Bill Early’s Replica Eagle part 2
Start with part 1
WALKWAYS AND CAGE SECTIONS
The walkway pieces had some raised boxes on top that I didn’t care for. I removed these with the Dremel and a sanding drum. Small details will be placed here later. Picture 6 shows before and after removal.
I wanted the landing gear pods to be removable, and I just didn’t think that the mounting parts supplied would be strong enough to support the kit. This is one heavy bugger. It comes in somewhere around three pounds. Don’t ask me for kilo’s, my fingers don’t work that way. I did away with the small boxes that mount to the walkways and replaced them with a slot that runs all the way through. Measure the tabs on the landing gear pods and make your holes roughly this size. I used sheet plastic to box in the slot. Cut the holes over size to allow for the thickness of the plastic.
I reinforced these sheet plastic pieces inside the walkways before I glued on the bottom pieces. Picture 7 shows a side view of the walkway with the slot all done. Later on, when we work on the landing gear pods, we’ll make tabs to slide into here.
The parts box supplied various parts for the top side of the walkways and the side shelves. Dress these up as you see fit. I attached the top and bottom frame pieces to the walkways at this point. Determine which will be the ends that set next to the passenger pod and line the frames up with these ends. This will allow the pod to set right up against the walkway pieces. This is where the pod will be screwed to, so this will give a good, solid mounting surface.
The shelf pieces are mounted to the walkways, now. Center them up front to back, and remember to leave a little space between them and the cut out for the landing gear pods. Use the side cage pieces to judge where to mount the shelves. I painted and weathered these sections now, as they will be harder to get to after the cage pieces are mounted.
Picture 8 shows the top and bottom of the painted and weathered walkway sections. I now mounted the side cage pieces, lining up the end that goes to the passenger pod with the end of the walkway. My walkway pieces had no doors molded onto them, but as the pod would be mounted in, I didn’t bother to make any.
Now the engine frame section was mounted to the aft walkway section. I lined it up and drilled small holes into the cage frame to allow pins to be installed. This will make a stronger bond than just glueing. I used cut down straight pins and super glue to attach the engine frame. The same was done for the frame that the command module mounts to.
At this point I noticed that there was a door molded onto the aft section of the command module, or “beak”. There was a noticable gap between this door and the front of the walkway. I laminated together several pieces of sheet plastic, shaped to match the dimensions of the door, and mounted this to the front of the walkway.
To get a good fit, I had to use a piece of thin plastic. I decided to cut the door ribs into this piece, just for the heck of it. It really came out pretty cool, glad I did it. Picture 9 shows this door and the attached cage sections.
I realizied that the spine was not going to be able to support the weight of the kit by itself. The passenger pod would have to be solidly mounted to provide structural strength to the kit. Which leads us to the next section….
THE PASSENGER POD
As I said earlier, this kit can be had with a couple of different pods, and cargo pods are also available. I chose the standard passenger pod version.
While test fitting the pod pieces, something didn’t look right. The end pieces seemed to fit, but the sides didn’t look quite right. I found that the roof was too wide and was causing the side walls to not set properly when they were put on the bottom plate. I had to remove about 3/8 inch from the middle. To keep thing even, split the amount between the two sides. Things looked better after the trimming was done.
The end walls were glued to the side walls, using the bottom plate as a guide to line everything up. Make sure everything is square before you glue up anything. I didn’t glue in the bottom plate, as it had to be removable to allow access to the screws used to attach it to the walkways.
I made up some small pieces and glued these into the corners for screws to hold on the bottom piece. Picture 10 shows the mounting screws and the plates made for the screws to hold on the bottom plate. Holes were drilled in the bottom plate for the belly boosters and landing legs, as well.
The 12 small windows on top were covered with a thin film of resin. I decided to open these up and used clear plastic in their place. Short work with a knife and some small files.
While looking at some reference pictures, I noticed that the pod doors were made backwards. They stepped inwards, instead of outwards, Picture 11.
I cut out the door and made replacements, Picture 12. You could copy this picture and size it for printing. This will give you a good pattern to make a replacement door from.
Now I attached the walkway sections to the passenger pod. Mark and drill 4 small holes in each end of the pod. The end walls had small dimples in them that were a good guide for the holes. I used a straight edge to keep the tops of the walkways even with the top of the pod. Make sure that they are centered up as well. Mark where the holes are and drill into the walkways. Attach these sections to the passenger pod and use the spine to check for a good fit.
continued in part 3
