Andre du Plessis

18 July 2026.

At last the fuselage halves are together – but not without problems! Firstly; the bottom of the fuselage should be flat – it isn’t – it is bowed inward to such an extent that I had to fit a complete new flat bottom made out of plasticard. Secondly; the seam at the top of the fuselage is problematic and it took much time to get it as I wanted it, and it is still not perfect. Thirdly; the bunch of bracing wires are constantly in the way.

I have started with the engine. Here again I hit numerous problems. The cylinders did not match up on the two halves – close but not to my liking. The exhaust manifold did not line up with the exhaust ports at the cylinder heads, so I had to do some surgery to the locating slots. I have added plug leads as well, as they are rather prominent on the real engine. The front part of the engine assembly holds the push-rod sleeves – these are grossly out of scale and I will have to replace them with much thinner rods. I have added the normal weathering to the engine, but still much time has to be spent on this radial motor.