1. For the seat backs we need to fill them with some 3/32” balsa. Cut them out and simply draw around the part with a fine tip pen. When you cut the balsa parts out make sure you cut inside the line for the best fit. Some rounding of the edges will be needed so that it will fit properly.

 

 

  1. Once you have the balsa glued in with Medium CA you will need to add some small 1/8” dowel supports. Just cut them a little longer so they go into the wood back. After they dry sand the plastic so that it blends into the wood, on the dowel and the balsa back.

 

 

  1. Now we can finish the seats, these are the most time consuming parts, the rest of the cockpit is pretty easy. Notice that I have marked the seat arm rests with a cross Ό” from the front, carefully drill these with a 1/8” drill bit. Be careful that you don’t go through the top of the arm rests. You will need to cut 2 pieces of 3/32” balsa Ό” x 1 7/16” .

 

 

  1. Here you can see how the small balsa pieces are used. Glue them in one end of the seat and then glue the seat backs on with a very slight recline position to them.

 

 

  1. To properly align the arm rests, measure up Ό” from the bottom on the back cushion. The arm rests will sit just above this line.

 

 

  1. Glue the arm rests on with Medium CA, making sure they are parallel with the seat bottom.

 

 

  1. For the arm rest supports use the black electrical wiring. It should be 1 1/8” long on the sides and 2” wide in the middle.

 

 

  1. Glue the wire to the seat and then glue the seat to the base. If your seat is a little crooked, don’t worry about it, once everything is in the cockpit and painted it will be almost undetectable.

 

 

  1. Using the 15/16” circle template, make two 1/8” balsa circles.

 

 

  1. Glue these into the bottom of the seat for extra support. You can drill into this later and add some 1/8” dowel as anchors when you glue your seats into the cockpit. Use plenty of Micro-Balloons and CA when you glue these in.

 

 

  1. Now for the last tricky part, finish the gun sights. Cut a piece of dowel 4 Ύ” long, then cut the black plastic tube to 3 Ό” long. Mark the top pivot point as shown with a + so you can drill a 1/8” hole.

 

 

  1. Glue the 1/8” dowel in to the upper gun sight part, making sure it’s straight. Next cut a small washer about 1/16” wide off of the extra black tubing.

 

 

  1. Glue the washer as shown.

 

 

  1. Measure down ½” from the base of the gun sight as shown. This is how high up the black tubing is going to be.

 

 

  1. To help center the black tubing, glue some paper around the dowel with wood glue or Medium CA. Lightly sand the black tubing with some 320 sandpaper so that you will get better paint adhesion, then insert it over the dowel and wick in some thin CA.

 

 

  1. Cut out the lower gun sight mounts and fill the backs with 1/8” balsa. Drill out the hole so that the black tubing on the gun sight will just fit.

 

 

  1. Glue the gun sight to the lower mount making sure it’s straight.

 

 

  1. Next glue the gut sight to the lower seat mount. Use CA and Micro-Balloons to get a good bond on everything. Especially on the bottom, none of the extra glue and M-B will be visible.

 

 

  1. Position the seat as shown and drill a hole in the plastic so that the extra dowel can fit through. I use the extra dowel through the floor to help anchor the gun sight and seat.

 

 

  1. Mark the position of the hole in the cockpit and then drill a 1/8” hole in the cockpit floor. Use the same procedure for the Radar Operators gun sight if you are installing one.

 

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