A fantastic subject, my friend @paulh! Great progress so far!

Some additional photos of today's work...

I started with a little remedial work on the rear frame of the internal detail as a couple lengths of the elastic thread rigging had detached and I was too tired in the small hours of this morning to fix them; I felt I'd earned a good night's sleep. However, the two rear arms required to be ever-so-slightly reduced in height as their fit was extremely tight when I did the dry run yesterday. In addition, the bulkhead that sits at a slight angle was shortened along its upper length for the same reason and neither presented any issues during the final dry runs before closing the fuselage earlier this evening. The 'gun tunnel' in the rear fuselage had been quite an awkward piece to fit and the lower outer edges had to be persuaded of the benefits of being more co-operative; this evening, though, they went together as nice as mice. So far, everything was good but then the upper and lower central sections were a bit iffy and the lower nose around the bomb sight was just not moving into position. It turned out that I'd inserted the floor a fraction too far forward, so I re-opened the fuselage - still in dry run mode - and repositioned it. Now the nose fitted fine, but the central fuselage areas refused to budge... oh, and the ventral MG decided to remove itself from the aircraft!

Net result? The MG is been dispensed with. The instruction manual informed that it wasn't always carried in order to save weight, and also because the rear dorsal MG could be positioned to fire downwards throught the tunnel if needed. I decided, therefore, that now was the time to close up the fuselage permanently. The rear fuselage was held with tape while gluing in the tunnel, thereafter keeping it in place with additional tape. I then worked backwards along the fuselage using liquid cement to seal the joins; the offending areas around the central fuselage were also glued as best as I could get, and as you can see, a clamp was used to ensure a good bond. I haven't progressed forwards yet, as I will have to fill the central areas with small pieces of plastic card and filler, then sand them smooth. Then I can contentrate on the forward areas.

Thankfully, the wing centre section on the undersides does not fit into the fuselage; at the leading edge, it meets the fuselage but at the rear of each side, there is a fairing that the trailing edge of the centre section sits on, thus keeping it out of contact with the fuselage itself. This in turn ensures that the fit of the wing section will not be impaired and its neutal alignment will not suffer from a bad wing-fuselage fit, and the join can simply be filled and sanded prior to attaching the central wing piece.

All in all, at this stage, I only have a few small items to add into the fuselage from the parts I'd completed yesterday and that should be easy enough to do. I'm happy with the progress made, so upwards and onwards tomorrow. Thanks for looking in... :-).

Regards,

Paul

10 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Looking better and better, my friend @paulh!

Hi, guys... firstly, thank you to all of you who commented on my previous posts here... apologies for the delay in getting back to you. Only two additional photos at present, but they do represent quite a move forward and I have also done some additional work earlier this evening but haven't got photos yet.

So, on the left side below, you can see I have completed the construction of the two Daimler-Mercedes engines. As ever with Wingnut Wings kits, these go together well, and with careful application of paint, they can be made to look really smart... I completed both manifold intakes by appying some Kristal-Klear to the smooth surface of these pieces, let it dry and then painted over it. I used the KK to try and simulate the intakes being covered in tar-soaked asbestos strips. I think the effect was pretty good, but I later decided to remove one and recover it with thin Tamiya tape, then painted that and blackwashed it. You can see that intake in the next image, but I think both methods are suitable routes to follow if you'd prefer not to have the smooth surface of the kit piece showing. I hope to be able to leave one of the engines uncovered, hence the thinking behind experimenting with the KK.

In the right side photo, you can see various items, so from the bottom, heading clockwise, there are the four engine mounts, the propellors, the small oil tanks and at the top, the two large fuel tanks; immediately below them are the radiators and to the (R) of the radiators, the adjusted manifold intake with the Tamiya tape attached. Detail isn't particularly clear in this image but you'll see it reattached to the engine in due course. In the middle, the engine comparment frames. On the extreme right is the centre section of the lower wing. Since taking this photo, the wing section has been varnished and the wallkways picked out, as well as highlighting the detail of both sets of ribs on the upper and undersides. I was a bit hasty with applying the grey-blue and omitted to shade and highlight these ribs so that is now an ongoing piece of work. Given that the assembled engines and cowlings will sit in relative proximity to the fuselage sides, all detail on the wing centre section really has to be addressed at this point as there will be little space to do much once the engines are in place.

