Big D Builds A Fighter With A Big Nose Pt III

   As you can probably tell, this project gets fitted in around stuff like work, eating and sleeping which is why it's taking so long.

   Last time I had finally managed to get the cockpit together and was feeling mildly pleased with myself. That was not going to last long. 

   One oddity of this design was that it had two engines. And for reasons that seemed justified at the time, the designers opted for a tandem layout with one engine in the nose, exhausting just in front of the landing gear. and one engine in the more usual position in the tail. 

  The kit had rather generously given me a whole engine to put together for the nose position with a ...complicated ... framework to hold it together.

I could not get the bloody frame to go together!        

  A definite problem with this kit was that it had none of the handy pegs and holes you get in an Airfix kit so it wasn't always clear how some bits fit together. Is part A supposed to slot on Part B or be glued to the edge?      The instructions did not clarify this. Then I couldn't help noticing tht some bits didn't quite match up to how they looked on the instructions anyway.

 

   Frankly I was getting a headache and  an ever-increasing urge to do something violently destructive. 

Then a revalation came to me.  

"All this is inside the model and nobody is ever going to see it. Why are you doing this, exactly? 

Just like that the clouds opened and sunlight shone upon my face. 

My path was clear and it did not involve the sodding engine fiddly bits. 

 Again, this feeling of satisfaction did not last.  

Trying to fit the cockpit into the fuselage and glue the shells togther was a traumatic 

experience and I had to hack some bits off the cockpit to make it go in. 

That's why the co-pilot's seat is leaning drunkenly to one side and the fuselage has several very large gaps in it. 

 

  Oh Lord, why did you make me so crap at everything? 

It doesn't get better on the underside.

Much as I'd like to blame the kit, we know what the real problem is, don't we?

Ah well. 

 Now just for a change I remembered to put some weight in the nose so my LA200 won't fall back on its tail.

A bolt and three nuts jammed into some blu-tack and job's a good'un.

 Then I broke out the putty and set about some of the gaps. As usual I managed a complete lack of finesse. 

 Obviously it needs some sanding. Then some more sanding. 

Fuck it, slap enough paint on it and nobody will notice.

Join me again for more misadventures in modelmaking and more damage to my sanity.

That's All Folks.