World War II Project - Horsa Glider - Part III

The wings are the last piece to assemble in the instructions. If you build as directed you are just about done because you would have been adding the skin as the last part of each sub assembly, something I decided to wait on. Be aware there are some fragility here until you skin them. The wings are constructed from two pieces  (each) of MDF so they are quite heavy. I'm looking at the wing spars that hold this assembly together and I have my doubts, hopefully the cardboard skin will hold everything together, and it should.

There is a piece mislabeled here as well. The long spar that joins the two wing halves together is noted as #1 on the diagram and as L in the instructions. The assembly is pretty straight forward, just be sure that all the slots line up between the upper and lower surfaces of the wings so that the spars will fit correctly.  Test fit, test fit test fit!

After the wings I went to work on the undercarriage. This is another point where are there are some very small pieces and it won't take much to break them. A little judicious filing will make things much easier. This is another spot in the instructions where a part is labeled incorrectly. The diagram shows the Front Frame as part #1 and the instructions refer to it as Q. Its not a big issue since there is nothing even remotely similar to it.  The one issue I ran into is that the two wheels are each constructed of four parts. On the frame those parts are on there are only three pieces for each wheel. I don't know what I did with the two part "V"s that make up the outside portion of the wheel. I was throwing away frames as I finished them and I thought I was making sure that I snagged any misc pieces from those but as it sits they are definitely missing. Odds are no one is going to notice anyway so I'm not going to go crazy over it.

Now that I have everything together I'm ready to move on to applying the "skin"

Here are all the pieces for the wing except the long spar (L)

Here is the upper wing with the ribs in place and the lower wing ready to be glued together. be sure that your engraved sides of the wing are facing away from each other! This is a big surface so clamping the two wing halves together is required (in my opinion, long time readers should know how I feel about clamping at this point).

The lower wing, engraved side

The upper wing, engraved side, ribs attached.

Everything glued together, I got a little sloppy with the glue here, but it will be covered by the cardboard "skin"

Wings assembled

Spars added. The wing is ready for the "skin" now.

The under carriage. Note that I only have three pieces for each wheel, not sure what happened to the fourth piece. The two triangles are the support struts for the tailplane.

The under carriage assembled. Note that the spot where the front frame and the undercarriage frame come together at the wheel is a weak point because the MDF is thin. I broke this joint on one side trying to force the wheels on to the tab. Sanding the tab slightly will make it easier to fit the wheels on and help keep you from breaking the joint there.

Two unknown pieces that were on one of the frames that I held on to. I have no idea where these goes or what their purpose is. I have gone over the instructions and I don't believe I missed anything in the assembly process.