Hello all everybody.
Happy Passover to the members of the Jewish community, Happy Easter to the Catholics.
I am back to my build of the MiG-21-F13.
Last time I stopped at the nose pieces. I had to reprint and rebuild everything I built up until now since my three-legged dog stumbled and destroyed the model. Sounds weird, but this is what we've got and will have to win with that.
So I attached the cockpit wrapping to the center part and attached the nose inlet part. To make sure that the nose will be heavier than the tail, I added a 10 grams weight used for tyres balancing.
The idea of the developer to use the Heads-Up display cover as a structural member of the wrapping is questionable. It is buildable, no argue, but need to be very cautious not to cause any deformations while trying to attach the front segments together.
Than I moved to the rear parts. The engine exhaust screen edge acts as a former for the rear parts and also has a former on the front part which is a narrow ring. Not so simple to make this ring, it's 3 mm wide. So, I coarsely cut the outer diameter of the ring and brought it to a needed diameter with 100 grit sanding paper. The second rear ring former was nothing difficult, really.
Next I began with the dorsal spine. The designer proposed to mount a cardboard strips on the edges of the dorsal spine wrapping with gluing tabs between the wrapping and these strips and then to insert the formers that would provide the needed shape. Very good idea, this way the spine sides won't sag inwards. Getting to such a small diameter bend is not simple and I glad I decided to use a pretty thin 145 g/sq.m paper.
I also prepared a stand on which I could lean the plane's body while I work on it...
In all, excellent parts fit untill now. I have a problem with the cockpit wrapping, its design requires too much carefulness, and I have a bump between the first and the second parts. I'll need to find a solution for this, or hide it somehow.
Well, enjoy the pictures