The nose machine gun and cannon barrels are plastic in the kit with decals for the cooling holes. This actually looks ok but I opted to replace them with brass barrels from Master. You still need to remove the barrels from their bases and fix the bases into the nose as the metal replacements will glue onto to these later on in the build.
The main wheel bays are beautifully detailed and can be painted up as individual parts before being assembled together. I would recommend that you do not attach the strut and door supports at this point as they are prone to damage. As mentioned before there are metal balls that sit in cups in front of the bays to add additional weight to stop the kit tail sitting.
The assembled booms can then be attached to the fuselage. In previous kits this has been as weak point due to poor alignment but Tamiya have nailed this as the fit is so good everything just lines up perfectly and gap-free.
The engine front air intakes slot into the booms. The side radiators have decals for the faces which are more than adequate seeing as they are hardly seen on the finished model. Do take care when assembling the radiator covers as it’s easy to misalign them – I did and I needed to do some sanding and re-scribing – my fault!!
Rick says
That’s another awesome model Dave. I’m going to have to give the Maskol chipping a go, it’s a very realistic effect. Regards Rick
Bill Michaels says
Beautiful build! I love the maskol effect with the aluminum paint underneath- that is an idea I am definitely going to use!
One thing I noticed- using the decals for the red warnings near the cockpit afterwards makes them look like they were reapplied freshly on top of the weathered aircraft. (Did they do that? I have no idea.). If not, I wonder if there is a way to make them look equally weathered? Would dabbing little bits of aluminum on them work?
Bill Michaels says
Please understand that my above comment is not meant as a criticism of the build. I’m totally impressed with the results, and will use this article ( with the wonderfully explicit descriptions of the techniques used) on my own effort, and will be pleased with a result that is half as nice. I am asking the above question because I am unsure of what the usual practice was, and also wondering if my idea is a. Not historical; and b. Bound to fail…
davecoward says
Hi Bill,
No issues with your remarks. My thinking was the “NO STEP” on the sliding windows would have been less worn as the whole idea was not to step on them, the ones below would have been a lot more prone to “chipping” with boot toes as they were lower down.
That said in hindsight I would have applied the lower “NO STEP” decals and over wing fuel tank marking before removing the Maskol. This would have given them more consistent wear with the background as the decals over the Maskol would come off when the Maskol was removed giving a consistent wear pattern with the camouflage.
chipping.
Hope this explains my thinking Dave