is reasonably thick but due to the sheer size of the wings, they have the structural properties of a windsock on a calm day so much is needed...

First it was a case of using the plans to make the central spar from plastic card:

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With this 'master spar' it was relatively easy to fabricate the rest - and in turn each of these was attached to the stub-spars I'd made earlier and of course to the lower wing skins. I used good old fashioned poly-cement as it dries nice and slowly and allows careful alignment which CA, for example, wouldn't allow. 

Having each wing's dihedral the same as the other is obviously vital - even the slightest misalignment shows in this scale, so being a believer in the simple things in life I simply cut out a cardboard jig from the plans...

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...and used this to align the wings:

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Here you can see how the main wing spars interlock with the smaller stub-spars that protrude from the fuselage:

DSC_0179

 

DSC_0175

Now it'll be a case of scribing the upper wing surfaces and these will then slip over the internal spar structure and sandwich everything together, making a nice and solid wing... he says hopefully:

DSC_0178

 

DSC_0176

Scribing the upper wing surfaces looks as if it's going to be a nightmare of epic proportions... I may be a while.

All the best,

Tom

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  • 2 weeks later...

Afternoon all,

Progress has lowed a little of late due to work: marking exam papers and end of term reports have, sadly, taken priority!

Anyway, I've been slowly getting the upper wing surfaces scribed. Dymo tape is used for the more complex curves, with a flexible metal ruler for the rest:

 

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I've also, once again, left the wings in their backing sheet for increased rigidity. Fuel tank covers still to be done, but I'm trying to work out the exact shapes of these as I don't think the plans I have are quite right:

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The next task will be to get the wings cut out, sanded to shape and added to the lower surfaces already attached to the fuselage...

Stay tuned!

Tom

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On 7/6/2021 at 4:58 PM, mark31 said:

just found this

just wooooooow you are a brave man.

that remembers me that i have also a few vacforms in the stash.

Maybe i have to dig them out

 

Mark

Do it! The more people promoting the dark arts the better!

The upper wing surfaces are now on - before joining upper and lower surfaces I reinforced the leading edges of the wings with thick left over sprues from the HobbyBoss 1/32nd B-24. This not only provides strength, but gives a much larger gluing surface. It's not neat and it's not pretty, but it does the job. The joining surfaces for the nacelles were done in the standard way using plastic card tabs:

Wing 1

The fuselage to wing join is not great, especially on the left wing. Mind the gap!

Wing 2

However, this will be easily dealt with using filler, but it's always a good idea to pack such large gaps with plastic card:

Wing 3

I took a lot of time ensuring the trailing edges are level at the roots, as well as the upper surfaces being as level as possible without leaving any hard to deal with steps. However, the wing root moulded in the fuselage is actually a slightly different shape to the wing - this is not unusual with vacforms but it does leave an awkward step to deal with:

Wing 4

This will be a job for my trusty P-38 car body filler...

The size of this model is now really apparent - I told the wife we should have bought a bigger sofa!

Wing 5

It'll now be a case of some filling and sanding - stay tuned!

All the best,

Tom

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