How I build dioramas Part 2

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The plywood paneling has begun,(slowly).Measure ,cut and shape over and over until they fit,compound shapes and all!Not a lot of room for mistakes.Some of the lower panels I will leave off and/or show fire damage.
This will be a little tricky as I want to show enough fire damage to have caused a flashover of the fabric but not enough to have caused the explosion of the fuel tank.The fire that I am planning would have originated around the carburetor and its piping.
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It has been said that the difference between a "pilot" and an "aviator" is that a pilot is a technician,and an aviator is an artist in love with flight.
JohnReid (Aviator)
 
Beginning the fire damage....
starting at the underside of the engine compartment.Remember the wreck is upside down with the tail up.The fire had time to burn through the thin plywood skin but not the bulkheads.Because it was burning towards the tail the bulkheads would act as a kind of fire break and the burning would be more confined to the aft side of the bulkhead.
 
The gear assembly.
The gear will be up next.Quality wise the castings are poor but because my model will be upside down there is no need to strengthen it as I did for the Camel.I wont bother fixing dings and dents either for this accident victim ,a little weathering should take care of that.
Having built all of the Model Airways models,except the Wright's airplane,I think that this kit could actually be made into something quite nice.It would require new tooling and stronger material for the metal fittings.Also a little updating of the instructions and plans would be in order to make the steps involved clearer.
More accurate cutting of some of the laser cut parts to fit the supplied raw wood parts (example ribs to spars)Use of photo etch for fittings as was done for the Jenny.This would probably up the price a bit to the cost of the Jenny but well worth it in my opinion.Probably will never happen but.......
 
Building upside down!
After I finish the gear I will then build the upper wing which is made as a single unit.The wing will be the basis for the rest of the build.I don't foresee any major problems as with a wreck you have lots of room for artistic license!
 
On to the upper wing!
I haven't got around to weathering the cockpit yet but I think I will set this aside for now and build the upper wing assembly as it is really the base for the rest of this upside down piece to be built upon.
The upper wing is built all in one piece and I will leave it intact except for the odd ding here and there.The fabric will be mostly flash burned off so I will have to build all of the internal structure including the drag and anti-drag wires.
 

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