USN P-4 Pluto **DONE, PICS PG. 10***

[TheChronicOne]

Haven't worked on this in about 10 days (or any model of any type) because I've been quite ill. I'm finally feeling a bit better so it's back to work. I jumped right into getting this gear problem solved. I've decided to do the "closed doors" method and have cut out a slot for the gear to go into and have glued on the housing. I need to refine everything, fill in around the gaps on the housings and create nose cones for them, then fair in the top sides on the reverse into the tops of the wing surfaces. I have parts and putty for this so it's just a matter of getting it done. I will also need to scribe in the lines for the closed gear doors and cut out a couple strips of styrene sheet for the doors and do open.


(This is the wrong gear in the wrong slot... I just threw it in there to make sure it fits.....)   

I'm actually pretty confident in this at this point. I still don't know how to approach the nose cones but I don't think it'll be too much of a problem. Whatever I use, I'd like to put landing lights in the fronts and I think I was going to try to put some flare/chaff dispensers on the rear of them but who knows. Some stuff will come and go depending on how much time I have. I've already lost a good chunk of time to not feeling well and who knows what else may happen between now and deadline...   

[TheChronicOne]

Finally getting some stuff done. I'm still sticking with the mantra of "do all the most difficult, most tedious things first and get them out of the way." I've never done so much of this stuff so it's painfully slow but I am happy to report that much of it is going better than I ever imagined it would and piece by piece I'm getting things done.

OK... so... I have the canopy Futured, masked, and glued on. The nose fairing thingy is in the correct shape. It still needs refining with glazing putty and wet sanding to get it smooth and all that, but the structure is there. I've also managed to start to get the gear nacelles built and blended into the wing. Here I have put more gas tank parts on at the rear edge of the wing.



That was a week or two ago or whatever. Yesterday I was back at it, trying to get more done on these areas. I finished out the interior portion of the cockpit.





I've also found a thing to stick on the front of the main gear nacelles.







I just need to decide on how to finish the top sides. I might put some half pieces of tubing across the gap or just blend it in... or... something. The question is, what the hell are these things at the front?  Little holes in there and angled downward so perhaps they're some sort of surface penetrating radar array thingies or something to detect subs. Or... something....

[Old Wombat]

 

[TheChronicOne]

Yesterdays operations were successful and I've now bridged the gap on the wing top sides. The nacelles are now complete, they just need to have all the little gaps filled in and sanded back smooth so I can scribe a few things then I can go ahead and clean up all the rough edges on the wings and the gear bays I cut open then they'll be ready for whatever next phase is coming. I have some stuff I might put on the ends of the wings and am contemplating hanging some external fuel tanks on there, too. I'd also like to scribe some lines to indicate where the wings fold. HELL.. when I start typing it all out and thinking about it, I have a lot more to do.      Oh well, I think getting all this gear back crap straightened out and built was the hard part so the rest should be simpler I suppose... 





In other areas... I THINK the fuselage itself is ready to be closed up aside from dumping nose weight in. I think I'll take a look at that today and see what the score is. Might also start getting the engines together. I have some card stock paper fans and spinners for them. I'll glue 'em together and try to cut the fan blades and sort of bend them to give it a 3-D look then I can paint those, throw them in the engines, and close them up so I can start investigating how they will attach to the aircraft.

[TheChronicOne]

More today. Once again, not a lot to look at, but a lot was done to keep things moving forward. I've done the application of Miliput and smoothed it out pretty decent. Ran some more glue through there in places, too. I'll let it all dry up for a couple days then sand it a bit and probably go in with some glazing putty and do it again. I also got the nose gear glued together and started getting the engine fans made. Threw a bunch of weight into the fuselage pieces. After the PVA dries up nicely I guess I can glue it together. 

