Construction – The Fuselage
This starts with the interior and rather than do the cockpit we need to add some serious weight to the nose section as this model will be a tail sitter. A lot of weight is required and Airfix recommend two locations for it, the first being in a ‘bucket’ located on top of the bomb bay in front of the main wing spar. I used lead shot held in place with epoxy glue. There is quite a bit of weight just here but it isn’t enough and more will be added later on but I’ll cover that further on in the build. The wing spars are also added to the top of the bomb bay and these will provide a solid base for the wings to attach too.
Next came the bomb bay which has some very nice detail. This was painted up with MRP Sky and the details highlighted with Tamiya Dark Brown Panel liner.
The nose wheel bay was then attached to the front of the bomb bay and painted up black and then details were highlighted with a dry-brushing of light grey and aluminium.
It’s then time to look at the cockpit and sensor operators’ positions. At the time of building there were no aftermarket sets available except for generic seatbelts sets which I utilised as the kit didn’t have any moulded onto the seats or have seatbelts decals. Apart from these belts everything else was from the box and it turns out very nicely. Decals are included for the instruments and other displays which work very well.
Stuart Mackay says
Love the group photo of the mid century FAA machines, Dave!
The Gannet looks superb!
Rob Ruscoe says
Great build Dave.
I was fortunate to note the extra weight tray which Airfix fail to mention in the instructions. I can report this holds enough to prevent tail sitting.
Rob.R