Rob's flagship

[Martin R]

I don't suppose you'd fancy doing a 'cutaway' to show off your interior? Not sure that'd solve your fitting problem, though.

[rob_van_riel]

I don't suppose you'd fancy doing a 'cutaway' to show off your interior? Not sure that'd solve your fitting problem, though.

I've given the idea some serious consideration. Of course, it will only increase the number of problems (since it would involve making a high quality transparent roof panel, and fitting it to an already much weakened fuselage). Should be doable though. The main reason I've not yet decided to simply go for it though, is that I'm not really sure it would look good. It would afford a very good view of the interior, but on the other hand, it would wreck the clean lines of the airplane rather completely.

At some point, I'll do a see-through Dak, but probably in the form that has half the fuselage transparent, instead of just a cutaway, or just a fuselage half with the interior.

It really is a matter of finding a way to have your cake and eat it...

[MarkyM607]

I took a radical step today: I actually put in place two kit parts, without even altering them. I must be losing it..

You lunatic!!

[rob_van_riel]

Not having been able to come up with an alternative for starting another Dak to use as a scaffold for building the bulkheads for the DST, I got to work on just that. Since the cabin module will have to be firmly fixed to a fuselage half for this to work, I have no option but to build and paint most of it before use, I had another modification/scratchbuilding job to do on the floor and luggage area. In parallel, I did the same for the DST. In both cases, I "artist's impressioned" the radio and navigation area to storage. On the DST (the one with the green resin bulkhead) this area is clearly shortened, while the post war liner (I've decided this will be a converted C-47, almost certainly with Sabena) has the full size compartment.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Good looking. I find cut-and-fit-in-place to be fun, albeit leaving the possibility to cut/fit yourself into a corner.

[Martin R]

Looking good, Rob. Let's see how farvyou can get.

Regards

Martin

[rob_van_riel]

I finally managed to cast the last exterior piece (bungled the first mould, and had to start over). Integration with the fuselage halves enters it's final leg tomorrow.

[rob_van_riel]

I finally managed to cast the last exterior piece (bungled the first mould, and had to start over).

Except that on closer inspection, this one wasn't right either. The mould is perfect, the master is botched (see the second skylight from the rear on the starboard side). I'll have to rework the master, and make yet another mould.
The escape hatch wasn't right either, the window was far, far too small. I've done the necessary rework on the master, and a new mould is in working order.

The picture below shows the fuselage halves as they were prior to priming. At this point I was quite optimistic about them, but the primer changed all that. Multiple surface problems remain, I'll have to widen the skylight mentioned above, and quite a number of panel lines need restoring. It's not like I haven't done that with some of them half a dozen times before



I'll call it quits here for as far as the GB is concerned. I really need some time to recharge the mojo batteries; too many problems on an apparently unending repeat to barge on at full speed

[Old_Tonto]

That's a valiant effort Rob. I'm sure you will get there in the end.