Hi, Carl (@clipper), Spiros (@fiveten), and John (@johnb). Things are moving slow, but they are moving. It will be a big landmark to have paint on all three. Number 3 is getting close. I still need to add the 3D printed cameras to the fuselage, but they will be the last thing before painting. They are very thin and I want to minimize the chance of damage.

We have a turret! I have not even looked at mine yet. But I know that the guns are on a rod going through the gunners hands. Of course that will be changed. Looks good George (@gblair)

Great you found the masks, my friend @gblair! The turret looks superb so far!

Thanks, Carl (@clipper), John (@johnb), and Spiros (@fiveten). The turret was screaming for something inside of it. As it was, the kit only had the back of the machine guns inside the turret. It was empty otherwise. There aren't many photos of the inside of the turret, but when you find some photos you discover there is a lot of structure inside, all of it painted black. The outside of the turret is painted black. At least the Airfix kit has a gunner to fill up the void. The problem with masking this kit, aside from the small windows, is that many of them have curved corners. I don't really want to try to make tiny masks with consistently curved corners.

I got several small things done today that will pave the way for hopefully painting #3 tomorrow. As usual, it seems like the small things take the most time. The turret was joined horizontally, and was essentially empty inside. I created structure that resembles the interior that I found in the few interior pictures of the turret on the internet. The interior was painted black. The horizontal joint was fairly easy to hide. The lower part of the turret is most sheet metal, while the upper half is glass and frames. The sheet metal and the glass join on the model in the same place they do on the real turret. I glued the scratchbuilt interior into the top half of the turret, and then I glued the two turret halves together. I wet sanded the joint with fine sanding sticks, which essentially eliminated any trace of the joint. I then added the Eduard masks, which fit perfectly. I sprayed the turret exterior with black primer which looks great and has a tough finish. Turret is now done. I spent the rest of my free time prepping the cowlings for the engines. I added some scrap plastic to hold the engines at the proper place in the cowling. The last thing I did today was to start masking plane #3. Canopy is done, nose compartment and cabin windows will wait till tomorrow. This time of year there seems to be a lot of things that steal your building time. I guess it just goes with the territory. My wife and I have a lot of fun. Her birthday is in December, our anniversary is in December, and, of course, Christmas it in there, too. Then my birthday is the first week of February. This is the start of a busy few weeks for us. Happy Holidays everyone, along with any other important event you might have. Cheers.

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Excellent work on the turret, George @gblair
Nice trick to get the engine on the correct location.
Some very special events ahead which definitely need attention as well.

I really wanted to jump in and paint my last paint today, but I remembered that rushing causes problems. So, I decided to slow down and make sure everything was done prior to painting. First task was to add the cameras that I 3D printed. I think I was overly worried about giving the parts a scale appearance. The fuselage panel is 0.2 mm, while the walls of the camera tube is 0.1 mm. They look good, but will break with nothing more than a heavy stare. I got them glued into position without issue. Yeah.

Next task was to glue the engines and cowlings in place, then add the various vents that are required. MPM did a great job providing all of the vents for the many different configurations the Hudson had through the years. There are 4 or 5 different vents that can be added to the model. I used photos as a guide for my 3 planes. They actually have 3 different configurations of cowlings and vents.

With that, I ran out of things to do and free time about the same time. Perfect planning, I guess. Paint tomorrow. Yeah again. Cheers.

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Hi Carl (@clipper): I have never been a fan of models that had large areas of clear plastic that weren't clear on the actual plane, but I think that might be a good solution here. If the entire fuselage was clear, it would eliminate dealing with these small, numerous windows. I am sure they built this model with a separate nose to allow for other versions of the Hudson. The Airfix kit was designed to be one version, so no separate nose and a lot of little, tiny windows. What I would like to see is a 1/48 Hudson from someone, and/or a new tool Airfix 1/72 Hudson. On my models, I actually wish I had left the cabin windows off and used Microscale KrystalKlear to form the windows. The Eduard masks don't quite fit the cabin windows, so I am anticipating a lot touch-up painting around the cabin windows. We'll know soon. Paint on #3 tomorrow.