Jim Cox Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Excellent work! Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted February 18, 2021 Author Share Posted February 18, 2021 Thank you Jim... appreciate that! I decided to scribe around the base of the supercharger intake without any aids. Just carefully dragged my scriber around, gradually making the line deeper. Sparzanza, scvrobeson, Scale32 and 15 others 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale32 Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 Looks the bizzo to me John. Cheers Bevan Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Molitor Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 It does look the part. Way cool! Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted February 19, 2021 Author Share Posted February 19, 2021 The intake after a little bit of clean up... Spread some pastel wash around to double check my work. I think we are looking pretty good as far as the supercharger intake goes. To be totally honest, I am very happy with this progress. It was the one thing that I didn't think I could replicate from the Grey Matter resin fuselage. I'm going to paint the tail wheel components and then I think I'll be ready to put the fuselage halves together. dodgem37, Brett M, brewer and 16 others 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted February 19, 2021 Author Share Posted February 19, 2021 Before I went any further, I took the fuselage halves and scrubbed them in the kitchen sink with a soft toothbrush to remove as much of the sanding dust and pastel wash from the panel lines and rivets. The Eagle Editions resin tail assembly has been painted. I previously drilled out holes to accommodate a brass tube axle so that I can mount the tail wheel later. The tail wheel bay is glued into place with CA glue. The position was pre-marked with a pencil. Before gluing the fuselage halves together, I performed one more dry fit check to make sure that the engine assembly and cockpit tub fit okay. The wing was fitted into place to verify that everything goes together ok. Again, I am using the kit wheel wells since they are easier to dry fit than the Aires set, which has been cut into multiple pieces. The bottom wing center piece, which is from the Grey Matter resin D-13 conversion set, seems to fit well. Everything checked out ok so I started to glue the fuselage halves together working from the tail and moving forward, welding sections together using Tamiya Extra Thin cement. Prior to gluing the forward section of the fuselage together, I inserted the engine assembly with a bead of tube glue on the forward bulkhead where there would be a plastic-to-plastic connection. The rear bulkhead was secured to the fuselage using a bead of CA glue. You can just make out in the last two photos where the thin resin bulkhead (from the Grey Matter set) snapped off when I was pushing it into place. Luckily, the braided wire runs and the bulkhead attachment strut helped keep the broken piece in place and made it easy to repair. After the engine assembly was secured into place, the rest of the fuselage joints were fused using Tamiya Extra Thin cement. Placing the clear parts in position revealed a slight overhang between the windshield and sliding canopy that I'll need to keep an eye on. Yes, I riveted the frame on the sliding canopy! Sparzanza, scvrobeson, Greg W and 15 others 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted February 20, 2021 Share Posted February 20, 2021 Only one word...Spectacular! Oh and clean, precise and smooth.... Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncarina Posted February 20, 2021 Share Posted February 20, 2021 John, serious skills at work here! Cheers, Tom Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wackyracer Posted February 20, 2021 Share Posted February 20, 2021 9 hours ago, Thunnus said: Yes, I riveted the frame on the sliding canopy! you's one crazy fool , luv it! Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted February 20, 2021 Author Share Posted February 20, 2021 Thanks guys! The plumbing is not 100% accurate but I did my best to make it look authentic. As you can see, the MG151 cannon body is buried down in the bowels of the engine assembly and is very difficult to make out but it is there and I feel good that I incorporated that element into this build since it is one of the distinguishing features of the D-13. As I was dry fitting the cockpit, the leftover CA glue from the engine bulkhead caught the cockpit so I just left it in place and secured it using pieces of sprue, fused with more CA glue. I then glued the top engine cowling into place. This is the resin piece from the Grey Matter conversion set and I used JB Kwik Weld. It didn't hold the cowling in place that well so I had to re-secure it with CA glue. A check of the radiator cowling parts. There is a slight overhang between the radiator cowling and the resin engine cowling which will need some trimming. I am adding components and doing clean-up as I go, paying special attention to this area since it is so integral to the presentation of a D-13. Sparzanza, LSP_Kevin, Rivas and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted February 20, 2021 Author Share Posted February 20, 2021 The instrument panel hood, which is from the Eagle Editions resin set was trimmed heavily to make it fit the narrower rear portion of the Grey Matter engine cowling. A lateral sander like the David Union D400 makes this type of work easy and yields nicely consistent flat surfaces. After some minor filling and cleanup, a trip to the light box to summarize where we are to date with the D-13 build... Rockie Yarwood, daHeld, Beaconroot and 16 others 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncarina Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 It’s coming together quite nicely! Cheers, Tom Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted February 21, 2021 Author Share Posted February 21, 2021 Thank you Tom! After getting the supercharger intake taken care of (which was a big worry of mine), the build is starting to pick up some momentum now. I'm moving closer to getting the fuselage closed up and moving to the wings. A couple of shots with side lighting to help emphasize the sculpting that went into the engine cowling. Although it is not 100% accurate, I do feel that the shapes are better integrated and more in-line with the available data (including the cross sections of the D-13 found in the Appendix of the Crandall Dora books) than the Grey Matter resin conversion, which to me, looks rather grafted on. A few peeks at the cockpit from the outside... The rear deck, which was cut from the kit part rather than use the photoetch piece that comes with the Eagle Edition cockpit has been painted. The headrest hood was also painted. The circular cushion was painted a light tan color to match the archive photos of Yellow 10. The clear parts were dipped in Future to increase clarity prior to masking. To make the ammo chute, I used a form made from a piece of thick styrene sheet. The cross section matches the opening in the bottom of the wing, just a little bit smaller. Placing the form in position, I mark the approximate length of the piece, which can be trimmed more exactly later. A section of brass sheeting is folded around the form to produce the hollow ammo chute. The new chute is a nice tight fit into the opening. I will have to trim the length of the chute a tad but otherwise, it seems to fit ok. This will be painted and glued into the center wing bottom piece and should slide into the correction position when it comes time to attach the wings to the fuselage. dodgem37, LSP_Kevin, Sparzanza and 13 others 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 Fantastic work, John! Your shell ejection chute is masterful problem-solving. Kev Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockie Yarwood Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 Brilliant progress, John. Really inspiring! Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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