Orlik PBJ-1H Mitchell

[Don Boose]

That is a truly outstanding flight deck interior, Mike!

I guess you have a P-38 handy. If not, I have one on my key chain.

And although it is 25 years too late for this 1944/45 PBJ, I also still have my Vietnam-era McIlhenny Tabasco Charlie Ration Cookbook . . . just in case you ever model an AC-47 ("Any Place, Any Time, Any Where," Yogi).

Don

[the hermit]

i cant wait to see what you will do with the canopy install..

simply great stuff, love it

[Bomarc]

This installment is brought to you from the “why the hell didn’t you put that in before the other thing, you moron?” department.

There is one last thing to add to the floor on the right side: a flex trunk for the defogger. Runs right over the control column shaft to somewhere behind the instrument panel:



It’s a pretty distinct piece in there and I wanted to include it. Problem is I don’t have the space to snake it past that component sitting on the floor like the pic above, so my trunk will pass through one of the lightening holes in the mounting bracket. I’ll let Don come up with a plausible explanation as to why NAA was force to change the routing of the flex tube.

So to make the tube, I used a variation of the age old technique used for making oxygen mask hoses. First I tightly rolled some printer paper around a piece of music wire (I think this was 0.025”). Then I started wrapping it with the same fine copper wire I used in other parts:



The music wire keeps the roll straight and compressed as I wrap. After wrapping, I removed the wire and replaced it with a similar thickness of copper wire. Then I could shape the “flex tube” to hump around the control column:



Painted a shade of gray:



Now the idiocy. Since I already installed the Nav’s seat and the small center console, I had to try to snake this tube through all that and get it into the hole up front. I took out a trim knob and a lever on the console wiggling that thing in, but hey, I got ‘er in!! Here’s the result after the appropriate repairs:





Repeat after me class: “Sequence of assembly….sequence of assembly….”

Mike

[cmdr199212]

wow, cool technique!

[birder]

Incredible! Oh and I'm waiting for the story from Don!

[medved]

It occurs to me that it should be possible to transform this thread into an eBook of sorts.
This level of craftsmanship needs to be promulgated & oft-referred to I think!

If no-one has any objections I would like to give it a shot in the not too distant future.
I think that it should be possible to edit out the non-maestro commentary leaving just the patent Bomarc master-class. (Or it could be the whole thread...)

What is the consensus on that idea?

[SJPONeill]

medved, great idea and probably better with only the maestro comment...

[Bomarc]

Originally Posted by medved

If no-one has any objections I would like to give it a shot in the not too distant future.

Fine with me if you think it would be of any use. Seems like a lot of work though.

I'll let the membership decide if it should be the "whole enchilada" or just distilled down to my (seemingly endless) ramblings. My vote would be for the whole thread, as a lot of contributions were made from a lot of folks (you know who you are) that I incorporated into this build. I said it before, but this build is very much a product of the denizens of PM.com as it is mine.

My 0.02 cents....

Mike

[Wyvern]

I agree, this thread deserves to be preserved for the ages.

Wyvern

[Retired_for_now]

Medved - good idea, though I would retain those comments that directly relate to the build (data and information, techniques suggested, etc.). You can use the 500 or so stunned/admiring comments for the forward.

Yogi