Peterpools

jerry Very nice work and the signed card from Tex Hill, priceless.

John I should have guess and glad you're back building another Tamiya Corsair - let me guess, your favorite aircraft of the Second World War and your favorite model as well. Front office looks perfect and I just love the Quinta 3D cockpit decals. Of course, the burning question: wings folded or extended?

TEST FITTING PART 1 With all the major assemblies now glued up, it was time for some serious test fitting to see what lay ahead. The Fuselage: The major seam between the two halves required a lot of sanding as alignment was fair at best. I tested the seams after sanding with a Black Sharpie, followed with wet sanding though 2000 grit and where thin black lines showed, those were very thin cracks in the seam that were filled Extra Thin CCA. When dry, wet sanding once more and all was good. The black lines remain as they are sealed in with the CCA. The engine/main gear nacelles were assembled and the seams work was done as with the fuselage. I found using the bulkhead trimming method Carl and I came up with worked very well and I was able to install the front and rear bulkheads after the nacelles were assembled, seams filled and wet sanded, making life a lot easier. The wing needed some of TLC, initially glued up with Revell Contacta Professional Glue and then followed up with Tamiya Extra Thin. Lots of taping and clamping was needed to keep everything tight and aligned while the glue setup for a good 24 hours. The photographs show the Whirlwind taped together, testing the fit of the assemblies, showing where and approximately how much tweaking, filling and sanding lay ahead. The top of the lower portion of the rudder was short and needed some Evergreen Strip to fill in the gap. The upper rudder doesn’t fit well either and surely there had to be a better way to mold the parts. As I progress through the build, the Whirlwind is showing just how big she is and will be destined to sit beside the Mossie in the display case. Making slow but steady progress, while the build mojo is running strong. Bulkheads are in and I'm one happy camper.

Bill - HolIy Cow, the results look fantastic and you are surely onto a new technique that looks mighty good. 'm going to do some testing.

Kai Right with the guys. Nice weathering on the wing fold area - looks spot on.

Thanks Kai, I'm making progress and getting around the roadblocks. Just seems to me Special Hobby needs to devote more time to the instructions after they test build their kit a few times and note what parts need to be corrected by the builder.

Carl Nice progress as the front office 'tubs' with their injection seats, belts and harnesses look fantastic.

Thanks Andy, very much appreciated. Building a race car with a gloss finish is so different then military modeling and helps keep the mojo alive and well.

Gaz The negative of macro shots .. you see what normally wouldn't be seen. How about a few photos from a normal distance and I'm willing to bet the Mig looks just fine

John First time I've ever seen this kit built and you certainly did justice to the kit. Love the NMF .. looking so good.

John Absolutely, they should understand that well done instructions, with clearly drawn details and parts placement, makes up for a lot of kit inaccuracies and tradeoffs.

Gaz WOW!!!!! When is your build going to start, as I have my front row seat already reserved for the journey

Terrific work - looking so good

Hi Oliver, Very much appreciated your very kind comments on my GT40. I had one, I would never drive it; just wash and wax it.

Harv Glad to hear you're feeling better each day. Looking forward to following your build again when you feel up to it. I know how you feel as I've also had coronary issues after all the chemo. Just keep fighting and pushing ahead, better days to come for sure.

Ernie You make it sound mighty tempting and seeing what you are going through, it's a lot more work then the Whirlwind

Ernie Agreed and well said

Martin What an intense photograph. I can only imagine the thoughts of the crew as this attempted carrier landing was taking place. So many things could have caused it and hopefully, the crew was able to walk away.

Joachim, Very much appreciated. Once the landing gear assembly is done, I can't see any real issues left to deal with - of course, I never should have said that.

Hi Dennis Will continue to keep plugging along and the Whirlwind will cross the finish line - just need to keep going slow and testing as I go - just can't take anything for granted. Thanks for the reference pics - just can't have enough.

Hi Oliver, welcome to the party. Not a bad kit of a great subject and if the instructions were up to par, a good deal of the frustrations would never have been an issue. Having built the Tamiya Mossie, I thought exactly the same and am planning on displaying them side by side in my display case.

Thanks Gaz Absolutely is a tape and test fit kit and I normally will test fit before painting. Since I was already air brushing the inside of the wings, I thought I would just keep going with the main gear wells and bulkhead to save a bit of time and cleanup. I now know, not to take anything for granted as far as part fit and the instructions go.

Carl, Thanks so much for taking the time to uncover the problem and the solution. That's exactly the fix and procedure I came up with and I also found trimming the lower portion of the locating rib flush with the nacelle wall also helps a bit as well. I'm just guessing but part G3 might be slightly different over a span of kits as well being a limited production kit. For the life of me, SH had to know they had a fit issue and should have noted it in the instructions. Seeing this, there is no way they could have test built the Whirlwind prior to doing the instructions or at the least added a correction sheet to the instructions. At first, I was a bit leery to cut the tabs back as this is one of the attachment tabs for the gear but after trying all sorts of fixes, this was the correct fix. Thanks again for all your help, so greatly appreciated and for easing my mind about the solution. Seems so simple now but so frustrating when noting fit. .

Thanks Kev, much appreciated and sometimes misery likes company. it's just a shame, SH doesn't get it that accurate instructions are so valuable and a key aid in helping the builder work their way through difficult assemblies without frustrations and would surely save a lot of kits from the SOD. I've taken the offending assembly apart numerous times, over countless hours until l figured it out.

Thanks Carl. I'll be sticking with the Whirlwind until it's done ... just don't want to get sidetracked as I know what will happen. Yup, it sure seems two steps forward and 1.5 steps backwards.