HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[JohnReid]

I have cleaned up ,washed and glued the two engine halves together using exopy and CA on the edges.Be sure to line up both the top and bottom halves so the bolts look lined up as above.
I plan to paint this engine with a brush only(although I do have an airbrush handy) just because I enjoy the plaeasure of painting by hand.
For a great resource on this engine and many others check out the book "Scale Aircraft Drawings Vol 1" by Air Age Inc.

I plan to light my Jenny diorama using a Radio shack 120v60hz transformer.I had begun to wire the rafters using model train hobby wire but I find that it is just too fragile so I was wondering if 24 gauge speaker wire could be used instead.I plan to run this wire from the transformer to a reostat(so I can control the intensity of the lights) and then to the individual light sockets.The light sockets are wired with the lighter hobby wire.Would this create a problem using 2 different gauges of wire? How many 12volt,65MA bulbs could I run off of this transformer.The actual wording on the transformer says:
SEC.6.3-6.3V 12A Radio Shack PRI.120V60Hz
Thanks!
Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

In the above pic you are looking down upon the top of the engine block.The recessed areas are cut in to receive the cylinders.They are in the casting and not cut in by me.On the bottom of the bottom cylinder(in the pic) you can see where some material has yet to be removed to fit into the blocks recesses.
The instructions recommend two sided tape to dry fit the cylinders .I think that I will use small pins.Temporary dry fitting is necessary because of the linkages that are required between the cyliders must be installed before final gluing.
The cylinders are very well cast with only a very small mold line that can easily be removed.
I painted the block with silver to which I added a touch of black gesso.As long as I have something silver and shiny at this point I am not to concerned about getting the colors just right.Everything has yet to be weathered with washes of acrylic and pastels.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Here I have dry fit the cylinders to the block using small track pins.I anticipate that this should work better than 2 sided paper(I hope) because I will be able to rotate the cylinders to position them ,as well as bend the pin a bit to keep everything straight and at the same time hook up the plumbing between the cylinders and then use super thin superglue around the bottom to attach them to the block.
I oversized the holes for the 4 clamps that fasten down the cylinders to the block on the real engine.Experience has taught me to do this now rather than wait until the cylinders are in place ,because of the limited workspace.The two holes on the end couldn't be enlarged due to lack of material ,so I will shave down the clamp shaft instead.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

After many hours of lining everything up I have finally put the cylinders on for a trial fitting.This is the most important step in this build ,for all the other parts to line up properly ,the cylinders must be in their proper position.
As you can see from the pic my engine still requires some tweaking here and there.This is very tight work and requires a lot of patience to get it right .Next will come the trial fitting of small pieces of tubing that act as a link between cylinders .
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[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]