The undercarriage is pretty detailed but needs to be put in before the wings go together. I’m usually not a fan of this approach but the undercarriage here is pretty sturdy so it wasn’t an issue. I painted everything Alclad2 Aluminium (as I wanted to use that up) then brush painted the black with Vallejo black.
The wings go on well enough. I did have to add some filler on the underside of the right wing as I think I shaved off too much when cleaning up the mating surface.
The clear parts here fit OK. But as I’ve said before, I think adding the clear parts now would have been better. Depending on the dry-fit, I’d have glued them at the front and then slid that onto the kit.
Doing it the way I have done here resulted in small step on the centreline join. That was filled with Vallejo water based putty and smoothed with a wet finger. This took several applications to get this to a point where I was happy.
The engine nacelle fitment onto the wing underside is ok although they seem slightly smaller than the recesses in the wing – Perhaps this is correct. Regardless, I filled it with Magic Sculpt 2 part epoxy. It took 2 goes to get it filled to a point where I was happy.
I added the piece forward of the guns as the reference photos I have shown it fitted. It was a bit of a guess as to exactly where it should sit. I hope I have got it in the right spot.
I bought the eduard Tface mask set which made the masking a lot easier. Tface means two faces, i.e. they have masks for the inside and outside surfaces.
I spent some more time reworking the seam between the two large clear pieces down the front of the aircraft. For this I used Vallejo putty so I could smooth it off with a wet cotton bud / finger.
Paul Bentham says
Hi Callum,
Firstly, congrats on a great build and thanks for the tips re the cockpit canopy assembly. One question re the aerial wire: what material did you use and how did you fix it? I’ve recently restarted the hobby after a 49 year May off and have a couple of kits on the bench that need both rigging lines and aerial wire and I’m having issues so any tips you can pass on would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Paul B
Calum Gibson says
HI Paul, thanks for the compliment, I’m happy with the build.
As for the aerial, it is ezy line . This is an elastic type thread which I think is for tying fishing flies. The advantage of this is that it being elastic means it won’t break when it’s bumped. It’s fixed with CA glue at one end, then stretched to the other end with another small drop of CA to hold it. You don’t need to stretch it to tight, just so it is taunt.
The Isolators were just blobs of white glue painted when they have dried.
Geoff has some info in the techniques bank on Aerials as well