Hi all
To reinstate the sanded off wing rib tapes
Strips of 1.0mm wide plastic card of 0.2mm thickness were cut
These were secured onto the wings using thin CA adhesive
They were then sanded to reduce their thickness and to blend them more to the wing surfaces
The wings were grey primed, as this shows any high spots or ridges
Where necessary I sanded again and re-primed until the desired effect was achieved

The wings will be painted later in this build

Mike

2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Quite some work done on those wings, Mike @sandbagger
Looking forward to the paint session.

Some amazing detailing, Mike @sandbagger
Especially the gun looks fantastic this way.

Hi all
The fuselage halves have been painted with Raw Sienna oil paint for wood effect
The basic cockpit assembly is complete with added pipe to the hand pump and throttle and spark advance control rods
The engine is complete, including added:
Ignition leads
Carburettor fuel supply pipe
Cam shaft oil pipe
Throttle control rod

Now it all needs to be weathered before rigging the rudder, elevator and aileron control line and fitting the control column and rudder bar

Mike

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Really impressive, Mike @sandbagger
Your detailing skills are incredible.

Excellent job, extremely realistic, my friend @sandbagger!

Hi all
I added the machine gun trigger cable on the control column and weathered the cockpit and engine
Then the fuselage was now closed up with the support rods for the lower wing fitted
One thing to be careful of is to not break the bottom of the control column, which protrudes from the underside of the fuselage
That shouldn't be a problem once the landing gear is fitted

Now its onto cleaning up the fuselage seam joint

Mike

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Hi all
The fuselage and upper and lower wings have been cleaned and primed, ready for painting
I've added most of the kit supplied photo-etch parts, except for the rigging brackets for the interplane struts
The aircraft did not have these brackets and the angle required for some of the rigging tabs will not align with the fitted rigging lines
The fuselage had pre-molded raised 'strips', intended as a base for the photo-etch stitching lines
Adding the photo-etch onto those strips would make the stitching appear too thick
Therefore, I removed the raised strips and added the photo-etch directly onto the fuselage

Mike

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.