Guillows kit #307 Cherokee

[heywooood]

New fuel caps and cabin door...I lack the skills to draw panel lines so I use trim film...

[heywooood]

For the fuel caps I used a hole punch on sheet acetate and paint it to match the body color (white)
Then cut a piece of strip styrene for the hand grip and glue it on inline with the slipstream

[joecrouse]

The canopy to this plane is a right pain in the tuchus. I have the plane DONE sitting i on my desk but for the canopy.

[heywooood]

I wonder how many modelers and customers of Guillow are in the same boat or have abandoned their projects completely because of the windscreen challenge...
I was going to sit on this one while I looked for a beverage container or other clear plastic bottle that I could section out a piece of, that might be workable but then opted to try splitting the acetate cutout from the plans in half along the center
support strut line.. It worked well enough but it was not easy to do. You can try it but its definitely a challenge and a half.
Maybe other modelers who have had this problem with the Cherokee or the Musketeer or any Guillow kit with this windscreen configuration could chime in.

[heywooood]

Here is what it looks like after much swearing

[heywooood]

I used white trim tape to hold it in place over half of the center support - I had located and predrilled a small hole in the lower corner of each side and once I had positioned the half windscreen I pushed a t-pin into the fuse through the hole I had drilled to hold that corner and then pulled the windscreen tight toward the center support - laid down a glue line on the center rail and then used the trim tape to pull it tight to the center support. Let that dry real well before doing the other half - first locate - then pin the lower corner to the fuse - then use trim tape to pull tight to the center support and glue it down. I mix one part clean clear water to five parts white glue and apply with a fine paint brush many coats of glue all around the windscreen - then pull out carefully the t-pins and replace them with toothpick tips cut to create small pointed plug pins. Essentially the tip of each toothpick is used - this works well as long as your predrilled hole is slightly smaller than the diameter of the toothpick.
Paint that plug with white glue first - then press it in carefully as tight as you can get it. You can always carefully slice off the excess with a new #11 blade later.
Then the next day - I carefully peeled off the white trim tape - painted more coats of white glue along that seam - let dry for many hours - then reapplied white trim tape to hide the seam.
Its a pain in the ass - but it turned out ok. And since its all white glue, you can peel it all off and try again and again and again...

[heywooood]

Navigation and stobe lights installed
Red left port

[Coloradoken]

Been following the progress and am constantly amazed at the level and professionalism of this build. The skill and patience required to do this absolute excellent work can only be appreciated by those of us who try to emulate this model. You have set the bar very high. Thanks for sharing.

[heywooood]

Thank You, Coloradoken - I appreciate your encouragement and positive review of this build. I have not presented a work in this manner before. Its risky. Sometimes a build will go well to a point and then something unforeseen occurs.
Looking back over the pages I see items I left out of the documentation. The landing gear, for instance. I used aluminum tubing over the wire gear on the mains and only used enough wire on the nose wheel to make a loop through the wheel then shoved both ends into the tubing on the nose gear strut and secured it with Zap. Two diameters were used to replicate an oleo strut appearance. the main shaft being the smaller diameter with shorter cut lengths of the larger diameter tubing to represent the telescopic outer housing of the struts.
The prop was purchased from a local hobby shop - it turns out these props have been discontinued. They were replacement parts belonging to a small electric Cub RTF model - afraid I tossed the wrapper so I can't now share the mfg. label so I apologize for that oversight on my part. The antennae were made from stretched plastic scale model sprue using the well known method.
To make the passenger windows I first placed a strip of masking tape over the openings pulled tight - then carefully traced the outline of the window opening onto the tape. Then I placed the tape onto the clear acetate sheet and carefully cut it out - slightly outside the lines..to make sure not to start too small - then test fit and trim as needed until the piece of acetate fit neatly into the opening. Once there was a good fit I then used my white glue and water mixture and a fine brush to paint around the edges - three coats - letting each coat dry thoroughly.
Start at the back and do both of those first - so you can support each window from inside the cabin with your fingers while you get the fit just right. Then the two forward windows and then the infamous windscreen.
If anyone has a question about any of this build please post it and I will respond as best I can.
Thanks to all who have posted or viewed this build - this is a great hobby. I have learned a lot from you all by coming here and seeing your work and your words of encouragement and assistance. Thank you all

[heywooood]

Checking the mags while I get my weathering supplies sorted out.