Erik, @airbum
Over the past week or so, you have made some amazing progress. In particular, I am impressed with your decision to scratch build the landing gear opening. I think in the long run it was your best option. You have done some very precise cutting and filing and the lower wing section looks very good. It will be even better once you start adding all the little bits. The fuselage has also progressed nicely, and I'll bet it will look even more realistic once you start adding in the additional details that PE parts can provide. Before I spent the additional money on another PE set, I would scrounge your spare parts bin to see if anything you have would be appropriate.
Our friend Spiros @fiveten
has done an incredible job with detailing his 1/48 scale Nichimo "Jake" float plane. He almost completely scratch built the cockpit interior of his, using mainly extra parts he had left over. The only drawback to using PE parts, is that most of the time they are two dimensional and flat. However recently, there has been a company, (based in the Ukraine I beleive), that has been making cockpit detail parts that are best called "3D decals"...since you wet them first to slide them off the backing paper they are formed on...
Chuck Villanueva @uscusn
did a recent review of this stuff and it's incredible. The details you would expect from a PE part, plus it has the extra bonus of being dimensional and not flat.
I have been ultra busy with other things and have not had much time for posting on here lately. Hopefully this will change soon. Keep up the great work. 🙂 My vote is for the Orange version... I have an old Otaki 1/48 "Willow" trainer and a 1/48 Fine Molds A7M Reppu "Sam" in the stash, and chances are they will both be finished in this Orange color as well. It just pops when compared to the typical green over gray paint scheme usually seen.
