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EE Lightning - Echelon vacuform


mozart

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Well after so much phaffing around, the gluing in place of all the bits and pieces into the starboard half went surprisingly well - so well in fact that the tip of the bullet is now spot on where it should be:

 

UEz6La.jpg

 

And so, a day ahead of schedule!!!!, the Great Lightning Close-Up begins: :clap2:

 

mIbP6j.jpg

 

sbb9Sv.jpg

 

I’m gluing it together a few centimetres at a times, top and bottom.  It's inevitable that there are going to be a few gaps to fill a) because of my incompetence in sanding, b) because in the nose area there's Iain's resin intake ring containing the Aires bullet married to the Echelon vac nose c) both of which I've modified but the honeymoon isn't yet over and all's looking promising for a long and happy Lightning life!! :whistle::rolleyes:

Edited by mozart
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Looking great Max. I have the parts of mine all prepared as well as the Aires additions, I just haven't dared start assembling them yet.

I just haven't had the confidence to impress those rivet lines on the nose ring to a high enough standard.

For about 4 years....

Edited by Chek
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13 hours ago, Chek said:

Looking great Max. I have the parts of mine all prepared as well as the Aires additions, I just haven't dared start assembling them yet.

I just haven't had the confidence to impress those rivet lines on the nose ring to a high enough standard.

For about 4 years....

Thing is Chek, there are no rivets at all as you’ll know on the Echelon kit, so to my mind if you were going to add rivets to the intake ring (agreed, a daunting task) then you’d need to rivet the whole plane. That’s an awful lot of riveting! The only fasteners I have contemplated adding are the ones on the “elephant ear” panels, they are quite prominent. 

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Understood Max. And I had a similar conversation with John Wolstenholme when he was doing his build on ARC many years ago.

But I have a hankering for an ali skinned natural metal mid '60s example for no earthly good reason other than .... it's there!

Edited by Chek
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John’s build is my default reference, so useful even though many aspects of our builds differ. So John chose a painted finish rather than NMF probably largely because of the riveting, a step too far even for his meticulous standards! 

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Yup, it's a Lightning alright!  Wings and tail fin temporarily in place:

 

I3TvTy.jpg

 

The lower edge of the tail fin isn't a great fit, sharp corners to edges just aren't possible with vacuform moulds, so I'll be adding some strips of thin plastic to the fin to "bridge that gap".

 

6aXtHE.jpg

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50 minutes ago, Lothar said:

That's not the vac kit Max, no way - looks to good to be vac formed plastic :coolio:

Lothar

You’re too kind mon ami! I’ve got a day of sanding ahead of me!  I’ve also started looking at the main undercarriage legs and their fitment into the wings.......hmmmm......interesting! :wacko:

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Looks good, Max.:thumbsup:

For the join between the fin and the fuselage, as an alternative you can protect both sides of the gap with masking tape, apply a thin strip of milliput, smooth with a wet finger, remove the tape and voilà!

 

Cheers,

Quang

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