Hi, guys... I managed to get some more work done on this build over the last week, and things are progressing well, generally speaking, with one or two frustrating bits to go back and rework, but here's the progress to date.
I got the lower wing into postition and strapped it up to ensure a decent fit, thereafter adding the upper wing pieces and the forward nose panel which is a resin part from the AIMS conversion set. The join lines of the fuselage were awkward to deal with, especially where the lower wing inserts into place. The underside rear fuselage section was at differing levels in itself, and therefore at two different levels where it met the wing. At the front, the wing insert sat too high. However, with a little reworking after padding these areas out with filler, and doing a bit of the dreaded rescribing, I got things to look okay.
The parts for the lower forward fuselage with the camera bay transparencies had their thin film of resin from the production process removed, and two replacement parts from thin transparent card were worked to the correct shape and put into position, secured in place with Kyrstal Klear. These parts have since been attached to the model, filled out with plastic card and filler where needs be, then sanded smooth.
The next issue was the windshield, part of which was not transparent on the real aircraft so can be painted in the camouflage colours. However, the fit was good at the front and poor the closer it got to the cockpit centre area, with the sides edging inwards slightly, but noticeably; the same issue exists for the rear canopy section as well. You can see the temporary insert into the windshield to take advantage of the very small amount of play in 'stretching' this piece to get it to fit better, although it still needed some amount of water-based filler to make it half decent; both pieces are now on but hopefully the camouflage will conceal the ill-fitting pieces to a degree. Of the two, I'd say the front transparency looks better than the rear one, but I've left it as it is now, as the last thing I need is to cause a crack in these pieces. On the credit side, they are very clear.
After attaching the cowled engine, it decided to part company during the application of the initial undercoat. It was reattached and I took the time to remove other offending items like small bit of dried glue around the nose area; The join on the rear fairing at the back of the cockpit was certainly a pain in the neck, and the upper fuselage join is still a tad iffy, but I'll leave that as it is now, too.
I used the undersection cowling from the uncowled engine as spray painting practice for some freehand pre-shading. I was a bit apprehensive in doing this for reasons I'm not quite sure of. I've done shading on some of my WW1 models, but this is the frst time I think I've ever done it on a WW2 kit, and of course, with the larger scale, any errors will be magnified. I also spent time today getting the undercarriage legs sorted. I decided to use the plastic nosewheel leg as I wanted to make adjustments to it, but go so carried away, I also painted up the plastic main undercarriage legs instead of using the metal ones provided. I'll see how it goes... if it's unsteady, I can alway replace the main legs with the metal ones.
The last few photos show the model as it is at present. The camera bay covers have been attached on a temporary basis, as have the control surfaces; the former will be completely removed after the colour scheme is finished and will not be on the model, but will be nearby. Little point in converting the aircraft to the reconnaissance version if the cameras are covered, methinks. You can also see the undersides of the airframe with its pre-shading now complete. I restricted it to the undersides for this initial attempt, and am rather pleased with how it turned out.
So, that's all for now. Thanks for looking in and I hope you like how the models looks so far... ;-).
Regards,
Paul
15 attached images. Click to enlarge.
