Hi All,
Well back to this one after a little break.
I have thinned the wing trailing edges by scraping them with a knife blade, and then sanding them. As supplied, they are quite thick. Added the resin wheel well walls, but got a bit carried away on rubbing down on one of them so I had to add a bit of plasticard to repair. Also I removed the locating hole for the main undercarriage as it didn't line up correctly with the opening. A new locating point was made from some sliced plastic tube.
Cockpit base and bulkhead joined together. To get correct angle, I used some plasticard to support the bulkhead and retain the angle. On the port side of the fuselage, I have added a strip of plastic card to support the floor on that side. Note I have drawn the floor and bulkhead positions on the fuselage sides in readiness for the resin detail parts later in the build.
As this is a short run moulding, it lacks locating pins, so strips of plastic sprue were added to the starboard sides to support the fuselage joint later on. Nose lights:- These are provided on the clear sprue, and are intended to fit into recesses that you make in the nose. From previous experience I noted the openings were not entirely circular, nor the parts. I therefore decided to drill two holes to insert some clear sprue later in the build. These will then be cut and sanded to shape with the fuselage exterior, and the actual shape of the glazing seen determined by careful painting and masking of the lights.
Similarly, the wing tip lights are provided moulded into the tip tanks or as clear moulded items. I decided to cut off the tip of each wingtip tank, and used the glazed offering. Fly models have provided these with a convenient dimple on the rear face of the glazed part, which I painted Tamiya Clear Green and Red, which will show once assembled and polished.
The Rudder has a moulded trim tab actuator, as do the tailplane elevators. In order to portray these more realistically, I have cut away the moulded actuators to be replaced by scratch built items near the end of the build. I made my own narrow sanding stick from a cut down coffee stirrer to fit between the reinforcing ribs moulded on the rudder/elevators.
Some pictures of the above follow:-
Thanks for looking, until next time.
Kevin