Beginning the bottom wing

Of course, the Fokker D.VII is a biplane, so that means of course that after the top wing is done, well, there’s another one yet to be built.  Here we have the ribs and spars laid out, and the inner leading edge glued in place.

20140308_213509

Then the bottom sheeting is put into place.  I’m finding that it’s going a lot better than it did on the top wing.  The join between the sheeting and the leading edge is much more uniform than it was when I did the top wing.

20140308_220138

Leading edge

Finishing up attaching the outer leading edge to the top wing.

20140304_173052

And here we are, finally, 2 years and 4 months after I started this project, and I finally have the top wing done.  This may yet be the slowest build project ever (although I have a few years to go to beat the last plane I built from a kit).  (Ok, technically it’s not quite complete.  The leading edge hasn’t been shaped, mainly because I don’t want to do that inside, and it’s been way too cold to do that work outside.)

20140302_190143

(Sorry, some of my plane photos are somewhat blurry from now on, I’ve been using the cell phone to take the pictures, and it doesn’t do a great job).

Laying out the wing

Now that all three panels of the wing are done, the next step is to lay it out and put it together.  Had to clear off the whole building board to be able to do this.  Sticks over both ends of the table by just a little bit.  Have to admit, it’s one thing to look at the measurements on the box, but when you actually lay out the wing, man, it looks huge.

SAM_4758

Trimming cap strips and installing servo rails

Next the cap strips that were installed get trimmed to length.

SAM_4751

Then it’s back to the outer wing panels to install the servo rails for the servos.  I’m going for a simple exposed servo install here, mainly because it’s easier.  First the rails are installed.

SAM_4752

Then some structure is built up around where the servo is going to go to give us some structure to attach the covering to.

SAM_4753