Fanes

Great work with the panel lines and the rivets - it looks a lot better than what's there out of th box! I shimmed the airbrake with some sheet to get it flush, but you're absolutely right - they are clearly undersized. What a piece of garbage in some places... Thrilled to see what you will do on the intakes.

Thanks John - I fear that it will take some time to complete the camera bay since there's still a lot to scratch. Mostly the camera installation and the interior of the access door. I can't wait to spray some pink paint Thanks a lot Kent - i need to revisit your Mosquito to build to get some inspiration for the camera mounting! No pictures as of today even though I spent an entire evening fiddling with the seatbelts. I'm not a 100% happy with the eduard fabric (HGW?) belts. I guess the next Spit will get Radu's Sutton belts. Regards Joachim

The fuselage is finally closed up but I'll wait with shooting any pictures until I have filled and sanded all the imperfections (read treneches). Something nice happened, too: I recieved the small bits from videoaviation and additionall to the two goodies I ordered, there was a small gift as well. That's incredibly generous - kudos to videoaviation!

Thank you very much Mark! Aaron - I must admit that your beautiful Spits had something to do with it

It's almost been half a year and I finally pulled the Spit back from the SoD. The cockpit recieved its dark green wash and a flat coat. The IP is finally finished with the instrument glasses made from clear acetate. How could I evere live without a punch and die? Stay tuned for more progress on the camera assembly. I decided to scratch the camera cradle and leave the camera compartment wide open. Cheers Joachim

The scoops look brilliant Max - great worksmanship!

A lot of progress but not much is worth taking a photo - except you want to see me filling and sanding seams.. Just the nice bits for today. The elctronic bay is glued into place and has recieved a wash + flat cloat During installing I managed to break of the ejection seat handles, so I will reinstall them with the final bits after painting. To get the fuselage ready I have to install the engine (completely invisible) and the nozzle. After playing with my Alclads (and Radu's brilliant spatter stencil) the brassin nozzle looked like this: Scrolling through pictures of the MTU engine I noticed that the nozzle was quite blotchy and everythin but uniformly coloured. Additionaly the recessed parts were of a lighter shade. I'm quite happy with the outcome. After a quick wash with dark brown (almost black) oil colour: And a closeup of the left part. The cone behind the flamholder shows a brownhish wheatering in most pictures so I added some burnt sienna oils. That's it for now - I'll head back to the bench to some more sanding. Unfortunately the new pylons from videoaviation arrived today while I wasn't at home. Two more days of patience

Without any doubt it'll be a Do 17!

Thank you very much Mike! I have your build bookmarked as a reference for quite some time but must have scrolled past the pylons. Well, I've already ordered the pylons today morning along with the intake covers which will provide a nice contrast to the bluegrey.

A quick update: Landing gear and wheel wells painted and ready for a subtle wash. Fast forward multiple hours - the cockpits and and wheel well are now in place and the fuselage is ready for glue. Getting everything in place was scary as hell. Fit is sometimes vague (rear cockpit tub) and in other places extremly tight (sidewalls vs. rear walls). I was really close to binning the whloe thing but I guess from now on it'll be easy. Now I still need to tackle the wing pylons which don't fit at all. Should I get the resin replacements from videoavaiation?

In order to button up the fuselage the wheel well and the main landing gear have to go in first. Since I want to finish the zipper in the near future, there's no attempt to add detail to the wells. The only things added: tow rings and brake lines. Most time consuming is and was the clean-up of all the parts. I really miss a Tamigawa kit right now! Something shiny to finish the post - one layer of Alclad aluminium on the brassin rims

I finally found the patience to add the seatbelts to the second ejection seat. Without futher ado (read: complaining), here's the finished cockpits: And from above - yes the ejection handles aren`t the same size... Jumping multiple steps forward I did my first dry fit of the completed pits in the fuselage. I had to scrape some material from the rear walls but mostly I'm happy that it fits! Pleas excuse the mess on my bench and take one more look at the cockpit One more thing to note: the starboard wing was a perfect fit while the port one needed a 0.5mm shim to get a proper anhedral. I finally start to see some light at the end of the tunnel and might eventually finish the zipper in time.

Fantastic progress Sean! Take your time for the seatbelts. They require a lot of patience since they are way too rigid. I really like how the gear bays have turned out - it's about time that I tackle mine, too.

Max - that's fantastic progress!

Shhhht Lothar - no one needs to know that I'm crazy (mumbling to the kits in his stash: no, we're not crazy) As a compensation, I'm going to spend the whole day cycling today