I’m starting with the tail wheel assembly. The kit tail wheel starts with 2 posts glued into the bulkhead. After reviewing several pictures and details, I decided to scratch build a new assembly. All thats left to do know is the electric motor and jack screw that operates the gear.
These are the parts that came in the kit
New parts in brass ready for assembly
New assembly attached to the bulkhead
Temp put into the fuselage
Cheers
Alright Mr. Modest, you’re scratchin like that, and you worried about the show…c’mon!
Looks like a great start, lookin forward to more!
( see ya saturday!!!)
What a great start. Look forward to following the thread!
Charlie
Holy bee-geezus! Quite the detail goin’ on there.
What are you, a brain surgeon on your off time? You’re definitely a nano expert. Wow.
It looks as if you soldered the metal parts. Must be a teensy little soldering iron for that!
Fantastic! Personally, I think every greta project starts out with the tailwheel. ;D I look forward to watching your progress- cheers!
chuk
That is some serious fabrication work there! This builds looks to be off to a great start. [tup]
Neat-o. I wonder if one of those so called cold solder pens would work on that stuff?
Wow! If your doing that with the tail wheel assembly, I can not wait to see what you do with the rest of her. I will be watching this thread, and steal/borrow some of what you are doing, great work so far.
Some great scratchin, that’s for sure. Keep us posted as you progress.
Regards, Rick
With a start like that, I can only imagine what is next. Thank you for the first taste and please keep it coming!
Great start and stunning scratchbuilding. I take it that the tail assembly was soldered?
…Guy
Whoa! Here comes the pro! Man I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next! Does he work from the tail to the nose? Or is the main gear next? Oooooooooh the anticipation 
I’d like to join in with the rest of the gang, very nicely done! You’ve got some really great precision work there. I’m not confident enough with a soldering iron to try what you’re doing.
The strut and the box both look fantastic!
Regards,
Brad
Don’t fergit th’ toilet that’s forward of the bulkhead…[:D]
That is friggin’ cool. I’m curious as to what pictures you may have used as reference. Every picture I have of the tail wheel assembly shows the upper brace attached to the oleo strut and then disappearing into a giant bag/tarp-like thing.
I scratched something similar out of styrene for my build. Not to hijack, but to show comparisons, here’s a picture of what I came up with for that assembly
-Fred
Hi Fred,
Here are a few pictures that sold me on the structure
I looked for 3 days gathering information before I even cut the parts off the tree. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s close.
Cheers
Lancair,
Great detailing, this is the kind of stuff I like to see in the forum. Looking forward to seeing more of your work on this build.
Thanks for posting.
Steve
Thanks for all the kind words. I ordered Big Eds PE so while I wait for that, I continue on the tail area. I rebuilt the Tail Wheel electric motor support. The 1st one was too big. The tail wheel housing is ready for paint. I’ll make the canvas cover after it is installed. Most of the bulkheads are complete that support the Horizontal Spar attachments, the Elevators have been cut apart and hinged and will be joined by the elevator torque tube. Tomorrow I’ll concentrate on the elevator torque tube and the arms that the cables attach too, and start the rudder pivots and torque tube.
Tail Components
Elevator Hinge Components
Elevator in the down position
Elevator in the up position
Thanks for looking
I made a similar one out of plastic, don’t know if it will support the aircraft, but that was over 20 yrs. ago and it’s sitting in a box on the shelf. I don’t think I had any detail shots of the retract mechanism, just the good side shot of it showing the bracing. I crawled from the waist past the tail wheel assy on the CAF’s bird in flight but that was way back in 1979. Only thing I really remember was ducking under the elevator spar and rudder post to get into the tail gunners seat. Great work with the brass! When you get to the main gear they need to be lengthened at least an 1/8 of an inch. The main tires are way too close to the wheel wells. I cut some spacers out of brass tubing to keep them from setting into the sockets too far.
These are some of the after market parts I have acquired for this build.
True Details
Cockpit Section
Bombardier Section
Waist Gunner Section
Tires
Crystal Clear Canopies
Cockpit canopy & Ball Turrent
Nose Cone, Upper Turrent, Radio Room Hatch, Astrodome, Tail Turrent
Quickboost.net
Radial Engines
Gun Barrels
Eduards PE was shipped yesterday from Czech Republic.
Cheers