I decided to remake the rear mounting plate for the engines. I wasn't happy with the gaps around the edges on the starboard side where the plate met the housing, and it was my third time trying to move the mount points for the engines, so I scrapped it and started over. I think I did a better job this go round of making sure things were spaced properly, and far fewer gaps -- nothing that can be easily fixed with a little vasoline and putty.
Here's the first layout after fitting the engines for spacing.
I now shifted gears slightly to figuring out how I was going to center the aluminum center mounting block to the rear engines. I opted to create a sleeve that is fit around the end of the mounting block but with a hole through the back to thread in a mounting rod. The notch on the top is accomodate a bottom-mounting block that the wing hinges will attach to.
I also cut some ABS plate up to get mounted underneath the aluminum block, specifically to provide the aforementioned location to mount the hinges to for the wing mounts.
Here it is test-fitting the position of where I calculated it should be (this is upside down of the final mounting position).
After this initial test fit, I took a bunch of measurements to verify that the mounting block threads would be in the proper location -- and found that it was going to mount ~.2" too far toward the engines. To address this, I buffered out the back of the sleeve by .2" and drilled a 1/2" hole through it to allow the rod to thread in. I then drilled a hole through the engine mounting plate, squared it up to the sleeve, and glued the sleeve to the back of the engine plate.
Here you can see the buffer plate inside the sleeve.
I wanted to test fit the engine housings around the mounting blocks, to again check mounting locations and ensure things were lining up, so I marked where the ABS block would poke through the bottom of the housing and cut it out (no pic of the cutout).
The initial test fitting is pretty good, though a bit more needs to be cut from the bottom notch (can see a decent gab showing on the bottom of the housing). I also verified the mounting block spacing was in the correct location.
To further test the armature spacing relative to the engine housing, I reattached the cockpit section to the center mounting block -- really the only way to be sure.
And now with the housing attached:
Last thing I've worked on so far is a bit of extra work on the engine mounting plate. If you look closely at the reference images, you can clearly see there are small raised rings around the base of the engines exhausts (see red arrows). It looks like the wiring harnesses to supply electricity to the model when rear-mounting come out through there. I'm not going that route, I think, though I haven't fully decided.
I wanted to add this detail, so I measured out a distance I thought looked good (went with about 1.2") and created a round disk to use for shaping the raised detail. Then it was just a matter of gluing it down. The height on these rings was about .2" and made of .02" thick stock. Clothes pins were perfect for holding the ends in place while the glue set.
I like how this looks...
And here it is with the engines fitted. Hard to see the rings from straight behind, but on an angle I think it adds a really nice detail to that pretty bland mounting plate.
Like I mentioned before, this week will mostly be working out dimensions for the remaining bucks, as I'm in Chicago through late Thursday. I also need to get a long 10-24 tap to thread holes through the ABS blocks and aluminum block to attach them to each other. In total it's like 4-1/2" all the way through, and so I'm gonna get a 6" long extended tap (threads are like 1", and 5" of smaller shank to fit down the hole after) from my work, as we sell practically every industrial supply one might need within the pages of that big yellow book.
Probably won't be anything new for the rest of the week, but you never know. Til next time!
Are you going to vacu-form the wings as well?
