Then there was this cowl cheek catches that had me bugging for some time. The plan calls for simple and working catches made with some 2mm threaded rod bent appropriately, washers, a spring and a 2mm nylock nut. I made these they worked good but did not look like the real ones, unless you squinted and looked at from some 12 yards.
Long story short, did few variations and here is how it all evolved, from bottom to top, the one as per plan, the next one was made with bent 2mm brass rod silver soldered on the 3/32 brass tube, a hole drilled to take a cotter pin, the third one was again bent brass rod, and a 2mm threaded rod silver soldered, and then finally the kind I was looking for, material is same but instead of overlapping the threaded rod I just butt soldered it. Silver solder is plenty strong. The final piece just needs a bit of cleaning and polishing up with 1000 grit wet and dry         

And here is the Fin and Rudder from the full scale for comparison. Guess once the stitches and tapes are added on the model, it should be pretty convincingly close to the full scale

Miss Barbie came to inspect the cockpit comfort today early morning. She had few valuable suggestions which would be duly incorporated, but she was also told that she is too dainty for such a large airplane and due to safety reasons she could not be allowed to get airborne.

On a serious note, on request of my darling daughter the Barbie was allowed to sit in the front seat and survey the surroundings    

Made the joysticks today. A bit of Ali tube, some spring, suitable washers, thread and heat shrink all put together and mounted on a ply disc. The disc can be glued on the cockpit floor and the spring will give movement to the sticks in any axis. Once glued the base of the sticks would be clad in leather gaiters.
There are two pictures of the full scale to illustrate the joy stick in the full scale. Compare for yourself

 

Also fixed the front seat to the frame and painted the entire thing interior green with Humbrol 78 Enamel. Once dry a bit of rubbing off to ensure that the whole assembly did not look freshly painted. Areas rubbed were the ones that would see normal wear. Next would be to sew up some cushions.
The seats are fixed with two screws on to the blocks glued on to the tunnel side frames. The pilot can be glued or screwed on to the seat and then the seat screwed on to the blocks.    

An interesting fact that I learned about the front seat frame was the frame was merely there to prevent the cold draught getting to the rear cockpit. Presumably the student pilot was destined to suffer the cold draught but not the instructor  

The tank was all fixed up complete with brackets etc. Except for the half round beading that would go around the perimeter.
The tank is fixed to the center frame with two ply brackets on the rear and the four bolts that are fixed on to the tank floor get captured by the wooden filler with nuts    

Here are some pictures of the tank, the filler and how it all goes in all together. Also there is a picture of the full scale to compare the  arrangement on the model vis a vis the full scale. Very scale like I must say    

Pictures continued

And the full scale arrangement

Since the fuse is structurally complete, and the scale details could be added progressively,  I wanted to start on the wings, got out the parts and laid them out on the build table over the plans only to realize I have run into issues.

The rear spruce spar is double the size. Instead of 1/4 x 3/8 the supplied spars are 1/2 x 3/8. Similarly the curved balsa pieces towards the wing root are 1/4 instead of 1/8 indicated on the plans.

While the blasa pieces were replicated from left over wood from 1/8 rib sheets, not having a table saw has stalled the build for now. A fellow flyer does have a table saw. Now planning to visit him and split the spruce spars to required size.     

Maybe the manufacturer upgraded the structure for strength, but did not do so for the drawing?

Wow, valid point to consider before you chop the spars, flyingboxcar sir.
Regards.

No that is not the case, the rear spar is 3/8 x 1/4 and so is the slot in the rib. Same dimension on the plans as well and on multiple sheets.
Will post a picture or two, that should make it clear perhaps

So to clear the confusion, here are some pictures of what I meant when I said the wood was over size
You would see the annotation on the plan, and observe the size of the spruce spar against a ruler. You can also see the cut out in the rib (third picture)
This was all notice while carrying out a dry run for the wing assembly. In this case upper port wing.  

And one more of the other dimension on the spar

Anyway, had to find a solution for this and a fellow flyer with a table saw saw that the wood was split in the required size in few minutes on Saturday evening.
So now I have 4 spars of required size 3/8 x 1/4 and another 4 spruce stock of 5/32 x 3/8 which can be used elsewhere per need.
Back to the building table and out with the  glue bottle.
Enjoy the pictures and ask questions if you want to

Another issue that I had pointed out was about the mismatch in the TE doublers indicated on the plan and supplied size. I had cut out from scrap wood doublers of indicated size but apparently the plan annotation is wrong and the doublers need to be 1/4 that taper from full depth to rib TE height. So the kit supplied pieces were used.
Some more pictures of the wing construction, especially the metal fittings towards the root and the compression struts (a la full scale)                             

Some more pictures

Here are the pictures of the TE doublers as indicated on the plan and as supplied. Supplied parts are correct

The oil tank  mount as supplied was 1/4    balsa, and when fixed in place and the dummy oil tank mounted there was no way the left cowl cheek would close. The issue was discussed with other builders of the same kit in UK and a solution was implemented, which meant taking out the tank mount, replacing that with a very thin ply piece and feathering in the side stringer to be flush.
Meanwhile I had also sent a query to the designer, who responded that the mount was full depth at the rear where the 1/8 x 1/4 stringer was flush and the mount tapered to almost nothing towards the front.
This meant some surgery again. So it was back with the original mount, duly sanded down to a taper, and a short piece of 1/8 x 1/4 stringer was spliced on the side stringer to bring it back to it's original size                   

And while I was addressing the oil tank also mounted the venturi on both side, though shiny now, these would get painted over per the A/c I am modelling
So by today evening one wing is almost complete, since the spars, TE, LE etc are spruce I did not want to use cyano as Spruce does not take very well to cyano. Wood glue and aliphatic glue was used through out, with the down side that the operations take longer and you can watch glue dry

Re spar thickness
Perhaps you could check with the designer which one is later:
Spar thickness or rib cutouts.
You've probably already done so...
Regards

Sorry did not understand what you are conveying Iyer sir

If the thicker spars were a later development, then the rib cut outs are outmoded and need enlarging.
Else if rib cutouts are correct, spar needs downsizing.
Sorry, irrelevant now. Didn't see your morning post about having split the spar...
Regards.

Ok, the cutouts are correct. The spars were oversized. Situation has been remedied and wings in progress. Second top wing starting tomorrow

Wow!! that's a Marathon run in Builds!! better late than messed.... all the best Captain !