Skyline Paper Models Mitsubishi A5M2 Claude (Beta)

You probably remember this plane from the cardmodels forum where cmdrted did an excellent job of building this beautiful plane (his build report can be viewed on Zealot now) but since then Jeremiah from Skyline Paper Models http://www.skylinepapermodels.com/ updated the kit and I offered to do a beta build.

Most notable changes - new interior color and nine cylinder engine, new instructions and some cosmetic changes in the coloring that will be visible during the construction.

Build starts typically with the cockpit. Everything is build as designed and the only change I made (my choice, not needed) was to trim the levers on the left wall to make them a bit slimmer.

Stick is designed (and build) in 2D manner, but if anybody wants to, the main part can be made from wire instead of card for a 3D look.

On to the photos - as you can (or rather cannot ) see, interior is barely visible through the opening, eventhough this is an open cockpit plane...

I made a mistake in the topic line - model shows A5M4, not A5M2 :rotwerd:

Next step as per instructions is to build the engine. Fit between cylinders and the ring around them is very tight so I suggest cutting cylinders on the inside of the line (top and bottom) - this should provide enough clearance to allow easy insertion and some room for adjustmets.

Firewall of the engine rests on the part F7 which is a clever way to position is correctly for the further assembly.

I will finish the engine tomorrow - this is way to delicate and important assembly to rush through.

Frettchen,
Model is fairly simple as far as part count is concerned but the tight fit and shape of the cowl make it tricky to assemble.
Fortunatelly engine has been completed (photo later) and I'm moving on to what I like best - fuselage

Ok, enough talk, time to show some progress

Fuselage is designed to utilize one former, but no connecting strips.
I didn't trust my ability to basically edge glue everything so I will be doubling the formers to get more contact surface.
So far everything fits like a glove, except former W3 which is to small.
I added connecting strip (visible in the photo) to make-up the difference and it fits perfectly. It almost looks like it was designed to use one, but Jeremiah (Skyline) forgot to include it in the kit
This connecting strip will have one more benefit...
Segment F9 (with the cockpit) is designed to be held in place by the forward and rear wall of the cockpit tub glued to the formers. Connection of the fuselage skin however is basically edge to edge. This most assuredly will work except that knowing myself, down the road I WILL grab the fuselage right at the connection and ruin everything...

With the strip the risk is minimized and on the rear end I came up with a double former modification but I have to actually try it before I give you details.

Cockpit and segment F9.....

I checked with cmdrted and according to him fit was tight, but buildable.

Myself, I run into a problem - tried twice with the same result - I couldn't insert the cockpit tub without pushing the skin at connection with F10 apart.

I checked the back wall of the cockpit tub against former W4 and it looks like corners of the tub are sticking out just a tiny little bit out beyond the former's edge so everything might be in how you cut and fold...

I admit that I took an easy way out and printed cockpit at 97%, added connecting strip between segments F9 and F10, slid the completed cockpit into the F9. I glued the top part of the tub, part CP1A to the inside of the skin to make sure that it matches perfectly with the opening in F9.

From this point on rest of the fuselage was a breeze. Last segment requires special attention due to its pointedness.

Super Revealing Flash Macro Mode (SRFMM) shows white sticking out but this is not visible in normal conditions.

Inside of the pointy end was filled with Scenic Cement (very thick white glue) to give it more rigidity.

Pure pleasure to build

Tail is done and Claude started growing wings
As you can see even without the fillets fit is very good. The only thing worth mentioning is to cut the wing formers on the inside of the line to make sure that the skins wrap around them.

Fred,
A5M4 Claude will be offered by http://www.skylinepapermodels.com/

Wing fillets and wings in place. The only advice needed is to cut out the wing skins (only where they connect) on the inside of the line to make sure that the strip LW (RW) 2 will cover the location intended for it.

Outer wing does not have any internal structure so I laminated the insides with scrap card to give them some rigidity. I also stuffed the insides with tissue - exactly as intended by the designer.

Thank you frettchen.

Undercarriage is ready.
I really wish there was some internal support in the spats to help properly form it. It is doable the way it is but it proved to troublesome for me.
I'm not happy with the result but it will have to stay this way. Tried to many times already :rotwerd:

Last details installed.

The only change I made is to replace the antenna mast. The one supplied in the kit is fairly short but looking at the photos/plans of the Claude, antenna mast should be taller than the vertical fin.

Model comes with both auxiliary tank and bomblets - I chose to install the tank and skip the bomblets since Claude couldn't carry both at the same time.

Photos of the completed model will have to wait till daylight.