once fully dry, slide the outer wings
into place. I did wonder if there
would be enough “bend” to get the
struts in place, or if I would damage
the very tightly fitting structure.
In the end, I elected to comply with
the instructions and fit the wing
as one piece, but I dreaded locating
and gluing all those struts in one
go with such a big, heavy wing.
And so it came to pass as
expected: I had a real problem
getting the wing in place, but finally
managed – after a huge modelling
battle of epic proportions. If you
had been in the vicinity during
the battle, your vocabulary would
have been expanded somewhat (I
think I even made up some newexpletives). I had this heavy wing
wavering about while trying to
locate 12 wafer thin struts. As soon
as one was in another popped
out, then just as I was getting the
last strut in, I knocked the top
wing and they all popped out!
“*€$@£#%”! To be fair, I didn’t
have a jig, which I’m sure would
have helped. Probably something I
need to address for future builds.
In retrospect, I should have fixed
the centre section and sanded down
the connection tab so it would slide
in easily. Then I could have fitted
each wing one at a time, and there
would have been enough flex to pop
the struts in one by one. You live and
learn. I would certainly recommendthis method to anyone thinking of
building the kit, unless you have
a jig or some other established
method of wing construction
that works well for you.RIGGING
Last up came the rigging. I used
my normal methods here - Bob’s
Buckles for the attachment
points, and brass sleeves and fine
monofilament for the rigging. The
attachment rings were superglued
in place, after use of a fine drill to
deepen the moulded points. The
line is simply threaded through,
using the sleeves to pull the line
tight, and secured with a drop of
thin super glue. I much prefer this
to elastic thread as it looks better
and adds real structural integrity
and strength to the finished model.
If you take your time over this, have
a couple of good pairs of tweezers,
and some visual magnification, it’s
really not as hard as it looks. With
just the final small details to add,and a little weathering here and
there, I could call this project done.CONCLUSION
Despite my failings, the kit is an
absolute gem. Any issues I had
were totally of my own making (as
usual), but the finished result will
be very special if you take your
time. It’s certainly not a kit to race
through, but with patience, you will
be rewarded with a hugely satisfying
build and a beautiful end product.
The complexity of the fully
rigged structure creates a very
interesting model, whether destined
for the competition table or your
back bedroom shelf. Though this
is, in my view, Wingnut Wings’
best kit to date, it is probably not
an ideal choice as a first biplane
kit. Not because it’s particularly
difficult, it’s just that there are a
lot of components to juggle.
With a couple of builds under your
belt this kit is highly recommended.“WITH A COUPLE OF BUILDS
UNDER YOUR BELT THIS KIT IS
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED”
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