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 J-3 Cub Construction Project Session #30

30 J-3 Cub Nose Block Scale Problem

I know I am having enough problems with this J-3 Cub without making one of my own, but the more I have looked at the front end of the J-3 Cub, the more it doesn't look right! :O< The picture below shows what I am talking about. See how short and flat it seems to be.
 
This is another view of the short flat nose block on the model. You have to agree, there is just something wrong with it. 
 
First, I checked the width of the nose block's six laminations shown on the plans and they measured 0.75". However, the actual six 3/32" laminations of the nose block only measure 0.56", which is 0.19" too short. This represents a 25% reduction in the thickness, which explains part of the "dorkyness" problem.
 
Then I recalled the instruction supplement sheet shown below that came with this Herr kit. Item No. 3 indicates that the nose of the model has been made just a little wider 0.2" (1.8" instead of 1.6"), which accounts for another part of the "dorky" looking front end.
 
This 13% increase in nose block width, along with the 25% decrease in nose block thickness, taken collectively, pretty much explains why my J-3's front end is missing its character and I just can not accept this. Soooo, in my quest to try and recapture the scale look of the model's front end, I went to the J-3 Cub's profile drawing on the 3-view for inspiration.
 
The fuselage is already built with the front end's 13% increase in width. To try and change this would be disastrous and probably result in scraping the whole J-3 Cub project. Besides, The added width to the nose does permit room for the insertion of the 3/4" PVC blast tube. Therefore, I had to look at increasing the nose thickness, but how much? I decided to increasing the short 0.56" nose block thickness by the same proportion as the 13% increase nose block width. This provides a nose thickness of (0.56 X 1.13) = 0.85". Keeping the profile thrust line at the same location as on the plans and using the 3-view profile shape, I carefully sketch out the resulting nose block profile on paper. I cut out the new profile and taped it to the front of the model's fuselage as shown below. Guess what, the J-3 Cub will have a scale looking front end when I make a new nose block with this profile. However, for right now, since there is so much work involved in making a new nose block with a correct thrust line, I am going to continue on and finish the model first, except for covering. Then I will drop back and build this new scale looking nose block....................Tandy 
 

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