Another awesome Paul Higgins classic entry, my friend @paulh! Looking forward to it!

Spiros/John... thanks for your comments. Below are the first photos... ;-).

So, in these images, the cockpit frame, engine mount and its support along with the propellor, all painted with a white undercoat, as indeed was everything that needed a wood effect finish. These were later given a minimal pale tan overpaint, and finally in this case, an oil paint coat of transparent oxide yellow; burnt sienna was used sparingly on the foot rests in the cockpit frame, and also the propellor to give some contrast, as well as the forward internal areas of the fuselage. Other sundry items such as the fuel tank, pedals, the very delicate but wonderfully produced control column and instrument panel were also worked on at this point.

Being a 3D-printed item, the engine comes as a single complete part but looks very nice; the integrally-moulded ammunition in the ammo box is a nice touch as well as in the side feed for the MG. That may not be so visible in these photos, but hopefully they will be better seen when the model is finished. The vertical engine mount support is slightly mis-shapen, as is the horizontal mount; the former may need some persuading to comply but the latter should be fine when attached to the engine, a process which will automatically bring it into alignment. In truth, however, very little of these lower sections of the engine will be seen unless the builder is inclined to go all-out in making a diorama where the cowling covers are removed.

Two small breaks in the 3D parts were noted - one of the undercarriage legs was broken in two, presumably when the model was in transit, and I accidentally snapped off the right-side carburettor manifold when removing it from the plinth. This latter incident also resulted in one of the small cylindrical pieces at the bottom of that part to detach and is now lost, but again, that area is unlikely to be seen very much when the fuselage is closed up.

I felt the propellor was slightly on the slender side; Lukgraph had accidentally produced the propellor the wrong way round, but has since corrected this issue but I had a spare WnW propellor which looked similar and a little more substantial into the bargain, so that's the one I have chosen to use. I'll keep the kit piece until the model is finished, just in case I change my mind; being one of the last things to be attached, it wouldn't be difficult to substitute one for the other at that late stage.

So, for the time being things are moving slowly, but moving nonetheless. Thanks for looking in and I hope you like the work undertaken so far... ;-).

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Definitely liking all the work you did, Paul @paulh
The wood effect looks really good.

Progressing really nice, Paul @paulh

Thanks again, guys.

I've been busy at the workbench today, so here's what was done earlier... :-).

I managed to get the cockpit assembly and the engine into the fuselage yesterday evening (Sunday), so today I did a preliminary filling of the small gaps along the fuselage join. I sanded the edges of each fuselage half to bring them to a better connection before I glued them permanenetly, and put strips of Tamiya tape along the join lines to ensure the filler only went where it was needed. Once dry, that was sanded smooth; I wasn't too bothered about the appearance of the underside join because I smoothed out the raised length of resin - perhaps intended to be the platform to attach the PE stitching to? - as I thought the PE would look better on its own. Credit to Lukgraph for providing four strips of this PE stitching. All four lengths provided are the same length, but do not cover all of the intended areas in their own right; some small lengths of stitching are required to be fitted at the ends of the main lengths but this is not a particular problem. The most awkward attachments were the four smaller and separate lengths around the rear of the fuselage, due to their short length. These were a little fiddly to handle, but with patience they can be applied properly and look very good once in place. I only attached all of the PE parts using superglue in some areas along their length, and once in place and dry, I put a little Kristal Klear along the sides of the areas not glued, wiped off the excess with a damp cotton bud while at the same time, pushing the Kristal Klear under the PE. this allows the stitching to remain slightly flexible in case it needed some slight adjustment, and the Kristal Klear is strong enough to hold these areas closed before painting starts. The areas of stitching arounf the mid-fuselage behind the cockpit presented no problems and when finished, everything look rather good. Just be careful when handling the stitching, as it is quite light and can be easily misligned.

I then turned my attention to the wings; I opened the interplane strut attachment point slightly on both upper and lower wings pieces and applied filler to the small chips in the resin, be it along the leading edges, the wingtips, filling the two or three microscopic holes in the resin, oh... and of course, filling in the cavern I opened up on the top of the lower left wing! I wanted to extend the hole for the metal rod wing support but got somewhat carried away with my efforts and created a gap large enough to drive a bus through, well... maybe not quite that large :-). All of that was again easy enough to sort.

I belatedly opened up the forward fuselage panels as the 3D printed pieces for these areas are nice enough not to have to sit on the filled sections, which would only make them sit proud of the fuselage and perhaps result in them looking oversized, or just plain bad. This is a task to do before you close the fuselage, ideally. I also cut the metal rod to length to get the lower wing to sit correctly when the time come. I mate the front rod slightly shorter than the rear one, as I didn't want to repeat drilling too far into the wing to accommodate a longer piece, given my earlier miscalculation. The rods appear to hold the wings well and I have no worries at present that they will attach well.

There are a few very small PE pieces under the central fuselage area between the undercarriage leg attachment points, and these have to be handled with care as well. Once in place, they look smart. The last piece of work for now was removing the tailplane pieces and the ailerons from their resin plinths. I scored the resin close to the actual part and then carefully broke off the plinths. A little bit of sanding along the edges was needed to remove the 'flat cut' appearance and restore the curve to these areas. I was a little disappointed with the leading edges of the wings, which are included without plinths, as they, too, were quite flat as though they had had a plinth attached and it was removed clealy with a vertical cut. Again, some sanding needed to recreate the curve of the leading edge.

So that's all for now. Some progress is being made and I'm pleased with things so far. Thanks for looking in and I'll catch you all again soon... ;-).

15 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Very nice work done, PAul @paulh
Not an easy task to fill those gaps and get them this smooth in the end.
Those stiches do look very nice indeed.

Sorry to hear about the accident, Paul @paulh
Take your time to recover. Wishing you all the best.