World War II Project - Horsa Glider - Part II

I fired up the airbrush and did a quick application of paint to what will be the inside of the glider skin. I also painted the cockpit and the interior floor, door ramp and bulkheads with the same color. Most of the pictures I saw actually had a two tone scheme on the inside but I just didn't want to go that far with this one. I'm actually questioning why I even bought this one, it may never even end up on the table. It certainly doesn't appear in any of the Kampfgruppe Von Lucke scenarios from the Two Fat Lardies Pint Sized Campaign. Still its been kind of a fun build up to this point.

Here I painted the "inside" of the cardboard used for the glider skin using AMMO US APC Interior Green thinned down with a bit of white. I'll have to watch for overspray around all those open windows though. Masking is going to be a bit tricky, or I may just have to brush paint the fuselage.

Here are the finished glider components with their coating of interior green. There are a lot of variations on the interior color so, much like camouflage colors, its hard to be wrong.

I decided that I would leave off the skin and do that at the very end just so I could be more methodical with it. I don't see anything in the assembly sequence that would cause a problem by doing that and right now it just makes everything easier to handle. 

After the airbrush work I started in on the next sequence; the tail. I had some issues with this assembly. First off on my kit the fit on all the parts was incredibly tight, to tight to make it easy to assemble. To make it easier I would highly recommend filing the slots a bit before trying to assemble the ribs to the tail core (S) and tail assembly (U). You will be much happier at the end.

While I followed the assembly sequence as written I would recommend that you don't. The tail core piece (S) is easier to get properly placed by using the ribs (V, W & X) than by using the end bulkhead (U) as stated in the sequence.

Watch for the point where the rudder attaches to the rest of the tail piece (T). I didn't even realize that I had snapped it off while I struggled getting the end bulkhead (U) into place (the fit is much to tight). Also the end bulkhead (U) actually has a top! On the tail piece (T) the upper tab and lower tab that the bulkhead attaches to are different sizes and correspond to different sized slots on the bulkhead. I had it upside down the first time and snapped it in half trying to take it off, which is about the same time the rudder snapped off.

Also attach the tailplane brackets (Z) to the tailplane before you attach it to the rudder. The fit is incredibly tight and at first I thoughyt they might not actually be the right size to fit into the slot on the tailplane. If you haven't broken off the rudder yet, you could well do it trying to get these in place.

I won't try and attach the rudder back into position until after I have put on the cardboard skin. I suspect the skin will be easier to put with it out of the way and I won't risk breaking it a second time. In the end it might need to be pinned in place.

Here is the action sequence:

Here are the components for the tail assembly

By trying to follow the sequence I broke off the rudder and snapped the end bulkhead in half. A little judicious filing of the tabs and slots would have kept this from happening

Plan B, attach the ribs first which gets the tail core into the proper position

You can see the tabs on the tail core sticking through the final rib assembly (the ribs are all two pieces). Those tabs are different sizes.

Since I had conveniently snapped the bulkhead in half, I lined them up so you can see that, indeed, the slos are actually different sizes and not by very much. There is no indication of direction in the instructions.

Now I have everything in place.

This should be a single assembly at this point but for me it has become two. All the parts for the tail have incrediably tight fits including the wing support brackets on the tailplane. I would attach those brackets before attaching the tailplane tot the rudder, especially if you haven't already broken the rudder off.