Wakefield Covered

This weekend I covered the Wakefield with tissue and sprayed it with water for the initial tissue shrink.   I had to re-do a couple of panels because they weren't quite perfect, so it took a little longer than I intended.   I also had to be careful as I had just 3 sheets of white tissue and this was only just enough to cover the plane.

Next step is to clean up the edges and then apply two coats 50/50 mix of cellulose thinners and cellulose dope to do the final tissue shrink.

Covering complete, with 12" ruler to illustrate the scale.

Wings placed on fuselage, note tail fins not attached yet

Wakefield build complete

..just need to finish off the nose block and cover the model.

Constructing adjustable undercarriage

I've been procrastinating on finishing my wakefield because I was struggling with the construction of the undercarriage.   The wire provided with the kit was tricky to bend and I was avoiding starting it.   Instead of fixing the undercarriage to the fuselage, I instead chose to slide the wire into brass tubing inset into the fuselage.   I added two height settings to allow me to tweak the centre of gravity.

The tubing allows me to remove the undercarriage for easy transportation and storage.  The fit is snug enough to ensure the wire frame does not pop out, but I may also hold the left and right sides in place using a rubber band if required.

Low setting, undercarriage is pushed further forward

Upper setting, undercarriage is set further back

Showing high and low rear settings

The Y shaped undercarriage is joined using some very thin copper wire wound around the joint and then glued with Evo-Stik rapid setting glue.