It has been a while, I have been busy with things around the house (I put in a new sliding glass door), working on my Pontiac, (I got to the point that I drove it for the first time in four years) and of course work, wife and yard work. I also have been working a bit to try and get my decals printed. I tried another vendor and got a couple sheets printed by them. The decals look beautiful, but are a bit thick and impervious to all setting solutions I tried. I am currently working to get pricing from Microscale, but as of yet have gotten my artwork tweaked but I still don't have a price quote.
I did finish the sanding of my fuselage and then was able to finish the scribing and riveting I left off along the top and bottom seam. I also glued on the canopy and prepped the nose for the nose glazing. The nose glazing actually fits pretty nicely but without anyway to keep it centered it would be hard to glue. I put some 0.025" (0.64mm) round styrene rod around the edge and it keeps the glazing centered very nicely. In the pictures it is not glued on yet, I have to put the bomb sight and two nose guns in below the floor still.
I started work on the engines, it is easier the second time. I got them built up and fit into the nacelles as well as removing material from inside the front of the nacelle, the engine interferes with them unless you remove some material. It is a design flaw in the kit, and I just go in with a 1/8" (3.18mm) rotary file on my Dremel to remove it neatly. I still have the spark plug wires to do, but I am not too worried as I realize you don't see much of any of this once it is all put together. Only the flashlight squad will ever see it at the shows.
11 attached images. Click to enlarge.
