Hi, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb): Thanks for stopping by. Parts are now all cleaned up and being assembled.
Hi, Chuck (@uscusn): I usually do the same thing. I have reached an age where I don't want to spend a bunch of time on things that won't make any difference in the end. In this case, I wasn't sure if the large canopy would allow more than the normal amount of interior visibility. On the other side of the coin, it will be really hard to see anything in a cockpit that is almost black. I found I had a curved Xacto blade that was small enough to fit between the interior cockpit ribs, so the cleanup involved some judicious scraping rather than filling and sanding.
Hi, Michael (@michaelt): I also had models hung from my ceiling when I was a kid. I had two lines strung up, each one going diagonally across my room. I kept adding more and more until they all came crashing down in the middle of the night. Most of them were beyond repair. There is something about the Fw-189 that draws you in. As a former pilot, I can't even begin to imagine flying this thing. A few months ago I built the 1/72 ICM Fw-189C/V-6 and decided I wanted to build a bigger version of the "standard" plane. Happily, at the same time, one of the online hobby stores had it on sale for 50% off, so I snatched it up. The issues I have had so far are really fairly minor. The kit is really complete with a nice set of masks and some PE. I got a Quinta set for the model, as well a set of canopy masks that I got before I realized the kit already had them. Keep your eye out online and a good deal will turn up.