DOUGLAS B-23 DRAGON - 1:72 - by TEX MOD

[Positive_Rate]

Hello everyone,

I will build this interesting and rare model by TEX MOD - aka Yankee Kilo from this site.

This is my 2nd aircraft build after Gary Pillsworths BAE-146 which is a free download from this site.

I was quite inspired to follow progress on the Breguet Deux Ponts after starting YK's Boeing 314, still not completed.

See pics of the forward fuselage ready for assembly, spars and formers (printed on 80 gram/M2) being attached to card, dressing the edges to avoid white seams, and shaping of the nose cone and cockpit roof which were also dressed to avoid the seams.

To be honest I found the nosecone tricky. I could tell the gray part was the base but wasn't sure if there were windows in the sides or not and realised I'd need to make my own 'tab strips' in order to get the separate parts to join properly. I was also expecting a symmetrical dome shape but think it may not be meant to be.

I did a similar routine with the cockpit roof.

[yankeekilo]

I'm so glad that you gave life to this project that was halted like a year ago, a project by a group we called Joint Venture. It looks very nice on your hands, and it'll be released very soon @ ecardmodels.com

[Don Boose]

Good beginning. I look forward to watching you build this model.

Don

[Positive_Rate]

Thanks Don and YK! Appreciate you letting me know you're following.

Next I moved onto assembling the forward fuselage.

Wasn’t sure what the arrangement of the cockpit was supposed to be but delighted the cockpit windows fitted exactly into that fuselage skin section.
Dry fitted the formers into their sections.

Former 3’s circumference is less that the fuselage skin but this wasn’t a problem as I just pushed it forward into the narrowing fuselage until it met the cockpit windows.

I also laid out the spars to get an idea of the layout and size before assembly.

W4, the main centre spar I laminated a 3rd time so the ribs would fit snugly onto it.

I placed the printed parts of the ribs on the outside surface of the lamination so I could still see where to join the wings outboard spars later.

W1 & W2 were laminated - the notch in W1 fits snugly onto W4.

I know the spars are central and accurately assembling them is quite crutial so I used the lines on my mat for reference. After the glue dried, checked for straightness and saw the ribs trailing edges were aligned.

[Draco]

Originally Posted by yankeekilo

I'm so glad that you gave life to this project that was halted like a year ago, a project by a group we called Joint Venture. It looks very nice on your hands, and it'll be released very soon @ ecardmodels.com

Diego, there were released 6 different versions of the B-23 Dragon in ecardmodels, but yes, the group never released the long nose version because the beta version was never assembled (The Pdf exist).

Positive, maybe the instructions can help you to see the windows placement of the nose.

I'll be looking your model and I'm very interested!

[yankeekilo]

Originally Posted by Draco

Diego, there were released 6 different versions of the B-23 Dragon in ecardmodels, but yes, the group never released the long nose version because the beta version was never assembled (The Pdf exist).

Positive, maybe the instructions can help you to see the windows placement of the nose.

I'll be looking your model and I'm very interested!

Alejandro i´m referring to my personal recolor that has not been completed yet

[Draco]

Originally Posted by yankeekilo

Alejandro i´m referring to my personal recolor that has not been completed yet

Looking for the "I like it" button...
Anyway, I like it!

[Positive_Rate]

Missed a couple of pics off my last post, ribs trailing edges and main spar assembly.

[Positive_Rate]

I was intrigued by the nose cone.
The big appeal of TEX MOD models is their texture as opposed to clinical precision so assembling the nose first time I was wondering a bit how to assemble it which I overcame by using my own small tabs inside, glued and dried to one section before gluing the next snugly against it.
Not seeing any good pics of the nose I wasn’t really sure what the end product was supposed to look like so I just assembled as accurately as I could.
Doing the dry fit I cut tabs in the joint forward of the F1 former. Whatever I did or didn’t do I wasn’t quite able to get the fit I thought I should, but cured it by carefully colouring any exposed white before I glued them, and it looks fine.
I’ll post pics of the completed nose tomorrow.

Regards,
Alan

[yankeekilo]

fantastic!!!!! it looks terrific