The Build
As is usual, construction begins with the interior. Special Hobby have provided a lot of detail in the rear cabin with a full radio stack, oxygen bottles, ammunition stowage, radio Op/gunner’s seat and rear bulkhead. Unfortunately there is only a very small window, either side of the fuselage so, unless you own an endoscope, all this lovely detail will not be visible when the fuselage is closed up. I therefore took the easy option and left it all out. The cockpit, which will be visible through the extensive nose glazing, is a little more sparse. To the single piece floor there are two seats, two control columns and rudder pedals (the observer’s position forward of the pilot also has a set of flying controls), a pedestal for the engine controls and an elevator trim wheel.
Various small details and levers are represented in PE along with the seat belts. The interior was painted with XF-71 Cockpit Green with the details picked out in what I thought were appropriate colours. The pilot’s instrument panel is a single styrene part which has nicely raised detail. This was painted Nato Black before a dry brushing with silver and white brought the detail to life.
Before bringing the fuselage halves together, lightly sand the joining surfaces to remove any roughness. There is a tailwheel bay to cement to one side along with the completed floors and a turret ring. As already mentioned, there are no locating pins so, after a dry fit revealed everything would close up okay, I used strips of Tamiya tape to hold the two halves together. The two sides actually come together accurately. Starting with the fin, I now ran Tamiya Extra-Thin cement into the join and re-taped. I continued with the spine up to the turret recess ensuring the seam was aligned accurately before re-taping. This method was continued until the entire upper fuselage was joined. I now put the fuselage to one side for 24 hours to allow the cement to fully cure before doing the same to the lower seam. By using this staged method, the result, on removing the tape, were seams that needed the minimum of clean up.
Construction of the wings is quite straightforward. Each one comprises two halves which only need the main undercarriage bays and a landing light backing plate to be attached before cementing together. Sprue gates are easily cleaned up and with the mating surfaces lightly sanded the wing halves come together nicely using the same method as the fuselage. The same ease of joining applied to the tail planes. The flying control surfaces are not provided as separate parts and are moulded in a neutral position. The wings have a single tab each to aid in locating to the fuselage. These are a slightly loose fit so care is needed to achieve what looks to be the correct dihedral angle before committing to glue. I used the kit box top with some polystyrene as a jig to achieve this. A gap-free join on the upper surface each side was the result although there were slight gaps on the underside join. A smear of Tamiya putty was required here. The tail planes also required some filler both on upper and lower seams.
Whilst the airframe was curing, I now started to build up the engines. Each one consists of a crankcase with fourteen individual cylinders to attach. All these parts are in the bag of resin components and need removing from their casting blocks with a razor saw before a careful clean up with a sharp blade and a sanding stick.
For those modellers who are new to resin, be aware that any dust produced during this process is harmful if inhaled. I always wet the parts with water, before cutting or sanding, to keep the dust down but also always wear an appropriate mask for protection. The advantage of resin, of course, is that much finer detail can be achieved with this medium. Twenty eight cylinders to attach to two crankcases may seem a chore but, because we need to use cyano with resin which ‘bites’ quickly, this task was achieved in about 30 minutes. If you want more detail on your engines you can add pushrod tubes to the front seven cylinders with stretched sprue or the like. The engine cowlings each consist of two halves with an intake ring to add to the front. There are also two inserts which form the ducts of the oil cooler on the bottom and the upper carburettor air intake. These assemblies build up without problems as long as a modicum of care is taken with alignment. The engine assemblies were actually left off the model until the painting was completed but I will cover their attachment here. Each engine has a circular stub on the rear which is designed to insert into the hole provided on the front of the nacelle moulded into each wing. This hole is way too small and needed attacking with my Dremel to enlarge it. You can’t get a file in to do this as the front of the undercarriage bay roof is just behind the hole. Using power tools on plastic is always a bit fraught I think but, take it steady with frequent test fitting, and a tolerance fit can be achieved. Make sure the engine sits correctly as any misalignment will be obvious when the propeller is added.
After this, the cowlings slip over the engines nicely and are cemented in place.
Now for those multi-paned transparencies. The clear parts were given the usual dip in pledge to improve their clarity and add protection. The nose glazing is made up of two parts and the cockpit canopy is a single piece. To get a reasonable fit requires a lot of careful sanding and test fitting. When everything fits snugly it can be fixed in place with the adhesive of your choice. I used a sparing amount of cyano on the canopy and upper nose glazing but chose Crystal Clear for the nosepiece. This allowed a bit of ‘wriggle’ time to ensure correct alignment. When dry I applied the Montex masks which were included in the kit. These were easy to position and seemed to adhere well except for a couple on the nose.
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