bdthoresen

Time for a small update. I started work by installing the shell ejector chute inserts to the wing undersides. Unfortunately, as in most Hasegawa builds, they don’t fit great, and usually end up having seams that don’t occur on actual panel lines of the original aircraft. Using the Aero Detail book on the George, I filled all of the seams that don’t exist on the real bird... I used GS Mr. Dissolved Putty, and it is currently curing as I type this.

 
I also started working in the powerplant assembly, and had experimented with the fit inside the cowling with the spinner installed, just to see what is visible. Not much. So I had decided that I was going to stick OOB with it. And that lasted all of about 10 minutes. 
 
But I did decide to only add detail to the front bank of cylinders, as that is about all you can see. I decided that I was going to add the oil lines for the valve train at the cylinder heads, as well as an ignition harness. 
 
Hasegawa has two small bumps on each cylinder head that represent the connection points for the oil lines. I decided to try a proof of concept on one of them, to see if it is even worth the effort. I center punched each bump with a sewing needle, and drilled it with a .0205” microbit.

I then used some .020” brass rod, and bent it into shape.....


I then used the same drill bit to center drill a piece of .040” hexagonal rod, and then sliced it into about 1mm discs. I then added one to each end of the oil tube to represent the b-nut connections.

 
I then installed the oil tube to the cylinder head using gel superglue, and then slid the b-nuts down to the cylinders, and applied Tamiya Extra Thin to weld them down. 

 
So, what say you folks? Worth it? 
 
Thanks for looking.
 
THOR    

Time for a small update. I started work by installing the shell ejector chute inserts to the wing undersides. Unfortunately, as in most Hasegawa builds, they don’t fit great, and usually end up having seams that don’t occur on actual panel lines of the original aircraft. Using the Aero Detail book on the George, I filled all of the seams that don’t exist on the real bird... I used GS Mr. Dissolved Putty, and it is currently curing as I type this.

 
I also started working in the powerplant assembly, and had experimented with the fit inside the cowling with the spinner installed, just to see what is visible. Not much. So I had decided that I was going to stick OOB with it. And that lasted all of about 10 minutes. 
 
But I did decide to only add detail to the front bank of cylinders, as that is about all you can see. I decided that I was going to add the oil lines for the valve train at the cylinder heads, as well as an ignition harness. 
 
Hasegawa has two small bumps on each cylinder head that represent the connection points for the oil lines. I decided to try a proof of concept on one of them, to see if it is even worth the effort. I center punched each bump with a sewing needle, and drilled it with a .0205” microbit.

I then used some .020” brass rod, and bent it into shape.....


I then used the same drill bit to center drill a piece of .040” hexagonal rod, and then sliced it into about 1mm discs. I then added one to each end of the oil tube to represent the b-nut connections.

 
I then installed the oil tube to the cylinder head using gel superglue, and then slid the b-nuts down to the cylinders, and applied Tamiya Extra Thin to weld them down. 

 
So, what say you folks? Worth it? 
 
Thanks for looking.
 
THOR    

Weathering of the cockpit now complete, I figured I would lay out all of the components for one last photo before final assembly and insertion into the fuselage.
 
THOR    
 
 

“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”......

As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench.....
 
I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain......

The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings.
 
A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. 
 
The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. 
 
I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. 
 
Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”.....
 
And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. 
 
Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome.
 
Thanks for looking-
 
THOR    

Weathering of the cockpit now complete, I figured I would lay out all of the components for one last photo before final assembly and insertion into the fuselage.
 
THOR    
 
 

Weathering of the cockpit now complete, I figured I would lay out all of the components for one last photo before final assembly and insertion into the fuselage.
 
THOR    
 
 

Howdy, all! Thought I would show one of my latest projects on the bench, Hasegawa’s 1/32 N1K2 Shiden Kai “Late Version”.......I started this
some weeks back as a bit of a “pallette-cleanse” due to some heavy projects on the go. I have been “project-locked“ for some time, and decided that this kit might get me out of my own head! As always, I have started with the cockpit....

