I decided that I’d complete the front section of the fuselage, as far as practical, before attaching the rear section thus alleviating the need to swing a 3-foot fuselage around in the confines of the workshop; always a recipe for damage!!
The radiator consists of 2 separate units joined by pipes, the top pipe also incorporates the filler cap, the intervening gap has a metal cover plate; as I intend to use the radiator cap as a convenient fuel filler point I needed to model the 2 header tanks. When trial fitting them I realised that the cover plate would have quite a “double curve” to fit to the rear radiator former (see post #29) and this didn’t seem right. Checking photos showed that in fact the rear radiator former should have a flat top, the transition to curve taking the entire length of the cowl. Wonderful thing hindsight! Now I know the shape of the radiator it’s quite clear on the 3-view drawing, what a difference that thin line makes when you realise what it is!
Luckily the former wasn’t glued in place so a replacement was made and the plan changed.
The grills are made of aluminium mesh from a car accessories shop, stretched to open the slots to more closely resemble the true hexagonal shape of the original. I’ve not yet decided whether to cut the former out behind the mesh or just paint it dark, I my compromise and cut out the top section, which shows above the radiator shutters, and paint the rest.
This shows the undercarriage front fixing; it’s recessed up into the fuselage to allow the front flying wires to pass through the fuselage sides via dummy attachments and be tensioned inside using turn buckles.
I’ve also made a correctly dimensioned “bullet” at the cross over point of the undercarriage wires. The SE5a certainly took streamlining quite seriously, the undercarriage bungy cords are encased and the pilot foot holes have cover flaps.