Pepsi Super Chipmunk

As the Goldberg chipmunk is nearly finished and the weather appearing to be crap for at least another week and my wife has gone to stay with her sister AND not chance of flying either I took a new closer look at Pepsi. Worth having a go at repairing it I suppose. Shame I threw the plans out only a few months ago when tidying up, they would've helped tremendously right now. Quite few bits went into the bin some time ago so managed to find build blog on line with pictures of the fuselage being assembled. Plus with the glue marks on my Pepsi where parts originally went I judged I could maybe make new formers for starters and align them up again. Everything was smashed forward of the F3 (wing mount). God knows where the battery tray, tank went - possibly bin!

Well, today I copied cut out by hand some formers from some sellotaped bits. Had few cock-ups though and made one of them three times. Anyway, done now and F3 which is the wing mount former is now glued and clamped. Fillets add surface contact as the original former had tabs.

Looks promising Phil, making a start is the daunting challenge, now you've successfully glued part"A" to structure "B" you'll be finished in no time at all.

Phil - Pleased to read you are having a go at a rebuild - seemed a shame to bin the airframe.
In the past I've replicated shattered bits in cardboard, trial fitted then & cut final shape out of plywood.
Look forward to more pics.

Colin.

Well after a fair bit of fettling to get F2 to fit nicely it is now glued in along with the firewall. If anything is wrong it's too late now. I won't fit the rails or top sheeting so I have easy access to the bays and I have the engine back so I can make final planning of tank location, throttle guide and servo position, etc. It was a pain originally so having open access to bays should make installs a bit easier.

After what seemed an eternity finally was content on the tank install and forward access bay hatch. For ease of maintenance the tank sits on a tray, the front locates into a slot on the back of the firewall. The tray slides in with the tank on top and on the underside in line the access hatch the ignition module. The rear of the tank tray is supported by the battery tray. For maintenance all that is needed is to remove the battery tray screws and lift it out which also releases the tank and ign module too. Monday I will nip down to Screwfix to get some more cable ties to secure the tank and then I can have my lipo battery straps back.

Hopefully I can skin the front tomorrow and then possibly start covering the front end. Not sure if I can make good the cowl but I have another spare one anyway. Will worry about that when the time comes.

Engine is a problem that is going to crop up though. Crankshaft on back order.

Skinned the front end and made a some progress on covering. It was bit of a trying time to ensure covering was cut at the correct angle so that the red stripe sits in the right place, just clearing the canopy and meeting in the centre of the top deck. I made up paper templates for each piece of covering (reducing wasted covering as much as possible). Got the first blue section on and it looks reasonable. Hoping that when I cut out the other side it lines up and also lines up with the wing leading edge colour. Fortunately I had some quality images on the website to help me remember the livery positions, etc.