[Lex]

Wheel wells are in place, the fuselage is closed up. There was a little bamboo effect but thankfully the wing fairings covered it very well.

Then, making start on the HS011 engine. First up is the exhaust: since anyone will be able to see inside from the exhaust, I decided to give it a detailed treatment. The internal cone structure (black) was designed by Rhino, and bulkheads that would have blocked the full depth of the exhaust were punched through to make way for this detail.

The detailing progressed further and stopped at the last set of turbine blades, which is also visible from the outside on the actual engine. The photos show how I approached making the turbine disc (at least the visible pars of it). I started from the outside and cut the ring of 80g paper into strips to emulate the blades. However the size and density of these were a great issue and I am only partially satisfied by the result. Next time I will try making the central hub first and then joining each strip with the outside ring, it is easier to access each piece that way.

At such depth inside the exhaust and partially covered by the cone structure, it is normally too dark to be seen. But I made preparations for this, and will include a little electrical system to light up the exhaust. The LEDs for this will be arriving by post soon.

For now, 0.25mm PVC sheet, of a particular type recommended by a modeller friend of mine, has arrived. Another round of vacforming created the desired canopy, it was clear enough that I had difficulty taking photos of the finished canopy...
@missileer, here is the dentist's vacforming machine I am using. There are two switches, one is the heating element and the other is the vacuum suction below.