So with the flap repair complete, it was time to start cutting on the wing. It’s a simple affair as Aires provides clear images on the cut lines. Just be careful when cutting the bottom wing trailing edge just behind the main gear bay. There isn’t a large residual strip of plastic there so it can bend out of shape pretty easily. Also, while you are cutting the trailing edges around the bent wing area, the wing can start flexing as it flattens on the cutting matt. Just be careful and if you can, elevate your cutting matt about the bench surface to give some overhang to the outer wing sections to prevent flattening the wing too much.
With the trailing edges cut away, clean up the cut lines and sand the inner walls of the upper and lower wing surfaces to thin the trailing edges at that point. (IMG_3440) I like to tape the wings together as I test fit the flap so you can see where more sanding and adjusting is required. There is one area that is not clearly called out in the Aires instructions that you will have to do to get the flaps to fit properly. You will need to cut back the resin wing spar area around the main gear bay back wall. If you don’t do this, the thickness of that resin wing spar will prevent the flaps from recessing inside the wings appropriately.
You can see the cutback of the wing spar highlighted in blue. Once that is complete and the spar sits flush with the new trailing edge, just CA it in place.
Getting into the Pit
With the wing surgery behind me, I started getting some of the Eduard etch in place and began the detail painting on the cockpit parts. I typically don’t use all the etch parts on my builds. Either I find certain ones a waste of effort or I get frustrated enough when fiddling with them that I just go the plastic approach. A lot of times I find that the smaller details are just more trouble than they are actually worth, especially in 1/72 scale and given how nice the Tamiya cockpits really are.
On the Eduard Zoom set, I just used the map case, instrument panel, and seat belts. I continued on with the side wall details and the rest of the cockpit components.
The technique does away with dry brushing where the application can be pretty haphazard. I especially like using this style in 1/72 given the size and the need to make things pop a little more to be seen. Although it may look a little cartoonish or overdone when you look up close, it really blends nicely when viewed from a more normal viewing distance. It’s especially useful when viewing a cockpit opening that doesn’t allow that much light in to begin with. So here’s basically what I do:
- Airbrush a light coat of black to prime the part and get dark paint into some of the areas that will be shadowed
- Follow that up with a coat of the base color
- Add an enamel wash to darken the recessed areas
- Spray another coat of the base color lightened a bit with either white, buff, light grey, or similar depending on the shade/tone of the base color
- Add some highly thinned black or dark grey to the recessed area using a fine tipped brush
- Follow that up with highlighting the high spots with a lightened shade of the base color; again, painted on with a fine tipped brush
You can get a feel for the final result and the steps involved by looking at the wheel well image. For the cockpit controls, I painted most of the boxes black and then highlighted them by lining them with a dark grey. Again, the highlights are painted on with a fine tipped brush. When this was complete, I picked out various knobs and switches using greys, whites, reds, and a yellow here and there. With the cockpit complete, I could install it in the pit and get ready to button things up. One last addition before I closed up the pit was to add the gun sight. For the reflector, I used a lens from MV Products. These are great and you’ll see how I use them for the landing and formation lights as the build continues. It’s a little over-scale and the wrong color but it gives a nice look, in my opinion, and will be more visible with the windscreen on than other methods that are typically used to highlight the gun sight reflector.
