zaxos345

Good morning gents, it has been 3 months since my last post of ''my lady''. Work was a bit slow but i managed to finish the build!!
I glued everithing together, i added the vector tail as well...
 

 

 
While the glue was curing i dealt with the cowling flaps and propeller...
 

 





 
You can see the small numerals on on wing...as per original!!
I sand and mask for the primer...
 



 
I primered her and paint the red parts...
 

 
I used my own masks for the insingia. I measured, masked and painted them...as you wii see, as in my previous build, 1/32 P-51D, i followed a different approach in my bare metal builds. I paint everyting in front of the bare metal to mnimize the masking over it.
 





 



 
I masked the isignia, measure and painted the invasion stripes. I dont like the brushed ones someone try to depict!!
One other thing is that the position of the invasion stripes in this FG, the 56th, did not follow the rules...that is why you see the bomb rack painted black!! Also the width of the stripes was not the same.... so a little work and study was nessecery to be as accurate as i could!!!
 

 









 
Also the antiglare panel...
 



 
I masked everyting (the negative part of my approach) and painted the bare metal color, this time SM-208 Super Duralumin from Mr. Color!!! Really impressed and robust, i thing it will be my go for the my next bare metal projects!!!
 











 
Things are really different in real life...it seems to my eyes like real shine bare metal. The shine will drop to more realist patina with the upcoming treatment as you will see.
Next it was time for the fuselage codes and serial... I had some troubles with ''Z'', vilyl did not want to comfom properly so i used some kind of kabuki paper from migammo.







 







 
I let everything to set and i weathered the engine and painted and weathered the gear legs.
 











 
I glued the engine and cowling on the fuselage...
 





 
Gloss varnish and the rest of the decals and small stencils. I had the HGW wet transfers but they were totally useless, they seemed to have no film on them, so i used the stencils from The techmod decal sheet.
 





 
Gloss varnish, oil washes and weathering...
 









 I did not go crazy with the weathering on her, i tried to follow the pics i had in hand.
 







 
some chipping...
 





 
And finally i assembled everything together...
 

 







 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Thanks a lot for following me on this journey!!
I would love your feedback and remarks.
 
John

...Next, wheel wells. I wanted to try and show all the piping in there.
Before put the final details I decided to glue the upper wings to the fuselage in order to get as perfect joint as I could as well as to have the room to finalize the piping order.
 



 









 
wheels...



 
landing gear doors
 





 
bombs...
 





 
wing tank...
 





 
recognition lights, i deepen them, paint them chrome, i put clear uv resin on top and painted them with clears.
 



 
That is all for now guys, sorry for the long post!!!!
Hope you like her so far, feel free for any notes, remarks!!!
 
John

Good morning gents,
New project on the bench, Tamiya’s legendary P-47D Razorback as P-47D-22 ‘’Silver Lady’’
P-47D 42-26044 “Silver Lady” HV-Z (underlined Z indicates second time HV-Z was used) was first flown in combat by Capt. James Carter and Major Les Smith of the 61st FS/56th FG, Boxted, England 1944. In May 1944 Smith returned to the U.S. and the “Silver Lady” was flown by many notable pilots. Gabreski scored four of his victories with 42-26044, other pilots were J. Jure, J. Rankin, C. Thomton, and M. Gladych. In August 1944 “Silver Lady” was fitted with a Malcolm hood and flown 21 times by Witold Lanowski.
 

 

 


 
The model and some aftermarket
 

 

 



 


 
Silver Lady was a P-47D-22-RE so there are some things – variations to take into account through the build!
Many thanks to Darrel Thomas a.k.a. Tbolt for all the provided info!!
Some of them, you can see here:
https://www.368thfightergroup.com/P-47-2.html
 
-        Engine R-2800-59 (with turtle mags) with hamilton propeller governor

 
-        Hamilton propeller
 

-        Cockpit differences:
-New radio installation for operation in Europe
-late type of trim control unit
-Rectangular style of throttle lever
-bomb and tank release panel left of pilot’s seat
- second fuel selector valve on the floor was added when the wing pylons were added. It allow selection of the belly or left or right wing tanks when the other selector is selected to "external"



 







 
-Especially for the Silver Lady, British MkII gun sight without sight ring.
Having all those in mind and searchingfor a solution I found out that True details produce 2 different versions for the tamiya, one from from C to D-11 and another from D-15 to D-28.
I chose the latter! I changed the position of the bomb and tank release panel as it was wrong. Paint and whethered everything.
 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 
Before gluing the cockpit in the fuselage I decided to rivet all the aircraft.





