Back to how this kit builds and a word of caution about Eduard’s latest decals.
I started assembling the undercarriage, both main one and the tail wheel
Like I mentioned earlier I replaced the kits wheels for a resin set I had in the stash that fits nicely into the plastic parts.
The tail wheel is a very straightforward business to assemble, the only it is a gap that results after I glued the “fork” that holds the wheel. Since this happened in all my 3 previous builds of this mould (the A-5, the A-4 and the A-8 versions boxes) I don’t think this is a result of my work, but I’ll be happy anyone proves me wrong on this one 🙂
As for the main legs the instructions call for the modeler to first glue the leg to the cover and the glue the whole thing into the slot on the wheel pit. I have followed this method on the left side leg
but was unable to fit the right one into the designated slot
so I end up glueing only the leg part
leaving the cover to follow after the glue securely dries.
As you can see in the photos it’s not very difficult to align them, leaning inwards/forward, but my advice is using a slow drying glue (no Cyano here!) to allow any correction in the first minute after getting the part fitted in. I used regular liquid glue.
The decals- Somewhere during this year Eduard started using their new in-house made decals. I’ve read elsewhere people complaining about them in several ways, including how fast they grab the surface. Yeah, well from older Eduard kits my experience with those decals also included that effect... however when these new one grab they sure grab!
While applying the swastikas on the tail I was so focused on aligning the second one in line with the first that only after a few minutes drying did I noticed it was place way too low on the tail. To release the decals I went for my trusted methods- hot water and some microsol. You guess the result, not only did the decal continued, in most of its area, strongly “glued”, with only small border areas responding to my attempt. The end result was catastrophic, it started tearing small parts after parts thus destroying any chance of salvation. To add insult to the injury, part of the white and black paint of the decal was literally impressed on the blue paint below, and the only way to remove was by gently sanding the area.
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a new repainted tail followed
So be warned, don’t let these decals dry unless they are in the right spot you want, otherwise you are in for a nasty surprise.