The cockpit was sprayed with a black base coat, followed by a coat of Model Master RLM82 Dunkelgrun, as I find it to be a very close match to some pictures I came across of the George that was restored by the Team at Champlin Fighter Museum. I experimented with some different painting techniques to add highlights and shadows, as I found that the cockpit, when assembled, is really dark inside the fuselage. Black components were edge-highlighted in black grey, and the natural wood knobs were painted in Model Master Radome Tan, followed by a coat of Tamiya Clear Orange. Chipping was done by hand with a fine brush, as was some of the generic placarding. I also took a page out of some armor modelers’ playbook, and also forced highlights and shadows with oils. (Martin Kovac is excellent at this.....check out his channel “Night Shift” on the ol’ YouTube!)

And another. I still have to put some clear over a few instruments lenses on the radio and side consoles. I will also add some rudder pedal straps from leftovers of an HGW seatbelt set.....
 

Seat assembly was painted as before, HGW seat harness set was installed, and draped in a bit of a haphazard manner. Still need to weather them slightly further.
 

Another. I like the chipping on this one. Still need to add a few scratches with a silver Prismacolor pencil. I will complete this just before I install the cockpit.
 

 
Right sidewall. Raised details were highlighted with a mix of the base color, and white. I then applied oils for weathering, including a washes and filters.
 

Left Sidewall......
 

And lastly, the instrument panel. All dials were individually punched from the Hasegawa decal sheet, and applied. The power wire for the reflector gunsight was added from .015” lead wire. I will add the reflector glass from tinted acetate, just before installation of the canopy. 
 
I also have the fuselage halves glued together, as well as the wings. I plan to take more photos when there is something more interesting to look at.
 
Thanks for checking in. As always, comments, critiques, and advice always welcome....Take care, until next time.....
 
THOR    
 
 

“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”......

As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench.....
 
I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain......

The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings.
 
A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. 
 
The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. 
 
I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. 
 
Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”.....
 
And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. 
 
Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome.
 
Thanks for looking-
 
THOR    

Weathering of the cockpit now complete, I figured I would lay out all of the components for one last photo before final assembly and insertion into the fuselage.
 
THOR    
 
 

Howdy, all! Thought I would show one of my latest projects on the bench, Hasegawa’s 1/32 N1K2 Shiden Kai “Late Version”.......I started this
some weeks back as a bit of a “pallette-cleanse” due to some heavy projects on the go. I have been “project-locked“ for some time, and decided that this kit might get me out of my own head! As always, I have started with the cockpit....

The cockpit was sprayed with a black base coat, followed by a coat of Model Master RLM82 Dunkelgrun, as I find it to be a very close match to some pictures I came across of the George that was restored by the Team at Champlin Fighter Museum. I experimented with some different painting techniques to add highlights and shadows, as I found that the cockpit, when assembled, is really dark inside the fuselage. Black components were edge-highlighted in black grey, and the natural wood knobs were painted in Model Master Radome Tan, followed by a coat of Tamiya Clear Orange. Chipping was done by hand with a fine brush, as was some of the generic placarding. I also took a page out of some armor modelers’ playbook, and also forced highlights and shadows with oils. (Martin Kovac is excellent at this.....check out his channel “Night Shift” on the ol’ YouTube!)

And another. I still have to put some clear over a few instruments lenses on the radio and side consoles. I will also add some rudder pedal straps from leftovers of an HGW seatbelt set.....
 

Seat assembly was painted as before, HGW seat harness set was installed, and draped in a bit of a haphazard manner. Still need to weather them slightly further.
 

Another. I like the chipping on this one. Still need to add a few scratches with a silver Prismacolor pencil. I will complete this just before I install the cockpit.
 

 
Right sidewall. Raised details were highlighted with a mix of the base color, and white. I then applied oils for weathering, including a washes and filters.
 

