Waiting for the covering.

 The good weather is continuing and I'm getting some flying. On Sunday I flew the Eagle 63 and the c/l planes.
  The Strega is on hold until the covering comes in. I have been molding shell for the fuselage top and bottom. I got most of the bottom covered but will have to carve the front top block.

  The pictures show the shells next to the boards I glued the foam bucks to. That makes the buck stiff for the molding process. After removing the shell from the buck I planned to glue in the templates as formers then I figured why not glue the foam in also. I had to use a hot wire to remove the shell assemblies from the boards after glueing everything together. The shells are sitting on the balsa blocks that they will replace. That would be a lot of carving and a waste of good balsa. I added some sheet to the fuse. bottom and cut lightening holes. That will add stiffness to the fuse. I will do the same to the top before adding the turtle deck shell. The kit design is that of a "D" model Mustang and the turtle deck will make it more like a "B or C" model. The picture of the mustang below the fuse jig is of an A-36 variant. It has dive brakes and was used as a dive bomber and none of the planes used in the war made it back home. Only 3 trainers that never left the states survived. There is an argument about the name of the A-36 as some believe it's called the Apache but never was officially. It also makes the color scheme easier for me. You can see the broken off pieces that connect the front and rear at the wing cutouts.  The wood was less than 1/8" thick. I glued it together several times then decieded to put the fuse. in the jig before I broke it in half. That's the old kitchen table it's sitting on.