Forward fuselage priming

I have made good progress the last week. Friday I went and primed all the parts for the forward fuselage, Saturday I began assembling.
First I riveted the instrument attach angles to the forward decks.

Then I riveted the canopy seal retainers to the subpanels.

Also riveted the small ribs to the centre subpanel. They are dimpled and flush riveted.

 Then I started mounting the forward ribs…

I dimpled and riveted the forward decks. They need a little tweaking to fit perfectly after dimpling. The edge had to be rolled down a bit, as not to gap.

Then I riveted the side subpanels.

Finally I riveted the forward ribs to the firewall.

Time to prepare some more parts. I marked and trimmed the block that will hold the canopy release bellcrank.

Then I cut and trimmed the two spacer blocks for the canopy hinges. I searched for a long time for a .250″ x 1″ alu bar, and finally found out by going through the picking list, that I was supposed to use the supplied .025″ x 1½” bar. The drawings should have referred to this, if you ask me.

 These plastic blocks also had to be drilled for the canopy hinges.

 The hinges assembled…

…and temporary installed.

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