First I sprayed the model with pure alcohol straight from the airbrush to remove the grease and gave it a bit of a buff to try and get rid of fingerprints. Then a couple of coats of surface primer was needed mainly to blend the added photo etch in ready for painting.

I pre-shaded the fuselage and coloured in black completely the areas where the walk ways are on the roof. You do get decals for the walkways in the box but I think they will look better painted on. A decision which involved another hour of masking as well mind!

You're really making some progress with this, Richard, looking forward to the next instalment.

Finals now on in Richard.
She is looking grand mate.

Thanks very much guys, I'm hoping to have this finished by the end of the day. I doubt it will be done in the daylight hours for taking the photo's for the headlines though, but I'll have a sneak preview on here hopefully!

That's the rotors finished and the engines attached. There is a bit of detail missing from the inside of the exhaust nozzles on this kit and they are slightly the wrong shape. I had a look online for some aftermarket ones but I couldn't find anything. They look ok from the box though still, I think it will take a very keen eye to notice this.

I gave it a few coats of gloss varnish for the decals and the panel lining. Greg warned me that the decals might be hard to work with and he was right! Very very fragile! One of my favourite parts of a build is putting that final coat of matt varnish on then removing the masking to see the build starting to come to life. There was a lot of masking to be removed here mind.

Cheers Simon. I take the photos for the main article in the big light box outside normally. We need a dry day for that though, and the forecast is not looking good up north!

Beautiful work, Richard...now ya need to post it in the "Headlines" forum for all to see!