All of the smaller items were blackwashed to bring out the detail, as you can imagine things like the fuel tanks and radiator fronts and backs were pretty untidy looking in real life, so all of these parts benefit from this process, making them look stained and well-used. I am particularly happy with the propellors so far, as the wood effect came up well. This was achieved using a matt enamel light tan overpainted with a thin coat of burnt sienna oil paint, with the paintbrush drawn along the blades of the propellors reasonably slowly, and ideally with a small brush which has perhaps seen better days, the brush tips sticking up at slightly varying angles, which in turn create uneveness in the oil paint and thus, a highly effective wood grain effect.

The fuselage and all major external surfaces have now had an undercoat of white applied in preparation for the application of the colour scheme; the few transparencies around the nose have been attached and masked ahead of painting commencing. All of the exposed areas of the cockpit will require to be blanked off, so hopefully, painting the fuselage can be started quite soon.

My GasPatch turnbuckles arrived from Greece a couple of days ago and other after-market items have been acquired, so the build is beginning to pick up a little momentum.

Thanks for looking in; more photos to follow in due course... ;-).

Regards,

Paul

2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Ditto with @johnb, @paulh : everything looks superb!

John, Spiros & George...

Thanks again for your comments. Things are coming along, albeit rather slowly. Engines almost complete, just the exhausts to paint and attach, then decide what cowlings are being used and what ones can be left off to display some of the detail. Hope to have some more pics soon... ;-).

Erik, thanks for looking, and and for your comments... ;-).

So, a few more photos. First up, the frames that will sit either side of the engines. These are the first items to be rigged as there are cables on each side of the frame; I thought it better to do these now, rather than fight to get them done after the frames were installed, talking of which - the frames were very, very neat and tight-fitting and not for those of a nervous disposition!

The next image shows the wing centre section with the first pieces installed in the engine compartments. The large rectangular part at the bottom is the fuel tank; radiators, oil tanks and something else not described have also been added in on each (L) side of the assemblies. You may recall from my comments above, that I'd omitted to detail the two ribs showing above and below the wings, but you can see each rib sitting inboard of the highlighted walkways have now been shaded. The engines were then mounted into the comparment and then consideration could be given to the engine covers.

One thing I have noticed about this model is, as mentioned, the very neat fit of some parts; additionally, there is a plethora of ejector pin marks throughout the model's parts, which I would suggest is not something WnW were renowned for. To give credit where due, 99% are in areas never to see the light of day again, but there are some very prominent ones in the forward fuselage, on each side, and the forward and rear bulkheads supporting the engine mounts, which will require removal prior to commencing painting and especially if you want to go overboard on any super-detailing of the engines for, say, a diorama, where you may choose to leave the covers off.

Equally, the fit of the side engine covers is not easy, with some bending of parts between index finger and thumb being required to cajole them into presenting a better fit. Out of curiosity, I looked on the internet at other modellers' builds of this kit, and would say that several succeeded in pulling off a good fit with the side panels, and others did not, with noticeable gaps left in front and to the rear of each panel when in situ, therefore I'm happy that I am seemingly not alone in noticing the slightly less-than-expected excellent fit of parts from WnW, and that others appear to have had the same issues as myself. That said, I managed to get to a place I am happy with being in, as far as this area of the model is concerned, and in the third photo you can see the relevant cowlings and covers now permanently secured and having received their first coat of "daylight bomber blue", confusingly quite similar at a glance to proper white, but it's actually an off-white pale blue... I hope you're following these descriptions... ;-).

The centre section has suffered a little loss of the darker grey-blue shade on the leading and trailing edges but this can be tidied up in due course. There appear to be two small holes near to the side of the fuselage on both sides, so I imagine some tricky rigging may be lurking in the shadows; in the meantime, the last image starts to give an impression of size, with the fuselage sitting over the centre of the lower wing section, prior to the engine compartments being completed. A little more work on he painting of the engines panels first, then onward to the next challenge.

I hope you like the progress so far, and thanks for taking time to take to look.

Regards,

Paul

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.