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The basic fuselage shape is typical of seaplanes. I thought it turned out a little too bulky looking, but it has the classic seaplane look of a PBY. I didn't want to have to run the elevator pushrods to the top of the vertical stabilizer by having a "Tee" tail, so I just raised the rear of the fuse a little to place the hotizontal stabilizer higher above the water.
The sides are made of 1/8" ply inner framework laminated to 1/8" balsa sheet. The top and bottom covering are 1/8" balsa and the tail feathers 1/4" balsa. The formers are all 1/8" lite ply with cutouts for reducing weight. After glueing on the shaped balsa nose piece the overall length of the fuselage is 50 inches.
These are the two separate balsa and lite ply side pieces for one side.
These are the two finished laminated sides. Later, after the fuselage was ready for covering, I made 2 cutouts in each side and one in the top to reduce weight in the rear.
I placed a full size printout of the fuse, top view, on my pin board and made jigs to hold the sides in the proper position to attach the formers. This showed the positions of the formers for glueing.
This shows the construction the engine pod pylon suport.
I glued pieces of balsa to certain formers to provide wider spots to glue down the skin pieces.
This is a slot for the extension on the vertical stabilizer to fit into to hold that part perpendicular to the horizontal stabilizer.
This is the piece that holds the tail feather servos, located under the wing.
I added a keel to reinforce the part that impacts the water at speed. This should keep the bottom from flexing very much.
This is the completed fuselage without the top or bottom skin. The chair is NOT attached to the fuselage.
Views of the fuselage with tail feathers and wing temporarily in place. The top will be left open until the tail feather pushrods are installed, allowing me to run the tubes through the formers.
The nose piece was cut from built-up pieces of balsa block glued together, epoxied to the front, and sanded to follow the lines of the fuselage.
The windscreen was glued in place, then the fairing cut from multiple pieces of 1/4" and 3/16" balsa that were glued together and glued in behind the windscreen. Then, the fairing was sanded in front to curve back from the windscreen. The back of the fairing was sanded against the leading edge of the wing to hold the wing straight.
I made another fairing, this one at the tail to reduce drag from the sudden upturn of the fuse by deflecting air and water up and to the sides. I also cut 5 holes in the rear of the fuse hopefully to reduce an ounce or two of weight.
Here, I’ve finished the covering with ultracote and am “covering” the bottom with navy blue spray paint.
And here is the result (All but the front hatch in place…I forgot to put it in for the photo.)
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