RE: "Eliminator 2" molds under way
While this plane is flyable as a prototype, it's been through some rough treatment. The main seam was broken when I first pulled it from the molds, since the first one didn't have formers installed, and was a little delicate. (Production kits will have the formers installed in the molds.) Then formers were test-fit and removed several times, and several different configurations were tried for the gear doors before I got it right.
The gap you see around the nose gear door doesn't exist any more. This photo was taken when I first rigged it, and the placement of the hinges caused it to warp under "up" tension. Moving the hinges forward about an inch solved it. Actually, a worse cosmetic spot on the fuselage is around the main hatch, where I distorted the fuselage a little with a former that fit too tightly. Solved all those things now.
Not sure if I'll bother with trying to make this one perfect, visually. We want to do the flight testing, adjust whatever requires adjusting, then I'll make the next one a "show" plane. Remember that for this prototype, all the parts were hand cut, whereas production kits will use laser cut parts. Builders who assemble this kit will have a much easier time than I did.
Starting on some masking and painting today...