Formers and Stringers

The kit comes with the formers pretty well made up.  You have to fit and drill.  This fuselage is one of the early deluxe kits and the guy’s at the factory forgot to weld on the tabs for the former at the top of the cargo bay door, I also had to make the former for there as well.  Also the former that accepts the aft section of the skylight was not right so I made a new one.  These items have been rectified on newer kits.  We also got the aluminum stringers, they are a bit harder to bend than wood stringers but you never  have to worry about rotting!  To aid in getting a nice flowing curve you need to notch out the stringers in varying depths at each station going aft on the side stringers.  In the two pictures where you see the stringer coming to the tab, I secured it to the bottom part of tab so it would sit lower so I could line up holes in the window frame. I’ll show this in the windows section.  The last eight pics show the parts riveted.

New aft skylight former.

New former on right.

New former on left.

I added two more pics to the end above.  I remade the right and left formers so there is a wider flange going forward that I could slide the windshield in behind.