More pictures of my progress. Got the top cover for the wing mostly done, just a bit of finish sanding and filling to do. That Bondo is amazing stuff. Great for filling in gaps. I did notice the Bondo applied directly to blue foam results in a bit of the foam getting eaten away (at least when you goop the Bondo on thick).

I took a scan of my 3-view and laid it on top of a photo of my model in PhotoShop. Overall the match was pretty good, but I did find a few errors I don't think anyone will notice, as they are hard to spot unless you do the overlay.
Along the same lines, I was so pleased that the top cover for the wing came out right on my calculations. Looking at the narrowest part of the exposed fuselage above the wing, I had calculated from my 3-view that should be about 1/2 the width of the fuselage. Last night I went back to compare my work to a photo of the real plane The real plane is more like 1/3 the width of the fuselage.

I also got half of the aileron hinges on the wing done. Rather nerve wracking, cutting through the carbon fiber, but not too far, so I won't cut the Kevlar. Even more scary to bend it the first time. Makes a frightening crack! I did find that once the hinges bend a bit, you can bend them over and sand the top of the hinge to get rid of excess carbon fiber and loosen the hinge up.

Test prints of the decals, making sure they are about the right size.

Getting the wing wired up.

Got the first rotary drive installed.

Baby's first step, it works!!!! Four more to go...

Elevator linkage.  One servo per side.

Receiver switches

Got a little paint on today. Started out trying to do latex, but my spray gun only seemed to send out occasionally spurts of spray. Tried thinning and increased air pressure, to no avail. It must need a good cleaning. So I wiped the latex off the wing center section, some of it took a plastic scouring pad (stolen from the kitchen ) to get off. I then went and got a bunch of spray paint. Fortunately the colors are simple, White and Aluminum.
It is so good to see something besides primer for a change I have the bottom of the main fuselage, rear fuselage, center wing and elevator done. Bottoms white, top is Aluminum.

Major painting is done. Silver is an unforgiving color, especially when you skip sanding you should have done . Oh well, this is a temporary finish, the real finish will be in FliteMetal after a proper sanding job is done (assuming the FliteMetal ever ships).

Engine pods are next. After that, put in windows, wire it up and slap on some decals.

This thing is HUGE!!! I am afraid to fly it! It seems like it weighs too much to fly!

Lots of stuff did not get done. No engines, no decals, no rudder, no clear canopys. But I think it might be flyable. Still need to work on the radio programming a bit. Took about 3 lbs of lead in the nose to balance !!

At the PSS Festival 2004.  No engines, no decals, and no wind, so it did not fly that day.

Managed 5th place with an unfinished plane that did not even fly.  Better than I thought it would do.

Back to the shop.  I went ahead and put the decals on. Mostly for practice as they did not come out that well. My inkjet printer has a few clogged nozzels. I did learn a thing or two at the seminar at the PSS festival. And the decals do add a lot to the look. So next go around they will be even better.

A couple weeks later, it is ready for the maiden flight. Packed it up to Cajon Pass again.

The wind seemed pretty strong, so time to chuck it off the edge.

http://www.thecairns.com/pss/b-52.wmv

It flys!!! But where is the wind???

Lower and lower it goes...

And the inevitable retrieval from way down the hill.

Damage was light, but the carbon spar/wing joiner did not hold up to the forces of a rough landing.

New wing joiner.

I have also started working on the engines and pylons.
Cut the engine plyons out of light plywood.

To make the plug for the engines, I turned some wood on the lathe and built a raised area in between them

Gooped on the Bondo.

After shaping the Bondo, I cut the engines in half to make the shape for creating the engines.

Steve, an ex-B-52 crew chief, vac-u-formed the engine pods for me. Quite a festive choice in colors They will needs some white paint to finish them off.

Using some balsa sheet glued into each half of the pod will stabilize the shape and let me glue them together.

All eight of them glued up and drying.

After they are glued together, I will have to do a bit of Bondo filliing and sanding I can then cut out the enty and exits of the jet's engines for access to the interior for the next step.

After they are glued together, I will have to do a bit of Bondo filliing and sanding I can then cut out the enty and exits of the jet's engines for access to the interior for the next step.

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