Two sheets of 1/64in ply were laminated together and strapped down over the fuselage formers to dry. The balsa framework was added to the inside before the two doors were separated. The doors held their shape remarkably well.
You can see from the pictures below that the hinges need more support. Little did I realise just how much trouble these hinges were going to cause!
I realised rather late in the day that it would be a good idea to close off the tailwheel well to prevent the whole fuselage from filling up with grass. Then, as the hinge holes were adjusted to align the doors with the underside sheeting, everything became so loose that it was impossible to test the operation of the door closing struts. You can see from these pictures that aluminium tubing was fitted to hold the hinges.
It took much trial and error to get the door struts dimensioned and positioned so that the doors don't start to close before the wheel is sufficiently retracted.
After the long struggle with the tailwheel, assembling the model and standing on its wheels was a good way to reaffirm a sense of progress.
Now that I was at last happy with the tailwheel retracting and steering mechanisms, the rear section of the fuselage sides could be sheeted in.
Since the fuselage still sat upside down, flat on the bench, it seemed a good time to tackle the underwing fairing. There is a reasonable compound curve in this area so I sheeted each side of the fairing in two sections. The assembly was taped down to the wing throughout to minimise the risk of distortion due to the stress in the skins.
The rear face of the fairing and the mating face of the fuselage were edged with 1/64in ply to give a bit of ding resistance and a dowel locating peg was fitted.
The front of the fairing stops short of the leading edge simply because this was the position at which the plan had a section drawn! A simple ply latch secures the front of the fairing to the wing. The area of the underside between this fairing and the rear edge of the cowl is destined to be a battery hatch so this latch arrangement may be revised as and when the detail of the battery hatch is worked out.