 
I placed the cockpit into position and closed the fuselage
 







 
Regarding the engine, I could not find the proper turtle mags so I found a 3d design of the engine, I doawload it, and 3d printed it after making some changes!
 





 



 
.....

Thanks for the comments!
 
The build has crept to a crawl as I'll be taking a break soon.  The rudder has been glued onto the tail.

 
 

The main thing that I worked on this week was this joint between the wing bottom and fuselage.  There was a slight gap here so I've welded a segment of stretched sprue in the gap as a filler, keeping mind that the joint will be re-scribed after cleanup.

 
 

After sanding, the joint was rescribed and rivet detail restored.  Some new rivets have been added to the wing bottom in this area but have not been highlighted with a wash so they're hard to see.

 
 

Tomorrow I'll be leaving on a medical mission to Mozambique so this build will be on hiatus for about two weeks.  See you when I return!

The riveted parts were washed with soapy water to remove as much of the pastel wash and sanding dust from the rivet holes and panel lines.

 

I can now start to assemble the previously painted cockpit components and install them within the fuselage.

 

Here is the Aires instrument panel sans gun sight glued onto the front bulkhead.



 

The seat and rear bulkhead were glued in next.  The sidewalls have been temporarily taped into place to serve as position guides for the front and rear bulkheads but I didn't want to glue them in yet as I am concerned that the top edges of the sidewalls may not sit flush against the fuselage interior.

 

After placing the cockpit tub between the fuselage sides, I can see that there is no problem with the starboard sidewall so I can glue that one into place.

 

However, the top edge of the port sidewall does protrude too far from the fuselage interior.  This one is glued into place with less glue, hopefully giving it enough flexibility for me to push the sidewall onto the inside of the fuselage.

 
The cockpit tub is then glued into the port fuselage side, with lots of CA glue on the sidewall so I can stick it into place.

 

After that, I can glue the fuselage sides together, using Tamiya Extra Thin cement.  As typical on these aircraft models, the view into the cockpit goes bye-bye.









 

Just awesome John!!!!

Just awesome John!!!!

Riding the momentum, I finished riveting the fuselage.  This time I did things a little bit differently.  I taped the fuselage together and drew the vertical rivet lines so that the rivet lines would meet at the seams.

 

Again, the surfaces were sanded and a pastel wash was applied to check the work.



 

There were some errant rivet lines that need to be filled and re-done but I can soon move on to fitting the cockpit into the fuselage and gluing the fuselage halves together.  Just for fun, I taped the riveted components together and took some photos before the parts are cleaned off.











 
 
By the way, the wing to fuselage fit at the wing root looks great doesn't it?

Good morning gents, time to update my post with some progress on the lady.
Looking at this photo, where the arrows show, you can see that there is gap/cut, that was needed to fit the wells, but visible from the inside...
 

 
So...
 









 
I think that it worked well...
 





 
I glued the fans and weathred the intakes a bit...
 





 
Later i added some metallic details from Amurreaver set...
 





 



 

 
I glued the wells...
 





 
Everything went nearly perfect...
I attached the two halves of the upper fuselage, added some more amurreaver...and glued the fuselage parts together!!!
 

 
I dealt with join line on the wings...
 





 
and with the exhaust pipes and nozzles...
 















 
I added the ecm bumbs....as my F-14A was a late one (a fried of mine provided me some resin ones)
 



 
Next it was time to add some detail to the canopy. I purchased, from my good frien Hlias from 48ers, the canopy frames and cockpit mirrors from 'Model on Details'
 





 
I masked the canopy, glued the details carefully and paint and weathered everything. The detail on the canopy is amazing!!!
 















 
After that it was time for the weapons. I will use 1 AIM-54C, 2 AIM-7F sparrows and 2 AIM-9L
 









 
Thats all for now, a lot of masking ahead!! Next post with painting!!!
Hope you like what you see!!!!
Any commnet is more than welcome!!!
 
John
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Here's the problem with the double row riveter out of the box.  I want the two wheels to rotate in unison, so I took the tool apart and used CA glue to fuse the two wheels together.  It was a surprisingly fiddly affair trying to get the points on the two wheels lined up.  The photo is obviously BEFORE the modification.

