Well, I have not updated in a while but I have been working. The canopy plug has not progressed as fast as I would have liked but I do have it glassed and the first couple of layers of Bondo have been applied and sanded back. One or two more spots of Bondo and I should be ready to progress to spot putty and filler primer. With any luck I'll be pulling the first test canopies by next weekend if not sooner. About a week behind where I hoped to be but I have made progress elsewhere.
I've got about 75% of the parts cut for the dummy center section as seen below. The dummy will serve to test the fit of the parts as well as help me to decipher a construction sequence. I also hope it will serve as a test bed for the flap construction and hinging and possibly for figuring out the funtional flap doors. Last, but certainly not least, I will use it to create the tooling for the parts of the oil coolers that I hope to either vacuum form or mold from glass. The oil cooler intake is one area where it seems every single model of the Corsair comes up short in my opinion. I hope to create something that both captures the scale appearance while still being relatively easy to accomplish for the novice builder. Please note in the pics below that the center jig is present but does not have the brass tubes installed. ( I did not have any more brass or anything else 1/4" in diameter!) Also note that nothing you see in these pics has any glue applied. The spars are assembled to their doublers with dowel pins which hold everthing in alignment. The ribs are all slotted to slide into place on the spars. My plan is to carefully locate and tack glue the jigs to the building board and then start gluing.
The fuselage design is essentially complete save for the sliding canopy mechanism and possibly a few minor alterations to allow for the cockpit kit. Richard and Tom are working out those areas and as soon as those hurdles are cleared I will begin the process of cleaning up the drawings for distribution. If anyone out there prefers to work out the sliding canopy mechanism for themselves and is ready to build a fuselage I could probably have a fuse kit for them pretty quickly. Just let me know. I don't want to hold anyone up if they are ready to go and prefer to engineer the details themselves.
