spacewolf

Had no clue... thanks for posting !!

The Ammo can, floor and rear panel glued in place.. I think it's looking not bad. That's it for this week ! Tune in next time to see if I've lost it entirely !! Cheers

The ammo cans right in front of the pilot has a few issues. There is an instrument face molded on the lower edge and a panel part to glue onto it.. both are wrong for the aircraft but match up with pics I found of reproduction aircraft... I filled the pin holes by filling with stretched sprue and cut off the instrument face. Painted silver I swirled the paint a bit with a small stiff brush to get the brushed aluminum look.. Next detail required more stretched sprue.. wrapped around a mini file handle.. Nipped off.... And glued in place... this cockpit will be big enough the stiffening rigging will be very visible so the supports have to be there !!

Next up was the lacing.. brown thread from the sewing kit... Looks not bad and MUCH better than just leaving it as per the kit !

Working on the controls/ stick.. added in the missing aileron horns using sheet stock.. The oils really bring out the wood effect. Semi gloss black for the metal parts.. Test fitting showed no problems... The compass decal settled down after several applications of sol/ set and fasteners added to the rudder peddle heel scuff pads

On to the interior ! The kit gives you the tube structure.. undersized a bit of course to fit inside the fuse shell. It goes together easily and I had no issue with warps. First bit of extra detailing.. the canvas panel behind the seat. Nicely detailed but a few issues. As molded the stiffening cross wires are represented on the 'forward' face which is wrong, they are behind it. Also there are 3 push pin divots (sanded away in the pic). The easy fix for all this is... turn the sucker 180 degree's ! Cut off the bar and reglue it on the back face and all problems are solved ! Me being me.. those molded holes and lacing had to be redone, so out with my pin vice, a tiny drill and voila !.. cause it's gotta look better !! A bit of paint, my own mix for the linen and the part is ready...

Another week and the silliness is building !... or is it me ?..... anyhoo... I've decided to do the famous F1 presented to Voss... but I'm sneakily going to avoid all the cowling/ color controversy by doing it as it was presented to him.. BEFORE it did or did not get painted in his personal/ Sqn colors !! The first thing was the horizontal stab.. a curved leading edge had to be added to the DR 1 kit part... cut from sheet... A bit of filler, glue, putty and gentle sanding... But as you can see the kit has a problem here.. the seam is shown for the elevator but it's not continued forward to the leading edge... if one wants to go up or down this 'could' be an issue... .. Well, I wanted to separate the elevator and have the controls droop a bit so the trusty razor saw and exacto blades came in handy... I added on the kit supplied control horns but didn't realize till I took the pic the nearer one is backwards.. going to have to fix that...Also added a bit of scrap sheet to represent the hinge.

From my experience it is a bit overpriced but an 'honest' kit.. no pretensions of Wingnuts or even Roden. A simple basic kit that tends to draw you in and want to detail it to death !!

Nods, yes indeed. The Germans were noted for swapping the engines out of captured aircraft. If anyone does one of these (check the number and paint scheme) the kit supplied engine would not be an issue though often they used the capture propeller as well so that could be an issue.

Under the bed you say ?... 7/32 for the 'eyes'... 1/4 for the 'nose'.

Thanks !!

Thanks ! And yes, much fun !! Silliness too !!

Thanks Kev

Just picked up the Trumpeter BF 109 G2 Tropical kit for a very good price. Any advice on the kit and what aftermarket it might need ? Cheers Vaughn

That was so much fun and went so quickly I moved on to the cowling. It is not bad but the cooling and prop shaft holes are wrong, the raised section where the cowl meets the flat face is only shown as a engraved line... so out with the trusty books.. gotta fix this ! Plugs were cut from sheet and glued in.. The openings carefully plotted and drilled out.. one of my plugs popped out and had to be redone... The outer cowl was cut from thin sheet and glued on, then sanded flush with the curve ... Primered and with light divots from a pin vise and small drill to represent the rivets.... A bit more work to do before I'm fully happy with it but really pleased with how it's coming along thus far ! Please feel free to chime in ... any advice or insights to the build are welcome !!