Not much action for a while, but it's because building the lower wings is a carbon copy of the top wings. I did run into a small problem. I inventoried the die cut parts when I first started the airplane. There were a few shortages according to the inventory and BUSA took care of them with their usual excellent customer service. I also ran into a small issue with not having enough basswood stock to build the wing center section, but that again was handled superbly.
According to the kit instructions you should have 13 sheets of die cut false ribs, with 10 ribs per sheet, for a total of 130. By my count you need 138 false ribs to build the wings. I saw references on another build thread to not having enough false ribs, but figured it would be fixed by now. I didn't realize I would come up short untill I divvied up the ribs for the two bottom wings and saw the shortage. But once again, a call to Marionette and the parts were on the way, around Christmas, no less, and received right on time. Again, excellent customer service all the way.
So the top wings were finished, joined, and set aside. The way the kit builds you have two exposed bolt heads on the top wing for the retention bolts. I thhought about moving the bolts outboard on the wing and recessing them below the top covering, but decided it wasn't worth it. I'm going for a few new things with this airplane and am aimingn to keep it as simple as possible.
No issues with the bottom wings, by the time I build the last one it was going fairly quickly and almost routine. I guess I'm well prepared for my next busa kit whenever that happens.
Building the tail is straightfoward and goes fairly quickly. Do pay attention to the instructions, you use a different size cap strip for the leading and trailing edges of the stab. I don't think there will be an issue, but that side will be designated the bottom anyway to no worries. I am going to engineer a way to make the stab bolt on, to that end I did not sheet the center section of the top of the stab. I'll wait untill I get the fuse built and get to the stage of joining the stab to the fuse. I don't think it will be a big deal to engineer anyway, it adds minimal weight if done right and havign the stab removable has paid dividends for me on other airplanes. I will be hinging with piano wire, instead of the split pins included with the hinge, so should be able to very easily remove the tail if necessary. One other thing I may have to re-engineer, I am planning on using external flight control wires as per the original, instead of pushrods. That may require some local reinforcement of the LE of the stab where the pulleys mount, and will require different control horn locations, but that shouldn't be an issue. I did not drill holes for the flying wires yet, I think I may try and "sleeve" those holes with small diameter carbon fiber tube. I did this on my D-8 and it makes for a harder surface to tighten a bolt and nut down on, plus it makes finding the hole easier under covering.
Fuse plans about cover my whole table. I was trying to compile a time lapse of my building one of the fuse halves but it didn't work out quite the way I wanted. I was a little doubtfull about using balsa for the main stringers, but it's obviously strong enough and most of the fuse is either sheeted or has cap strips, so I think no worries there. The frames build fairly quickly, the only trick is making sure you overlap all your joints. The fwd fuse balsa sheet parts are a little oversize, which is very nice, I built a little differently from the plans because I couldn't find the basswood stock for the radiator mount in the kit. I've got one frame complete and the other is nearly so, so hopefully when I pull it off the table they'll be mirror images...
Cap strips. Fun fun fun.
Obligitory "now that's a wing" picture
More of the same for the bottom wings...
Even the stab is big... all balsa
Looks like a tail to me
Building table to capacity.
More pics of the fuse to follow shortly...