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In this installment I will focus
on installing the troop seats. As they are, the seats are pretty good, however
they lack the restraints and lower X shaped wire bracing. This will be added
later from 3M medical tape and beading wire from the craft store. This article
assumes that your cabin is almost ready to paint, and that side supports B28 and
B29 are installed to the floor.
Study the plans
You will need to carefully study
the plans for the seat arrangement, and locate each hole in the floor to
determine how your seats will lay out. The central row are staggered, aft row
shifted port, forward row shifted starboard. The bulkhead row presents no
problems. The "legs" are designed to angle backwards from each seat
bottom, absorbing some of the impact during a crash. They do not point straight
aft. You will notice the holes in the floor are either single or paired: Seats
pair their "legs" up except the outermost "leg". Mark the
upper surface of the cabin roof with numbers corresponding to your seats, and
mark the bottom of each seat with a corresponding number. The central troop
seats are identical, except in how the "legs" are positioned. The CE
seats are different and have headrests. Their "legs" point aft as
well, from the side of the seat. The four aftmost troop seats have different
hangers than the row A and B seats. Spend an evening planning your seat
installation before you commit to doing anything. When you build your
seats, there should be a total of 12. I wound up looking all over for an 11th
troop seat, which does not exist in the kit, so don’t be fooled into that
trap. When you have all your seats built up, set everything aside for the night
and get ready to move on to the legs.
Standing on two legs
The seats as much stand on the
"legs" as they do hang from the ceiling. You can actually begin
anywhere, I chose the back. Gang the seats up in line with a thick hunk of rod
stock and fix that in place. Hang your seats from the ceiling using poster
sticky putty (BluTak or equivalent) and add a tiny drop of glue to the proper
place on each seat bottom to angle the "legs" backwards to the floor.
Lay the roof upside down with the seats sticking up, and with the legs angled to
the approximate final location. I make the angle far more "open" than
needed, so that the "legs" are slightly compressed into place
when the roof is taped onto the cabin. When in place, check alignment and
let gravity take over for the night.
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Finishing up
With all three rows and the CE
seats complete, its time to add the seatbelts if you have not done so yet. You
can use the excellent Eduard set, or do as I plan to, and make tape belts which
will be stuffed inside the seatback (it is actually a flap covering the seatback
storage pocket). The X braces are made from bead wire from the craft store,
inserted in drilled holes in the floor next to each leg, running crosswise to
the opposite lower corner. Check your references.
There! A major hassle reduced to
three or four evenings work, without all the hair pulling. So, next time you
think about tossing those seats, think again!
David
http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/hlmp/home.html
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