 

After that fix, I was able to get on with the riveting of the upper wings.  The lines I had drawn a few days ago were traced over with either the single Galaxy Tool riveter or the new double line rivet tool.

 

Here are the riveted wings after sanding and a liberal coat of brown pastel wash.





 

A simple tip for those of you that have the Galaxy Tool rivet tool. After gouging countless lines into the model by accident, I finally modified the tool to help prevent this.



 

Oh, and I added shims to the outboard ends of the flaps to eliminate the gaps.

 

Good morning gents, time to update my post with some progress on the lady.
Looking at this photo, where the arrows show, you can see that there is gap/cut, that was needed to fit the wells, but visible from the inside...
 

 
So...
 









 
I think that it worked well...
 





 
I glued the fans and weathred the intakes a bit...
 





 
Later i added some metallic details from Amurreaver set...
 





 



 

 
I glued the wells...
 





 
Everything went nearly perfect...
I attached the two halves of the upper fuselage, added some more amurreaver...and glued the fuselage parts together!!!
 

 
I dealt with join line on the wings...
 





 
and with the exhaust pipes and nozzles...
 















 
I added the ecm bumbs....as my F-14A was a late one (a fried of mine provided me some resin ones)
 



 
Next it was time to add some detail to the canopy. I purchased, from my good frien Hlias from 48ers, the canopy frames and cockpit mirrors from 'Model on Details'
 





 
I masked the canopy, glued the details carefully and paint and weathered everything. The detail on the canopy is amazing!!!
 















 
After that it was time for the weapons. I will use 1 AIM-54C, 2 AIM-7F sparrows and 2 AIM-9L
 









 
Thats all for now, a lot of masking ahead!! Next post with painting!!!
Hope you like what you see!!!!
Any commnet is more than welcome!!!
 
John
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Good morning gents, new project on the bench!!! Tamiya's 1/48th scale F-14A as a VF-41 black Aces bird during Opertion Desert Storm on board USS Theodore Roosevelt 1991 and of course the one with the nose art ''Queen of Spades''
I have been working on her for some time now.....





 
It is a late -A model,  but overall FS 16440 Light gull grey color, so i need it some extras, like late beaver tail, later chin pod, ecm antennas etc.
I have also aquired some after markets....
 



 



 
IMHO the best seats out there from Galaxy models...

And some PE details from Amur reaver


 
I started detailing and painting the brassin cockpit from Eduard which is very crispy detailed!!
 















 



 
Painting the seat, they are in medioum stage, more work to be done later...







 
I had finshed the cockpit and i had to find a way to combine the brassin cockpit with the MCC nose gear well. The nose gear well is designed to fit under the cockpit tub but without the support provided by tamiya. It was a bit difficult to find the accurate position of the cockpit without it. First i made a dry fit with the kit components in order to have an idea and took some some guide photoes for later...
 





 
Later i glued the support to the one side of the fuselage, placed the brassin cockpit on it, made a lot of dry fits and finally glued the cockpit to this one side. I cut out the support, removed it, dryfitted the nose gear as well as all the components (wind screen etc.) and when i was sure about it I glued the other side of the fuselage only to the cockpit sides, not the two fuselage parts yet. I repeated the dry fit placing all the components again and later i glued the two fuselage halves together.
 











 
I painted the nose gear wheel well and followed John's (a.k.a. Thunnus) way to fit the nose gear leg!! (the only way it would fit inside without breaking it)
 

 

 
Detail panting on both of them, washed, placed permantly inside the well and glued the wheel well in position under the cockpit.
 












 
 
The white color is Mr. Color GX-2 the best for this work!!!!
Here with the rest of the leg dry fitted...
 





 
I managed to break the lower portion of the gear while cleaning it, but due to the excellent after sale service from the 48ers i managed to aucuire a new one!!!
 





 
I placed the late chin pod from quicboost...
 



 
placed some details in the cockpit...
 

 
wind screen detaing and painting...
 





 
placed some details on the fuselage from amur reaver as well as detials inside the foot steps and glued everything together...
 









 
I continued painting the rest of the wheel wells and landing gear components...
 









 
 





 





 
Next i dry fitted the main gear wheel wells everything was good but something was streching the main body of the aircraft out....
I finally cale out that it was due the screw heads prodruding and pushing the well a bit upwards....so i filled the suckers out!!!
 







 
and everything came to nearly perfet fit!!!
 





 
A lot of work ahead, thanks for watching!!!!
 