[TheChronicOne]

Trying to do all I can. I've primed the gear so I can paint them. Primed the nose cone. Done other little odds and ends.  Main work has been to start the whole sanding process to get these gear nacelles looking proper. I've also done the scribing for the panel lines in the gear bay doors and on the gear nacelle to represent where it all opens up and folds back together. In looking at it, at first, it seemed as if the way I was doing it would be impossible but with the detriment of additional weight a series of rails, actuators, and other hardware has a mostly plausible system in place. Of course, none of it is visible.... but..... if one were to visiualize how it all opens and closes... well, there's at least ONE way that makes sense.  So that's about it I guess. This is all working out halfway decent, to my surprise, but I worry about the deadline.

[TheChronicOne]

Painted the nose cone, glued the pilot in, glued the fuselage together, cleaned up gear bay edges, put more putty on the canopy fairing and the... uhhh... gear nacelles (they almost look like engines!). Getting closer and closer!

[TheChronicOne]

Wet sanding and refining my gear nacelles. I've cleaned up the scribing, too, with more passes to make it look straighter and more uniform. I learned a new thing today, too; the fact that a coat of primer helps scribing quite a deal so long as the plastic isn't the same color! Very nifty. Anyway.... I'm trying my best to smooth everything out and make it all look like sheet metal instead of lumpy clay. I will still need to do some more but it's looking quite nice at this point. 



That's all I got. I know more pictures would be less boring of an update but this stuff looks pretty much the way it did last time. I figure once this particular phase is completed and I get it primed again then it will be worth inspecting.

[TheChronicOne]

More work on this done today. Refining of the area where I built the gear nacelles then I went ahead and painted and cleared the gear and the nose cone. I've start looking at how to get all the engines and rear air surfaces positioned. I might not do it quite like I had envisioned at the beginning, to try to save time, but I'm not sure yet on how it will go... I need to get a couple other things done first then I can start mocking things up and use tape or elmers glue to temporarily stage things.

This is the stuff sort of mashed together real quick to sort of give an idea of how it's going to look.






LEGO man decided he was over it all. 

[NARSES2]

LEGO man decided he was over it all. 

He's just stunned by it 

[PR19_Kit]

Love it! 

Are the engines pylon mounted off the tailplane?

[TheChronicOne]

LEGO man decided he was over it all. 

He's just stunned by it 

I hadn't noticed the poor feller had fallen over or I would have picked him back up. Glad I didn't, because it's totally apt and I thought it was funny how he looks. Sometimes mishaps make things better! 

Love it! 

Are the engines pylon mounted off the tailplane?

That's the plan.... and make a little reinforced "box" type thing down at the base of the fin(dual purpose; it would level the fin and also be an attach point for the engines). BUT.... I've pretty much abandoned the "box" thing because of the time it would take.    I'm thinking about just gluing the fin directly on to the fuselage and just gluing the engines right onto the fin. I'll have to cut up the B-707 pylons but that's easier than building that box and STILL having to cut up the pylons anyway.

Opinion? Were I to skip the "box" and just attach the engines directly to the fin down at the bottom is the fin strong enough? Could I just say, "there's internal reinforcement.  I'm trying not to put the engines on the fuselage because of the way it tapers in the back and the angles I might have to keep the engines in open air. If I just slap them on, the main wings and the new gear nacelles are definitely in the way. I could try to angle the pylons about 45 degrees, though. I suppose that could be option 3.

[PR19_Kit]

A DC10 and an MD11 have their #2 engines in the middle of their fin, why not the P-4 as well?

[TheChronicOne]

    Works for me!!  Onward!     It'll be interesting getting it all together... coming up on it soon, too.... shouldn't be too much longer. After I get that figured out... I think all I have left is to glue the wings on then patch the space between them and that should be the end of having to "build" things and I can just "glue" things. Well... the arrestor hook might need something but I bet I can build that out of existing spares. 

[TheChronicOne]

All but the horizontal stabs are glued in place. I need to fill in around the engine pylons but otherwise this is about it for "construction."  Other little bits and pieces here and there will be added but we're getting closer to paint.