Composite Warbird Build 1/7th P-40E Warhawk

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moving along...

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...another breadcrumb

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These joins are all prepped with 80 grit and alcohol.

Join Rear Lower Fuselage Seam


Insert Ply Dowel Bulkhead



I was having to wait for the ply bulkhead insert to cure so that I could remove the saddle sections for access when joining the firewall chin subassembly.




Cowl mount blocks held in place temporarily with quick 5 minute epoxy



Next time I will have access to allow attaching the firewall chin in the same operation as the lower rear seam and dowel bulkhead.

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...not a lot of time today, but I did find the hour and a half to assemble the chin to the main fuselage - now we wait.... I know, I know, what else is new

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Canopy Frame Serial 000002

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How do you arrive at a unique airplane?? You nique up on it of course!
Slowly, but rest assured, assuredly, I am moving toward something here. lol
Green leaves a lot to be desired in the way of opacity.

Untrimmed Weight - 820 grams or approx. 1.8lbs

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I've carved enough hard balsa block and melted enough plastic in my mother's old oven to know that waiting overnight for a canopy frame to set up is almost too good to be true!
Not bad for #2, but canopy #3 will be even better...

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I've got something cooking tonight - wanna take a guess??

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You guessed it - that's a lower cowl section.

The tool in all rights should have been at least a two piece mould with the forward section pulling straight off the nose.
Don't be fooled by the test part, rather let it convince you of the durability of the materials involved. I stood on the mould and pulled and twisted that thing with all my might.
Pile it into the ground, dust it off, pop out the dings and stick it back on.
Lets see you do that with an ABS cowl - NOT!!
We conquered the opaqueness issue with a couple of coats of automotive paint in the mould.
So the next fuselage will get brown camo followed by green paint.

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New shop - new building season

Wing Mould - Section #2
Flooring Laminate
Old Lamp (tubing)
Furniture Sliders
1/4-20 thread inserts
Aluminum T-slot Extrusion
Carnauba Wax

Hold on....here we go again

[pd1]

Glad you're back at it. Looks great so far.
Looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

Paul

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Originally Posted by pd1

Glad you're back at it. Looks great so far.
Looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

Paul

hey thanks Paul - me too

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These air fittings will be filled with clay and cast in place along with the o-rings. I'll rough up the OD's with a file first to ensure adhesion.

Inexpensive, yes; effective, time will tell.

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Clay holds O-ring flat to face. (8 places)
Barbed part ejector port also included in saddle area.

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well, it better be right 'cause it's kinda permanent...

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surface veil to prevent the heavier weaves from showing through over time

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6 Oz Tape - Outer Flange Support
9 Oz Cloth - 1st Layer

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no point in throwing another $100 in epoxy and cloth at reinforcing this section until I've seen the cavity - if all turns out well, I can always rough it up with a cup wheel on the grinder and lay down a few more layers of heavy cloth

hopefully this will set up enough to remove the forms tomorrow - now we wait....lol

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These flanges are 2 layers of 9 Oz cloth over the tool coat.
It works well. The flange is firm, but still somewhat moveable.

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Still have some clay to clean, and my registration pads didn't release again, but all in all not bad for a disabled guy in his basement I suppose.

[earthsciteach]

Unreal. Thank you for sharing your work. It is incredible!

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and now we wait...any and all laminating resin donations will be accepted with open arms and the greatest of gratitude at the following address...lol

Two Bulldog P40 Headquarters
94B Henry Street
Brantford, ON
Canada
N3S 7J5