John
 
 
 

Thank you Kenneth!  I'm glad you are enjoying the process!
 
 
Thank you for those kind words, Stan!  I really enjoy sharing my builds here and I'm glad that you find my builds useful.
 
 
Thank you very much!  
 
 
I was really motivated to crank out an update on the riveting for the wing tops but I hit a snag when I found out the wheels on the double row rivet tool are not "synched".  They rotate independent of each other, which is not useful to me in this situation.  I tried a stop-gap measure of leaking some CA glue into the wheel but that didn't have much effect.  So I'm going to take it apart and glue the two wheels to each other.  But the hex nut on the tool is really small and I've had to order a small socket wrench.  The tool is due from Amazon tomorrow so the riveting will have to wait!
 

Good morning gents, time to update my post with some progress on the lady.
Looking at this photo, where the arrows show, you can see that there is gap/cut, that was needed to fit the wells, but visible from the inside...
 

 
So...
 









 
I think that it worked well...
 





 
I glued the fans and weathred the intakes a bit...
 





 
Later i added some metallic details from Amurreaver set...
 





 



 

 
I glued the wells...
 





 
Everything went nearly perfect...
I attached the two halves of the upper fuselage, added some more amurreaver...and glued the fuselage parts together!!!
 

 
I dealt with join line on the wings...
 





 
and with the exhaust pipes and nozzles...
 















 
I added the ecm bumbs....as my F-14A was a late one (a fried of mine provided me some resin ones)
 



 
Next it was time to add some detail to the canopy. I purchased, from my good frien Hlias from 48ers, the canopy frames and cockpit mirrors from 'Model on Details'
 





 
I masked the canopy, glued the details carefully and paint and weathered everything. The detail on the canopy is amazing!!!
 















 
After that it was time for the weapons. I will use 1 AIM-54C, 2 AIM-7F sparrows and 2 AIM-9L
 









 
Thats all for now, a lot of masking ahead!! Next post with painting!!!
Hope you like what you see!!!!
Any commnet is more than welcome!!!
 
John
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Good morning gents, time to update my post with some progress on the lady.
Looking at this photo, where the arrows show, you can see that there is gap/cut, that was needed to fit the wells, but visible from the inside...
 

 
So...
 









 
I think that it worked well...
 





 
I glued the fans and weathred the intakes a bit...
 





 
Later i added some metallic details from Amurreaver set...
 





 



 

 
I glued the wells...
 





 
Everything went nearly perfect...
I attached the two halves of the upper fuselage, added some more amurreaver...and glued the fuselage parts together!!!
 

 
I dealt with join line on the wings...
 





 
and with the exhaust pipes and nozzles...
 















 
I added the ecm bumbs....as my F-14A was a late one (a fried of mine provided me some resin ones)
 



 
Next it was time to add some detail to the canopy. I purchased, from my good frien Hlias from 48ers, the canopy frames and cockpit mirrors from 'Model on Details'
 





 
I masked the canopy, glued the details carefully and paint and weathered everything. The detail on the canopy is amazing!!!
 















 
After that it was time for the weapons. I will use 1 AIM-54C, 2 AIM-7F sparrows and 2 AIM-9L
 









 
Thats all for now, a lot of masking ahead!! Next post with painting!!!
Hope you like what you see!!!!
Any commnet is more than welcome!!!
 
John
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

This is REALLY inspiring me to get mine out... very well done and some great tips you're sharing. Thank you!

I won't go anywhere near as nuts on mine as you're taking this, but mine will also be VF-41, old colors though. Excellent job so far, I really like it. 

Good morning gents, time to update my post with some progress on the lady.
Looking at this photo, where the arrows show, you can see that there is gap/cut, that was needed to fit the wells, but visible from the inside...
 

 
So...
 









 
I think that it worked well...
 





 
I glued the fans and weathred the intakes a bit...
 





 
Later i added some metallic details from Amurreaver set...
 





 



 

 
I glued the wells...
 





 
Everything went nearly perfect...
I attached the two halves of the upper fuselage, added some more amurreaver...and glued the fuselage parts together!!!
 

 
I dealt with join line on the wings...
 





 
and with the exhaust pipes and nozzles...
 















 
I added the ecm bumbs....as my F-14A was a late one (a fried of mine provided me some resin ones)
 



 
Next it was time to add some detail to the canopy. I purchased, from my good frien Hlias from 48ers, the canopy frames and cockpit mirrors from 'Model on Details'
 





 
I masked the canopy, glued the details carefully and paint and weathered everything. The detail on the canopy is amazing!!!
 















