Main Engine Start

I’ve made some progress over the last few months on the rear section of the fuselage, and particularly the high engine.

First thing to do was to create some circular frames/bulkheads.  Rather than cut out full circular pieces of aluminium and incur a high percentage of waste, I figured I’d cut out quarter sections and join them to create the circular sections.  Here’s how I went about it:

 

These were then cut out and hammered into shape using plywood templates:

 

Three quarter circular sections were then assembled and mounted in place on the rear fuselage frame:

 

I then mounted the intake nozzle that I had started last year:

 

Then I added a further circular section and stringers, as well as the tail fin that I had started on some time ago:

 

Next, to work out the skins:

 

Now to start the skinning and shaping of the intake nozzle.  One of those critical pieces that needs to look right – here’s hoping my technique works out:

 

Quite happy with the way it’s looking.  Will need some filler, and plenty of elbow grease to finish but the foundations are there.

Also started on some of the engine greeblies:

 

Being very curious how the rear will look when joined with the front of the fuselage (but with no easy way to move them just yet), I did a quick mockup with some image editing:

Now that’s looking more like it!

Until next time…