Fanes

The Airfix Hellcat ist in the "wrong" scale and I'm more interested in a FAA F6F-3 but the photo-recon version is really tempting!!

What's a better alternative in your opinion? I tried Micro Sol (my favourite for cartograf decals) beforehand and the Hasegawa decals didn't react to that at all.

It's been a while since my last update. I was occupied with my GB entry but I'm struggling a little bit over there so my plan is to fnish this one here quickly. With the markings sprayed on, the small details painted and a gloss coat over everything it's ready for decalling. I decided to use the Hasegawa stencils and sell the Eagle Cal decals (more on that great idea later) I'm not putting on all stencils because red 2 was painted in the field and so it's quite unlikely that all stencils were repainted. For example there's nothing to be seen on the wings (no walkways, no no-steps). So it's pretty much down to the small stuff on the fuselage. The Hasegawa decals are quite thick and need a lot of Mr. Mark softer to lay down properly. But maybe that stuff is a little too hot: The small numbers just melted away. Right after taking the picture I started sanding and polishing the affected area. After repainting I can put on my spare decals. The macro picture really is unforgiving - the edges on the markings aren't visible to my naked eye. Lesson learned for my next build. So long Joachim

Since all the Bf 109 experts are on this subject right now: If the Cyber Hobby seat is fine/close to the original - what about the one from eduard? If I recall this right it's too large and misses the taper. Did anybody correct the eduard seat?

I can only repeat what has been said before: Nice work and superb painting! Maybe I have to get one or two Ju 88s as well

So - as promised: The port side is pretty much okayish. The other side, well it's more work for sure That's the best I could achieve with spreading the lower part and adjusting the wing root. Maybe it's not appearent in the pictures but it was a lot of work to get the fuselage to the point shown above. From there on it will be sanding, filler and rescribing but luckily the putty stays in the drawer! I may have to add little shims to achieve a good fit with the wings but I'll try that later.

I had your fix in mind but it didn't work out during dry fitting. In my case the upper fuselage and wing root was too wide. The belly part is now fixed at the wing root with a lot of CA and I'll work my way from there.. Pictures will follow later today!

Thanks for the pictures and the discussion guys. I'm aware of the way the horizintal stabilizer works. My plan was/is to fill the gap with the shim and engrave a line afterwards. To my eye the gap just seemed to be way too big.

I did some dry fitting on the belly after my post and oh boy - it's really bad. A small misalignment will lead to huge gaps on the wing's underside. I hoped to be able to attach the wings after painting.

Back from work - here are the promised picture of the assembly: The fuselage went together quite quickly but fit wasn't perfect. The horizontal stabilizer needed little shims - 0.2mm on the upper side and 0.4mm on the lower one - to get a decent fit. The intersection at the rear (not a panel line) still needs some filler. The fit of the rear cockpit cover (without comments): Then there's some good news - the camera window recieved its clear part and so did the coverage regulator. Beforehand there was some filling (after the black guide coat) necessary and when the PVA glue from the clear parts is hard enough, the whole section will get polished. I'll spend the next days cleaning up all the joints and panel lines on the fuselage.

Thanks a lot mates! I'm blushing because of so much praise. The fuselage was buttoned up yesterday, pictrues will follow today evening. Cheers Joachim

The cockpit is completed after some fiddling and struggling! The seatbelts are in palce and recieved a thin brown wash to highlight the details. The belts on the front seat were routed through the opening since I found two pictures in my references with that configuration. Dust and dirt was added to the cockpit floor with some MIG pigments. One shot from the rear: Two items will be put in place later on: the glass on the Revi (right before installing the wind screen) and the MG15 (at the very end of the build) If the wheater stays rainy I might get a chance to close the fuselage tomorrow!

That would be great - I didn't find any definitive informatin where the seatbelts were attached. Has anyone compared the eduard/HGW seatbelts to the ones from RB production? The way the belts are threaded through the buckles is completely different - at least to my eye.

Some short news without pictures but with a new problem: I struggled with the eduard insructions on the hip belts. So I hah a look at Radu's belts and then it struck me: There seems to be something wrong with eduard's shoulder harness. Compare the instructions from Radu (half way down) with the eduard ones. What am I supposed to do now?

Well here's an update. The rear seatbelts are in place: Those are from HGW and were ment for the Arado Ar196 - I really like the printing but cutting them was a bit fiddly. For the pilot's seat the belts from eduard were used.. They're pre-cut but getting them in the buckles is fiddly as well. The hip belts will follow soon after my short vacation over the weekend!