 
After that it was time for the weapons. I will use 1 AIM-54C, 2 AIM-7F sparrows and 2 AIM-9L
 









 
Thats all for now, a lot of masking ahead!! Next post with painting!!!
Hope you like what you see!!!!
Any commnet is more than welcome!!!
 
John
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Good morning gents, time to update my post with some progress on the lady.
Looking at this photo, where the arrows show, you can see that there is gap/cut, that was needed to fit the wells, but visible from the inside...
 

 
So...
 









 
I think that it worked well...
 





 
I glued the fans and weathred the intakes a bit...
 





 
Later i added some metallic details from Amurreaver set...
 





 



 

 
I glued the wells...
 





 
Everything went nearly perfect...
I attached the two halves of the upper fuselage, added some more amurreaver...and glued the fuselage parts together!!!
 

 
I dealt with join line on the wings...
 





 
and with the exhaust pipes and nozzles...
 















 
I added the ecm bumbs....as my F-14A was a late one (a fried of mine provided me some resin ones)
 



 
Next it was time to add some detail to the canopy. I purchased, from my good frien Hlias from 48ers, the canopy frames and cockpit mirrors from 'Model on Details'
 





 
I masked the canopy, glued the details carefully and paint and weathered everything. The detail on the canopy is amazing!!!
 















 
After that it was time for the weapons. I will use 1 AIM-54C, 2 AIM-7F sparrows and 2 AIM-9L
 









 
Thats all for now, a lot of masking ahead!! Next post with painting!!!
Hope you like what you see!!!!
Any commnet is more than welcome!!!
 
John
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Good morning gents, time to update my post with some progress on the lady.
Looking at this photo, where the arrows show, you can see that there is gap/cut, that was needed to fit the wells, but visible from the inside...
 

 
So...
 









 
I think that it worked well...
 





 
I glued the fans and weathred the intakes a bit...
 





 
Later i added some metallic details from Amurreaver set...
 





 



 

 
I glued the wells...
 





 
Everything went nearly perfect...
I attached the two halves of the upper fuselage, added some more amurreaver...and glued the fuselage parts together!!!
 

 
I dealt with join line on the wings...
 





 
and with the exhaust pipes and nozzles...
 















 
I added the ecm bumbs....as my F-14A was a late one (a fried of mine provided me some resin ones)
 



 
Next it was time to add some detail to the canopy. I purchased, from my good frien Hlias from 48ers, the canopy frames and cockpit mirrors from 'Model on Details'
 





 
I masked the canopy, glued the details carefully and paint and weathered everything. The detail on the canopy is amazing!!!
 















 
After that it was time for the weapons. I will use 1 AIM-54C, 2 AIM-7F sparrows and 2 AIM-9L
 









 
Thats all for now, a lot of masking ahead!! Next post with painting!!!
Hope you like what you see!!!!
Any commnet is more than welcome!!!
 
John
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thank Matt!  I'm not sure what grit the sanding stick was but it was on the coarser side.
 
The prop blades and the spinner have been given some salt weathering.  I've also used some pastels to create streak marks on the spinner but they aren't very noticeable in the pics.










 

Thank you Dennis!  I found it important to use soft lead wire and to make sure that glue connection between the ring and the wires was solid.
 
 
Thank you!
 
 
Thanks Matt!  Appreciate the comments!
 
 
I'm waiting for a new rivet tool to arrive on Monday before I start that particular adventure.  So filling in the days with minor work.  Like fabricating a new pitot tube using 1.0mm, 0.8mm and 0.6mm brass tubing.




The short section of 0.8mm tubing will simply be a sleeve so that the 0.6mm slides into the 1.0mm without play and therefore straight.




The ends of the both tubes are beveled by chucking the pieces into my rotary tool and lightly grinding the tip at the appropriate angle on a sanding stick.





Instead of using the kit-supplied decals for the yellow markings on the prop blades, I've made a custom mask to paint them.  The yellow is a 4:1 mix of Tamiya Yellow and Tamiya Orange.




The spinner and blades were painted in the same green color, which was a 4:1 mix of Mr Hobby Aqueous RLM82 Light Green and Tamiya Flat White.  Both the spinner and blades have been lightly chipped.  I've added an additional joint on the spinner along with some rivets.  Painting is done but the weathering is not.

