SPA Modeler

I'm ready to pick up on the Tank fighter now that the G-6/AS has been wrapped up. Where did we leave off? I have three major components completed but separate.


The instructions say the wings are to be attached to the fuselage before the engine, so that's what I've elected to do even though a part of me thinks that attaching the engine first might be the way to go.



The fit is not the best and there are some significant gaps that will need to be filled with stretched sprue to increase the glue bond between the wings and fuselage. I am avoiding shims and closing gaps using force due to the fear of putting the engine and front fuselage panels out of alignment.




The next step will be to attach the engine assembly to the fuselage. Once that occurs, I can check the fit of the front fuselage panels. I'll probably forgo trying to fill the wing/fuselage seams now because there is a potential that the upcoming fitment of parts will force some seams apart.

I had forgotten just how beautiful that engine was! I would do the same and wait until all the panels are in place or at least dry fitted in place very well before filling any gaps.

Thanks Clint!

What a pain in the arse this build has become. I should've listened to my spider sense and attached the engine first. The engine frame attaches to the fuselage bulkhead at four points. With the wings on, there is no way to seat the lower attachment points. I ended up ripping the wings off as the glue had not fully cured. I glued the engine into place but with only four attachment points, I was having a hard time securing the engine into the correct position, the nose kept wanting to point upwards. I glued the wing back on fully knowing that the engine wasn't stable yet.



With the glue still wet on the engine/fuselage and fuselage/wing attachments, I decided to plunge right ahead and attempt to use the engine cowling pieces to force everything into alignment. Can you tell I was in an impatient mood tonight? The top cowling did push the engine down into the correct alignment, thankfully. I then glued the the right and left engine cowlings into place (sorry... no removable cowlings this time!).



The mad slapping of parts has resulted in significant gaps in many places. I think it is worse than it looks as black seems to hide some of the gaps that are there. I'm going to have to go over all of the joints and reinforce many of them with stretched sprue to build some strength. After the structural gap filling, I'll work on the visual part.



Just as a confirmation, I dry-fit the radiator cowling to make sure the front end looks ok. Which it does.




I'm hoping the worst of the fit problems is behind. On the plus side, I've got the main airframe together. I just have to make sure it stays together and do some more fill work.

That's a lot of BIG gaps. That's got to take a lot of time to fill and sand.

You see this is why I've never fancied a ZM kit - there's just too much interior detail that could potentially cause issues somewhere else in the build.

Great to see it coming together though John.

Yes, lots of significant gaps on this one. But it's now to a point where I think I can manage my frustration and move this build forward, stage by stage. One of the daunting things is the sheer span of the wings. I keep knocking things over with the wings because they are so long.

I'm not a huge fan of ZM kits as most of you know. But I have to pin most of the fit problems on me. I tried my best to keep things in line but I've seen other builds where the gaps aren't so big so I'm pretty sure my previous steps were imprecise enough to cause problems at this stage.

John, I have plenty of confidence in you handling this! Great looking bird, for sure.

Thank you for your confidence, Lyle. Hopefully, the repairs will go smoothly.

I've filled the major gaps with stretched sprue fused with Tamiya Extra Thin. Once softened, the sprue is pushed into the gap, hopefully increasing the contact area and providing a little more bonding strength. Notice the collapsed spars on the flap. Not worth fixing at this time... some of those spars have been repaired 5-6 times already.

Impatience forces you to more patience later. How often my inner modeling Myagi told me this lesson.
Very precise filling work. I feel your pain with the spars. PE can test you sometimes.

So, did you stretch the sprue, apply the TET, let it soften and then put into the gaps?

Or, did stretch the sprue, place into the gap and then hit it with TaeT?