Well, I have an airplane now. I just wasn't in the mood to do scratch building or vacuum forming today so I worked on getting the wings and tail planes installed. They fit pretty good with some minor seam work required on the tailplanes and underside of one of the main wings. George (@gblair), I am glad you mentioned getting the tailplanes inline with the wings because I had not thought of that and may have gotten it wrong if I had installed the tailplanes first. As it is, everything is pretty close. I was a bit hampered because I had to cut off most of the main wing tabs in order to keep them from interfering with the interior cabin detail.

Anyway, here is is. Nice thing about 1/72 scale twins is that they are about the same size as a 1/48 single engine fighter model, so handling it during painting should be straightforward.

Looking excellent so far, my friend @clipper!

I had planned to vacuum form the cowlings and gun turret today, but life got in the way. Had to help with groceries because my daughter who usually does that was sick. And when I went to use the vacuum forming machine (hasn't been used since I bought it a while back), I realized that the tray was too deep for my purposes. So I had to go to the store and get some new wood glue so I could make a spacer. Of course, three days before Xmas, it's a zoo out there and I got stuck in a lot of traffic!

And I have a solution for my propellers. I was able to acquire this Minicraft Ventura kit for $9.00 so I will be robbing the propellers from it. Not sure if I will ever build this Ventura, but if I do, I will mount it in flight so I can use any source of prop hubs later. More likely, it will become a paint mule as I need one anyway.

George(@gblair), I know what you mean about vacuum forming, but in this case, I think it is the only way I am going to get scale looking cowlings. The kit cowlings leave a lot to be desired. I was looking at my Engines and Things engines and they may be too big for the cowlings, so I may end up robbing the front rows of the radials from the Ventura kit as well. These are smaller diameter but have the same number of cylinders (in the front row) as the single row engine on the Hudson.

I'd like to try the vacuforming tonight but the machine sounds like a jet engine when the vacuum is on and I am pretty sure my better half would complain quite noticeably.

Your adapting/improving/scratch building works have expanded towards machinery, in this case your vac machine, my friend @clipper! Awesome job and nice that you found a solution for the props!

Thanks Spiros (@fiveten), John (@johnb), and George (@gblair). I have a philosophy about modeling which goes something like this.

I want to display certain aircraft, and it's often a long time between builds of the same type. And, being able to display a model of a plane, especially a rare one, is a special treat. I want to have these models have a reasonable amount of detail and at the same time, I want to improve my painting and weathering skills. What I don't require (generally) is for the kit to be perfect and completely accurate (i.e. rivet counter accuracy), nor do I require it to be the latest and greatest (although I really do like these new kits). I figure I can meet those requirements with anything from a vacuum formed shell to a Special Hobby kit that requires a sledge hammer to complete to the latest wunderkit from Eduard or Tamiya. I do balk somewhat at serious shape issues, but it depends upon how badly I want the plane. For example, I build Hobby Boss's Easy Build P-38L Lightning several years ago even though it has serious inaccuracies in the engine cowl fronts. But I really wanted to try out the way they molded the kit (complete upper and lower fuselage halves). So I bought it and built it, working my way through the issues with shape.

Anyway, after that lengthy ramble, I am hoping George, that the vacuum formed cowlings will indeed fit the aftermarket engines. Right now, I'm just waiting until the house wakes up so I can start up the vacuum form jet engine.

Vacuum forming the cowlings and gun turret seems to have worked out although I had a hell of a time getting the cowling plugs out of the molded parts because of the undercut. The Engines and Things aftermarket radial engines also fit inside the cowling, no problem. I am going to have to make some sort of ring to fit around the cylinder heads that matches the inside diameter of the cowlings to hold them in position.

The gun turret also worked out, although I also had to make a vacuum formed dome because the newer lower section was slightly larger diameter than the kit dome. I will also have to build up some structure for the inside of the turret. All in a day's work, so they say.

Nice work on this Carl. it's not going to be 60 year old scrap plastic when you get done with all this.