denders

The fuselage is closed up and the tail surfaces are attached. The wing is being assembled. And I've decided not to use the PE flaps and the flaps will be 'up'. Onward!

Hi Mike, I’m all signed up for NATS.

Ready to close up the fuselage. Onward!

Back at this for a bit. I just need to add the shoulder harness belts and a few other items then the fuselage can be closed up.

Just in case that anyone interested has missed it. The NATS are in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, August 5 - 8, 2026. Registration is supposed to be open at 10 AM, March 1, 2026. Yes, I'm planning on being there. I already have hotel reservations. I'm not sure which model that I'm taking, but it should be fun anyway. I hope to meet some other folks while there. I'm also hoping Eduard releases their P-51B and Z-M releases their Ki-100 and those kits are available there. The wife is already planning on attending at least one Ft. Wayne Tincaps baseball game.

Yes, it needed a little bit of sanding to make sure the wing fillet didn't stick out from the mating surface too much. I did need a little bit of styrene on the right, underside of the horizontal tail surfaces.

Working on the bits and weathering. Panel lines are done.

More progress.

Okay, back to this one while I'm waiting for the clear on the 109 build to cure. I wondered how things would go, seemed like the cockpit pieces might end up a little fiddly and I might struggle to get it to fit in the fuselage pieces. Nope. I glued it carefully and it fit right into the fuselage pieces. Ready to be glued. There is something to be aware of if you're going to add all the internals. The red circled tab is supposed to fit behind the yellow circled black box. I tried it when the fuselage section was the only piece in place and it seemed to flex into place. But one all the other connections were glued it wouldn't flex into place, so I just cut out the tab and a little of the fuselage section out. Onward!

Decals are on. I used the stencil decals from the kit. I'll save the 1manarmy stencils for another build. Another clear coat then some weathering. Canopy needs assembly and painting. Landing gear needs assembly. MGs and antennas need painting and assembly. Seat belts.

Working on the prop and spinner and Landing Gear.

Well, whatever the problem is, I used a couple of post-it-notes to protect the surrounding area while I fixed the spot on the wing and one of the post-its lifted a small bit of paint too. At least I still had paint in the airbrush and fixed that one right away.

Yeah, I'm not sure what it is. I'm using MRP Lacquer.

Okay, I decided to paint the crosses and use John's decals for the aircraft specific markings. I also picked up these extras. The kit wheels still require some filling and sanding which will erase the "tread" which is not recessed. And the spiral mask is to help with the spiral on the propeller spinner. I'm also irritated because there are small areas where the paint has lifted. Like the one visible on the wing leading edge. That lifted when I was removing extra Tamiya Tape that I added around the wing cross mask. There are some other spots too. Just small/tiny spots like that. Some of which I've repaired already. Onward!

Hi Ronnie, nice to see you too! Start a WIP thread and share your build with us. Kevin, Carl, Martin, thanks. I was painting the red and white stripes yesterday and had some paint peel yesterday. It's lacquer paint but perhaps I was being a bit too hasty. I painted the white, then painted the red, when I took masking off a small bit of white came off. So, I masked to touch that up and peeled a little bit of red. Arrgh! Both spots were under the white Tamiya tape that I used for the edge because the fuselage is tapered. I'll touch that up this morning. I still haven't decided whether I'm going mask and paint the German crosses or just use the kit decals. The aircraft specific markings I'll definitely use John's decals.