Tom's Shark **Finished**

[novokits]

Fine apply yellow paint. Looks good.

[TomW]

Thanks Oleg, it needs another coat or two but a white primer coat has made it a lot easier work. Photos will follow tonight but a quick update to say that the tailplanes are on and the upperworks have a first coat of dark brown.

Regards

Tom

[splash]

I look forward to the photos.

Regards Splash

[TomW]

Photo's as promised Alan, this is how the Shark looks at the moment:












Next I'll get another coat of Brown on and then start the Dark Green.

Regards

Tom

[Molly-new]

Good progress Tom, will you be putting on the rigging?

[TomW]

The Shark is a rarity in the biplane world in that it has almost no rigging at all, this is thanks to the way it's bracing struts form a self supporting structure. I will be adding the few wires that show up in period photos but that's about it.

Regards

Tom

[Martin R]

The Shark is a rarity in the biplane world in that it has almost no rigging at all . . .

My kind of biplane!

Nice work, Tom.

regards,

Martin

[TomW]

It might have no rigging but it does have far too many oddly shaped struts that bear little resemblance to the ones in the construction diagrams . However after a lot of trimming and fiddling and quite a lot of guesswork; I think I've finally cracked it:

















As you can see I've also painted on the Dark Green to the fuselage and lower wing assemblies, once the struts have fully dried in place I'll fair them in gently and paint them up ready for the upper wing to go on at the end.


Wish me luck

Regards

Tom

[Martin R]

Good luck!

Those struts don't look as if they were easy . . .

regards,

Martin

[TomW]

They were definitely far from easy Martin, miss-shapen lumps at each end that needed to be whittled into shape and covered in flash as well. This is an original boxing too so I hate to think what horrors now lurk in the most recent repops of this one.

The air has been a little blue at Casa del Tom these past few days...

Regards

Tom

[Martin R]

Still, looks nice and symmetrical now! Looking forward to the finished article.

regards,

Martin

[bluesteel]

Coming together nicely Tom. Those struts look like a substantial chunk of iron mongery. Not much chance of the upper surfaces coming detached with all those holding it all together!

[TomW]

Still, looks nice and symmetrical now! Looking forward to the finished article.

regards,

Martin

So am I, I wonder if I can get someone else to finish it for me..... just kidding

Coming together nicely Tom. Those struts look like a substantial chunk of iron mongery. Not much chance of the upper surfaces coming detached with all those holding it all together!

It is a bit of a hefty old beast isn't it Julian, like most other Blackburn aircraft that I can think of to be honest; Buccaneer or Blackburn Blackburn any one?

Regards

Tom

[JohnRatzenberger]

Called a Warren truss, I believe.

Those struts defeated me first time I tried the kit - I will have to try again sometime ..... Good luck with yours, I think you have a better plan than I did or maybe just figured out the discrepancy between parts & instructions ...

[Molly-new]

Smashing job Tom, with those struts there isn't room for any rigging.