Perhaps this is an odd choice for a scale study. To begin with the aircraft is not widely documented, although I have excellent detailed three views and virtually all the photographs taken. I'm still short of a reliable cockpit shot - the one I have appears to have been taken through a sock, but most of is is reliably guessable as it had the standard RAF six instrument cluster as normal, plus engine instruments and a few other as yet mystery gauges. I can't have a full cockpit anyway, as the nose tapers sharply and the tank has to go somewhere. My principle interest here is the simulation of actual geodetics, rather than strips of balsa stuck over a glassed balsa or foam wing. I drew out the geodetics to the correct pattern, which were then laser cut from 3mm ply andglued on where the contacted the ribs and spars. Despite their skeletal appearance, there was an instant lock and the wing, with its 2 degrees of washout is rigid and strong. Of course, the original Wellesley had no ribs as such as the geodetic panels haled the shape without any. Bit ambitious for me that, so in went 23 ribs per wing. The first wing is almost complete - see photo showing trial mated with the fuselage to get the wing tubes spot on. The second pic shows all geodetics in place on the top surface.
The undercarriage has been giving headaches, as unusually the shock absorption is taken with a sliding plate within the wing with no oleos as such, due to second support strut having to be hinged on the same line. On version 5 at the moment and THINK I'm getting somewhere.
More soon as the second wing goes together and the whole airframe can be finished off. Still got the bomb panniers to do, but they're on the way also. Why didn't I choose something simple?