 

Thank you sir!  Attention to detail is easier when I do things really slow and this build is going slow, due to other distractions at home.
 
 
I use Bob Smith Industries (BSI) IC-2000 Tire Glue.
 
 
Thank you Kevin!
 
 
Thanks Dennis!  I try to be neat and tidy, especially when presenting progress on my builds.
 
 
 
Thanks John!  Sometimes I'll build and paint stuff that ultimately gets covered.  Sometimes I don't.  Depends on how I feel!
 
 
See above!  
 
 
Thank you!  No dramas on this build, which speaks to the quality of this Hasegawa kit.  Can't really go wrong with any of the Hasegawa WW2 Japanese 1/32 subjects.
 
 
Thanks Tom!
 
I worked on the engine this week. It's a not super-detailed out of the box but decent enough given the limited visibility from the front. The only thing I'm adding here is a hydraulic line at the bottom of the crankcase and some ignition wiring. In actuality, the 18-cylinder Homare engine had 36 ignition leads, two for each cylinder. I decided to forgo the leads that attach to the back of the cylinders.  Oh yeah, and I've added some spark plug connectors from Anyz to the front of each cylinder.

 

The engine components were painted separately.

 

After painting, the engine was glued together.



 

The wiring was carefully bent and attached to the spark plug connectors.

 

 

Even though the wires (which were lead) were primed with Mr Primer Surfacer, lots of paint cracked off during the bending process so the wires were touched up with paint.

 

Here is the view of the completed engine within the cowling.

 

Engine's done so I can now move on to something else.

 

That one too!!!! Awesome!!!!
 
John

Thank you for stopping by, Troy!
 
 
Thank you!  Hope you didn't wait too long!
 
 
Thanks Mike!  Be that as it may, I am electing to keep the right hand electrical box in place.  Not only was it a pain in the butt to hand paint but I didn't think the comments in  Aero Detail 24 rules it out conclusively.  It says, "The electrical box visible to the lower right of the panel, as well as the foot bar, are not original equipment."  If we assume that there was some sort of foot bar on the original aircraft, we can also assume that an electrical box may have been there also. 
 
 
Thanks Matt!  The sidewalls pinch in from bottom to top so view into the cockpit will be somewhat limited..
 
 After the passing the milestone of getting the cockpit painted, I've kinda stalled on the build, not looking forward to the next major step, which would be applying rivets.  Unlike German aircraft, Japanese aircraft seem to have a more complicated and random pattern to their rivet lines.  I'll get there eventually but it takes some discipline and momentum to get that done.  So... in the meantime, I've been fiddling with little things here and there.


The four prop blades are separate and plug into a prop hub that houses a plastic grommet to hold the prop in place.  The surface of the prop blades had some irregularities and needed some sanding.



The attachment peg of the blades is keyed so the pitch angle of each blade is uniform.



The back of the some of the blades had a sink mark that needed to be filled with black CA glue.



Looking forward to the Homare radial engine, I'm looking at the view into the engine from the front.  The Eduard Exterior set has a bunch of detail parts but the majority of them are on the top of the cylinders and I don't think these additions will be visible so I'm leaning towards leaving those off.



The view into the engine compartment is even more limited with the prop in place.  I may simplify things further by only doing half of the ignition wires (to the fronts of each cylinder only).



The barrel openings for the engine mounted guns are deep depressions (not actual holes).



I decided to drill out the openings and place short sections of brass tubing to represent the gun barrels.



Next I jumped over to the landing gear.  The Eduard Exterior provides etched faces for the interior sides of the landing gear covers.  Probably won't be very visible but its a very easy addition.




The exterior sides have been riveted.  I blew out a hole in one of the covers trying to restore a circular fastener, which has since been repaired.



The inner landing gear doors has a similar PE option.



But I decided to keep the molded detail in place and just add the u-channels to the kit part.



The Eduard Exterior set also includes brake lines for the landing gear legs but being flat PE pieces, I doubt that I could get an acceptable result.  Instead, I made my own brake lines using copper wire attached to the leg using little sections of brass tubing and thin strips of aluminum tape.



The landing gear components were then given a coat of primer (Mr Primer Surfacer 1000).  Although I had a couple of resin options for the main wheels (MasterCasters and Kopecky), I thought the kit wheels looked the best so I went with them.



You can see the repaired hole on the exterior side, which have been riveted.