ATR-72 Arkia in 1:72

[ReynoldsSlumber]

Impressed at your persistence in making a nicely contoured wing-body fairing. I was just running into difficulty on a Paper Replika 747 wing-body fairing and basically just mashed it into place (!).

[Siwi]

These parts can be tricky. The little cuts to make the compound curve sides have to be exact and it's difficult to get tweezers in to press it all because of the profile. Then the whole assembly must be glued perfectly centred on the underside.

[Boris]

Oh, yes, these are a bit tricky. My issue here is that the parts should be pre-formed even before combining all together, remembering there no formers and no clue how the complete part should be seated onto its place. It will require fitting attempts.

I am not bashing the designers here, they did great work. Maybe some things might be designed differently, but it is not critical thing here.
Need to remember that this is a French-Italian plane, so it is really smooth and beautiful (European design :-) ) , but it is a challenge to design an build these intricate intersections.

[Boris]

Hello all.
It's the time for the very intricate part - the main gear cowling. The part has no formers beside the main gear well and it should be build and formed and only then mounted on the fuselage. The mounting process is also pretty difficult since the part is quite large hence wiggling on its place. The mounting process requires to press on the cowling while the glue is catching. That alone could cause protrusion of the glue tabs AKA ribs. This is a French and Italian designed plane, so the parts are very beautiful but it's a mess building it. Could designers make another design? Probably, but it would still be quite intricate. I think I managed quite ok, despite some protrusion of the landing gear well's central rib.
After finishing this part I made the horizontal tail. That was really straight forward and quite simple.
Next will be the wing, which internal structure I also made.
Another parts that scare me are the engines... No formers with pretty intricate shape....

[ReynoldsSlumber]

Strong work with that main gear cowling. You got the stripe lined up on the fuselage, that's the main thing!

[Boris]

Thanks, the alignment had to be very gentle. Actually, I did 3 beta builds to get it right

Thanks!!!

[Boris]

Hello all

Next step - the wing.

Nothing too difficult here.

Need to be careful forming the wing's leading edge, it has a pretty small radius. Used a small brush to wet the inner side of the leading edge.

The underwing actuator covers should be mounted with sharper edge forward.

Again, if working carefully, no issue.

[YOAVHOZMI]

Very good job Boris.

YOAV

[Boris]

Thank you Yoav