While the primer on the wing cures, back to the fuselage and I can start work on the cockpit and the radio installation.
This may be sacrilege to some of you, but I am just not into scale cockpits and dolls, especially when the dolls cost a 3 figure sum of money. My aim is that the model looks real if someone takes a photo of it in flight, so it needs someone in the cockpit, but going beyond that does not excite me enough to justify much work or cost. I appreciate the beautiful work and lots of details that some people add, it just doesn't fire me up enough for me to put the effort in.
The model came with a cockpit tub, two instrument binnacles, and two seat backs. To that I will add just one pilot, in the front seat, and I have got a head and body kit from "scale-me-down". Scale-me-down attend some of the model shows where they take a laser scan of your head and can then 3D print you at any scale required, I already have mini-me in my Pilatus B4 and ASK-18, so I have bought another mini-me for the Nimbus.
The cockpit tub is a single gf moulding, covering the entire length of the canopy opening. It has been painted with stone effect paint, I might try stripping that off. I cannot find any decent on-line photos of full-size Nimbus cockpits and am not sure that they would have a separate inner skin as implied by this tub - why add weight for cosmetic reasons? The fuselage has 4 mounting flanges, each with a nut on the underside, but the tub has no corresponding holes for bolts. Before I go chopping up the tub I thought it would be a good idea to get the locations for the bolt holes in the tub. I put a bolt through the nut in each flange but from the underneath, protruding a couple of mm above the flange, put a drop of white paint on the tip of the bolt, then put the tub down into position so the paint transferred to the tub and marked the required location for the holes, which I then drilled.
The tub blocks all possible access to the radio, switches etc., plus it leaves too thin a space between it and the fuselage to fit some of the radio and plugs. My plan therefore is to separate it into front and rear sections with a few inches of what is basically the back seater's foot well removed altogether. I will have to remove the pilot, front instrument binnacle and front tub to get the front battery in and out, but during a flying day I will have access to the switches in that gap in the middle and there is no depth limit for fitting some of the radio equipment in the gap.
The tub in place
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Bolts installed from underneath to mark the tub
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the underneath of the tub with the 4 white paint dots showing location for drilling the holes
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