I started working on the cockpit. I have a love/hate relationship with photoetch. I really like the photoetch for the instrument panel and side panels, as well as the seatbelts. But photoetch can be a real pain to cut, bent, and apply to the model. This plane has several parts that must be folded before application. There are also several areas where tiny handles and knobs must be applied. I think it mostly came out OK. The cockpit interior is in black, so not much will be visible anyway. I used black on the interior fuselage walls and instrument panel, but I used gunship gray on the seat, floor, and interior framing. Maybe this will make some of it visible.
This Airfix kit is really nice. It is made out of the really soft blue plastic they used for a while. I put an old blade in my Exacto to do the part cleanup. I discovered I was cutting too deep into the soft plastic with a new blade and creating problems that would need to be fixed later. As cool as this plane is, I thought it was interesting that there is no gunsight included in the kit. This was remedied in the photoetch with a complex part that took a while to get right. Now that the photoetch is over, things should go quicker. I have been doing a little research on the color used in the gear bays, wing folds, and so on. The instructions say to use Humbrol Linen, and in online photos it appears to be a really light yellow primer color. I will mix something that will work. More tomorrow.
3 attached images. Click to enlarge.
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1. Gunsight still needs a couple of clear pieces on top, but it is done otherwise.
