A deficiency of the Hasegawa kit are its barebone wheel wells. Back in the 1990s, wheel wells were generally moulded integral with the lower wing, resulting in "artificial" sidewalls which for the most part, would be an acceptable compromise. Or so I thought starting this kit.
But for the cavernous wheel wells of the Typhoon, this simplification really sticks in the eye - that is, if you choose to care :D. The sidewalls are bare, and also unnaturally curved - the real wheel well was more of a rectangular box. The half-embedded oxygen tank looks odd.
Had I known how much work I'll be putting into this project, I might have invested in the resin wheel wells from CMK. But this would have required a major surgery to the wing, weakening its structure and posing fit challenges. And besides, I don't like working with large resin bits.
So the question has been what to do as an alternative. Being confined to the size & shape of the kit-provided wells, adding some relief detail felt like a second-best option. The most prominent part of this operation would be emulating the wing spar structure at the forward end of the well.
Luckily, I am a new owner of a Silhouette Portrait cutter, so I decided to design the spar trusswork on my computer and have it cut by the machine in black 0.2 mm sheet styrene.
After three attempts, the result was quite satisfactory in shape, dimensions and fit, and I'd say it even had some finesse!
Here is the trusswork glued in position. An improvement over the kit for sure, and it goes a good way towards hiding the curved part of the sidewall.
After some additional detailing with plastic card, here are the detailed wheel wells, sans some cabling.
Lastly, here are the wheel wells after the application of primer.
I'm happy with the result! Is it true to the original? I'd say 60%. Convincing? Probably 80%, or please tell me what you think!
