As far as I can determine, the plans are silent on when to do the final installation of the cockpit air vents and exterior air scoops. It's probably best to delay this step until after riveting the forward top skin, since the air scoop openings can be used for riveting access, but since I'm now finished with that I could think of no reason not to put these in for good.
I painted the butter-colored plastic NACA scoops flat black, and attached them to the fuselage sidewalls with Proseal, all of which I somehow neglected to take photos of. Then, thanks to the over-complicated way I previously chose to attach the air scoops with both glue and rivets, I had to recruit Mary to crawl into the fuselage and hold the mounting rings in place while I pulled the rivets from the outside. This probably marks the first time in recorded history that it's taken two people to install a pop rivet.
(I don't know why she's flashing Vulcan gang signs)
Then I installed the ducts between the scoops and the panel vents. There are no details in the plans about how to secure these, so I just used some stainless hose clamps I had on hand. I also put a square of plastic window screen material over the mouth of each NACA scoop, to keep bugs out.
Shining a flashlight down the air scoop, you can see the black window screen at the back. Hopefully this will keep critters out of the cockpit.