Left Sidewall......
 

And lastly, the instrument panel. All dials were individually punched from the Hasegawa decal sheet, and applied. The power wire for the reflector gunsight was added from .015” lead wire. I will add the reflector glass from tinted acetate, just before installation of the canopy. 
 
I also have the fuselage halves glued together, as well as the wings. I plan to take more photos when there is something more interesting to look at.
 
Thanks for checking in. As always, comments, critiques, and advice always welcome....Take care, until next time.....
 
THOR    
 
 

“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”......

As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench.....
 
I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain......

The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings.
 
A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. 
 
The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. 
 
I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. 
 
Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”.....
 
And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. 
 
Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome.
 
Thanks for looking-
 
THOR    

Weathering of the cockpit now complete, I figured I would lay out all of the components for one last photo before final assembly and insertion into the fuselage.
 
THOR    
 
 

“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”......

As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench.....
 
I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain......

The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings.
 
A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. 
 
The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. 
 
I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. 
 
Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”.....
 
And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. 
 
Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome.
 
Thanks for looking-
 
THOR    

“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”......

As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench.....
 
I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain......

The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings.
 
A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. 
 
The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. 
 
I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. 
 
Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”.....
 
And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. 
 
Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome.
 
Thanks for looking-
 
THOR    

Weathering of the cockpit now complete, I figured I would lay out all of the components for one last photo before final assembly and insertion into the fuselage.
 
THOR    
 
 

“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”......

As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench.....
 
I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain......

The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings.
 
A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. 
 
The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. 
 
I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. 
 
Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”.....
 
And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. 
 
Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome.
 
Thanks for looking-
 
THOR    

“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”......

As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench.....
 
I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain......

The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings.
 
A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. 
 
The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. 
 
I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. 
 
Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”.....
 
And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. 
 
Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome.
 
Thanks for looking-
 
THOR    

“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”......

As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench.....
 
I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain......

The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings.
 
A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. 
 
The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. 
 
I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. 
 
Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”.....
 
And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. 
 
Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome.
 
Thanks for looking-
 
THOR    

Weathering of the cockpit now complete, I figured I would lay out all of the components for one last photo before final assembly and insertion into the fuselage.
 
THOR    
 
 

“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”......

As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench.....
 
I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain......

The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings.
 
A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. 
 
The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. 
 
I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. 
 
Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”.....
 
And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. 
 
Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome.
 
Thanks for looking-
 
THOR    

Actually, that is not a bad idea, Ray.
 
Peter, I know you said that you were exploring options on how to help bring down your build costs, (and for those of us who do not subscribe to Patreon or similar services), this might be a viable option to help. If you are developing parts for this kit, you might, as Ray suggested, make copies of things you develop like photoetch, placards or instrument related stuff and offer them for sale for those of us who are also wanting to build 1/18 Wurgers. I for one would be happy to purchase some things like that to help by large scale Dora along. Just some food for thought!
 
Looking forward to the next update, regardless!
 
THOR    

“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”......

As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench.....
 
I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain......

The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings.
 
A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. 
 
The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. 
 
I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. 
 
Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”.....
 
And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. 
 
Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome.
 
Thanks for looking-
 
THOR    

Thanks Dennis. Shortly after that pic was taken, I sneezed, and an aircraft was sitting on the bench! I was pleased at how good the fit was overall, but there were a couple of small problems I did not foresee. I will shoot some photos a bit later and explain. Thanks for stopping in!
 
THOR    

“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”......

As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench.....
 
I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain......

The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings.
 
A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. 
 
The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. 
 
I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. 
 
Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”.....
 
And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. 
 
Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome.
 
Thanks for looking-
 
THOR    

Weathering of the cockpit now complete, I figured I would lay out all of the components for one last photo before final assembly and insertion into the fuselage.
 
THOR