Bughunter

With the fuselage closed, I was able to continue working on the tail section.

The plastic tail skid of the kit is much too filigree to hold the model, maybe once from bench to the display cabinet but definitely not more! It's only 0.5 mm thick—even the slightest sideways movement would cause it to break off.

Pic 1 The teaser photo shows the result of this update - a little robust tail skid.

Pic 2 A glide shoe: A 0.2mm nickel silver stripe is soldered to a closed brass pipe.

Pic 3 Two layers of veneer glued and sanded in shape. The shoe of the previous pic fits to the end and a squeezed brass pipe was added to the pivot point (nickel silver axle).

Pic 4 More parts: A suspension holder for the other end, an "U" with control horns for steering and a 0.6mm axle are soldered together.

Pic 5 With all parts mounted you can already guess how it will work. The bushing on top ...

Pic 6 ... is glued into the fuselage (as the hole was bigger than my axle).

Pic 7 After painting the skid is ready and can be mounted later. Here in a fully deflected position after a hard landing.

Pic 8 The normal position. The "rubber suspension" will be made by a wire as this has to carry the model.

Pic 9 and 10 Here you can see the steering function. I will add later two control wires which are controlling the steering of the skid by the pilot together with the rudder.

I hope you will like this little gem!