It most certainly is. I have risen to the challenge and am kicking its butt.
This is a totally different modeling experience than what I'm used to. It's serious metalworking. The fact that 47 years ago I was a metal shop teacher is a good thing. I'm surprised how many things I remember even though I haven't used them for almost 50 years. Example: knocking off the sharp cutting edge on a drill when cutting brass, copper or bronze so the drill doesn't hog in and jam. Brass cutting tools require a negative rake angle. They scrape the metal off and not actually cut it. I'm also happy that I have so many metal capable tools in the shop. Without them, this job would have been a non-starter.
All the engine struts are now in place and the engines are securely soldered to the main wing. I built and installed the V-sharped mid-braces using 2-56 allen cap screws and only broke one 2-56 tap. It caused me to make an emergency trip to the hobby shop to get two more. I re-soldered one of the floats that was hanging loosely. Finally, I was able to drill out the old threads that held the mounting bolts with a "Q" drill and tapped them for an NPS 1/8-27 lamp tube thread. The Q drill was just big enough to totally remove the old threads and provide a clean surface for the new threads.
Using screws relieved me of the worry of de-soldering the struts that were right next to the mid-braces. The tap broke on the second of the four holes. I had completely tapped the hole, tried the screw in it and it didn't go deep enough. Instead of shortening the screw, I attempted to tap the hole deeper. When trying to back out the tap it jammed. Instead of freeing it, I broke it. I drilled another tap drill hole near the old one and re-tapped it successfully.
Soldering on this massive bronze structure is still quite a challenge. When it finally hits soldering temp, the entire area is hot and the solder tends to run all over the place. I wish I had that 3000 watt RSU from American Beauty.
I think my finger got into this picture.
I'm going to take the fuselage with these standoffs to the airport and fit it to the globe to make sure it goes on easily. The fuze weighs 20 pounds and is fairly easy to manipulate. The total plane weighs about 50 pounds and will be much harder to handle. I want to verify the mounting before attempting to hold the monster over the globe 8 feet in the air. Note: one of the standoffs is upside down. I just dropped them on to see if the threads were okay.
At the rate this project is going, It should be fully integrated in a couple of weeks. Then it will have to get painted.
I found out recently that the Bronx Victorian article in RMC is being moved from next month to next February (or later). The article was too long and they're no longer going to print multi-part construction features. The editor is having to do some drastic editing (earning his keep so to speak). Their new guidelines for feature articles is between 2000 to 3000 words and 10-15 images. Construction articles can be a little longer. I now have to do some drastic editing. The engine house article is already at 9,600 words with many, many images and it's not yet done. Bummer. I'm not good at writing short (as evidenced by the many thousands of words I've written in this 7 year thread). Mark Twain is credited with saying, "I have to write you a long letter since I don't have the time to write a short one." Moral: tight writing is hard.
