Building the Skytrex Gotha Bomber.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

[IMG]file:///C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.png[/IMG]Building the Gotha.

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This is the next of the Giants that I have tackled thus far.
Because of some differences in detail I adopted a slightly different build plan from the Handley Page.


1. Clean up the casting.

2. Drill the strut holes. N.B. The cabine struts need smaller diameter holes. (Watch out for unneeded holes, and what I perceive to be wrong uns, over the engines. All my research suggests that the supports form an inverted vee above the engine. The holes as supplied give a vee configuration. For the cabine struts, a spot hole on the body of the plane, where they will seat will help with location later.

3. Glue on the engine pods, but not the propellers. Unlike the Handley, the pods can't be swung later for painting because of the upper struts. You may like to pre paint them at this stage of the build, and undercoat the rest of the aircraft. I chose to use my usual method of doing this when the assembly is mostly complete.



4. Glue on lower wing.

5. Glue in lower wing struts in pairs. This time do not start with the cabine struts. This will be easier later.

6. As you glue the struts, use the upper wing to register them for position in the vertical.
7. Glue on the upper wing.



8. Next the engine struts can be added. I found a pair of tweezers handy here to thrust them up into the holes between the wings. Conversely, you can just drill a hole and slip them in from the top, but this makes it harder to register them correctly underneath.


9. However for the cabine struts I found this the easy way to go. location spots had been drilled by me on the plane body, and I just slipped in lengths of paper clip through the top wing holes to resemble the struts. This adds a bit of strength to the middle of the wing.

10. Flip the plane over and add the under cart. This is one of the easier under carts to assemble.



11. Back to the top and glue on the tail plane. A bit of fettling here may be needed to get a good register. I countersunk the holes a bit to allow for the casting radius on the pins. This seemed better than weakening the pins by filing them so near to the shear point.


12. Place the props and crew in place but don’t glue them yet.
!3. Undercoat the aircraft.
14. Remove crew and props, and paint.
15. Paint aircraft.
16. Glue in crew.
17. Add decals.
18. Finally glue on props after decals are dry.







This was one of my earliest efforts at a "How to" and in comparison it shows, but still is more use than the instructions which come with the model. I don't expect it will get a lot of use now that Ares have introduced their Gothas.

Rob.

[gb030104]

Thanks very much for this - I have just acquired a couple of these and wasn't looking forward to the build with just the instructions provided

[Niclas]

Another great build. Have those decals and a Ares Gotha marked for conversion to a IV. Hopefully it'll look almost as good as this.

/Niclas

[Grey Knight]

Very nice work.

[afilter]

Really appreciate this post. I just put mine together while watching the football game. The instructions that come with the model are very weak. I did decide to use piano wire to make it stronger as the struts were very uneven and continued to bend during assembly.

Thanks,

Aaron

[Baron Rolf]

Another excellent how to build from the grand master .