Building my P-3 from true scratch has
been an odyssey of some 50 years, having begun it in
1973, but putting it aside for a long time. This is a
complicated design, with a bomb bay and nose wheel well
forward of the wing. Those cavities present structural
weaknesses if the nose wheel encounters a hard landing
sometime. That aside, there are LOTS of parts to be fit
together, tabs and slots to arrange, and drawing
mistakes are a certainty.
I decided to check my drawings by making a mockup of the
bomb bay, the wing saddle, and the nose well before
touching any balsa stock. My wing must be removable for
transport, as it has a 74.5” span, a bit too much for my
Mustang to haul around.
Checking fits and line-ups.
The wing saddle, the bomb bay and the nose wheel well.
Sure enough, I found spots in the drawings that needed
correction, but the cardboard assemblies gave proof of
principle for my approach. Setting the mockup on the
already-constructed top half of the forward fuselage led
me to build the bomb bay.
To save finishing time and materials later, I lined the
bay and doors with thin styrene sheet from the hobby
shop.
Next came the nose wheel well and cockpit deck.
There were a number of places where the mockups showed
me errors in tabs vs. slots for them. It is too much to
keep straight without something to look at.
Box Project