I need to back up a minute. Remember last week Dale vacuum molded our small windows? Dale was not happy with these windows because they were cloudy. The reason for this was due to fine dust and the window actually conforming to the wood grain of the mold. So he took the molds home again for another try. This time Dale used mylar tape over the "window portion" of the mold. The result is now crystal clear windows.  Also he took home both check blisters and the window section of the pilot/co-pilot cockpit area which are clear plastic. He used these to make plaster of Paris molds. From these molds he made identical parts from .030" plastic. With all this done and parts in hand we are now ready for tonight!

We start the night out by trimming out the white plastic parts Dale has vacuum formed for us. With trimming and fitting done we located and glues into place using thin CA glue. Now we feather sand the plastic parts. Next order of business is to cut out glass cloth, mix up a batch of epoxy and apply.

Our plan here is to glass these plastic parts, then cut out the window areas. Then after every thing is primed and painted the clear windows can be attached from the inside and should give us a great "scale" look. 

Some more sanding and repriming was done on the wing tonight also. This is once again a great time working on the project, in respect that every night there is extreme visible signs of what is being accomplished. We worked through that long phase where we worked our behinds off but saw now real results. But once again the current results are immediate.

Gotta Love It!!!!!!!!!

Yes sir, we worked again this week! Rick was under the weather leaving myself, Greg and Dale to carry on.

The nose blisters and cockpit window area were feather sanded and 2nd coat of epoxy was applied.

Next the tail gun blister was cut, fit and ca glued into position, Then the area was sanded and fiber glass cloth was applied.

On the wing in the fillet area between #3 nacelle and the wing had a bad area of glass, so it was prepared and repaired using a small section of cloth.

Every week it looks more and more like a "17"............just lovin it!!!!!

All three of us plus Dale Beck & Jeff Laven were on the task force tonight.

The major task at hand was sanding.....sanding.....and more sanding. After we got tired of sanding we sprayed on some primmer to check it out. As usual some places look terrific and others looked like #### or shall we say; less than desirable.

Dale also got the tail gunners windows/framing vacuum molded from white plastic so that got glassed in place as well.

The weather has gotten cold around here again. If we get some nice evening on build night we need to put all together outside and take some pictures.

Enjoy the pictures!

We did not work tonight because of a previous commitment that I made several months ago.

We should be back on track next week, although I need to talk to the partners. Next Wednesday night is a big indoor flying session and I would like to move building to Thursday. Like I say tho, need to run thru the guys and see what they think!