Transport aircraft Li-2: the history of one assembly 4

Li-2 Maly STORY

Then I finally did what I did not have then, in a past life. I did the wingtips and keel endings the way they always had to be done.

Such a piece of surrealism in the photo turned out. Namely, along the contour of the corresponding plane, I cut and glued a normal ending from two or three layers of cardboard and handled it with a flat needle file. Then, from the very edges of the tail wings tips and keel tip (already cut cleanly), I removed almost the entire bottom layer of paper by the same needle file, almost to the last layer with a colorful image.

As a result, these thin edges fit perfectly on the ending blanks placed inside the assembled planes. They formed a decent joint of sheets of upper and lower plating. It turned out voluminously and with completely in scaled ends of the paper, as not often happens. But, next time I will try to more accurately maintain the shape of the ends. This chance will still be on the wings. Move on further: the tail stabilizers are mounted. Inside the center plane is an additional cardboard spar.

Installation of the center section skin began. Very difficult operation due to the large bonding surface. I had to glue it in stages several steps. Here weights of tweezers and compasses are visible, which hold the skin at the intermediate gluing stage. A clamp under the tail so that the center wing with its plane lies on the table. Well, of course, I quickly assembled between the front of the right engine. On the one hand, eternal desire — and what will happen next? On the other hand, seeing the problematic connection and convergence of parts, I had to constantly run ahead so that the parts fit together without problems.

The construction has gone into a fever — there is already a lot of garbage! I don’t throw away trimming until the end of construction. I put them in a box and store them, even if there are long breaks in the construction of the model. This has already become a habit, although this one arose after the banal loss of several parts along with discarded garbage ….

To be continued…

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