BlrwestSiR

Thanks Scott. It's going to be fun. We're trying to figure what happens in a couple more years when it's time for a driver's license. I've joked we'll send him for his driving test in my '91 Beat. I haven't come across anything that says the car you do your exam in can't be right hand drive...

Fuselage interior looks good Ernie. I see you didn't bother with the cabin heater. Something that probably wasn't needed in the South Pacific.

Here's the text from the Schiffer book: Cont'd Note the last sentence which says the recognition system was disconnected on B-25Js. I wonder if this would apply to the H as well and would explain why they don't show in pics.

I'm out at the moment but I'll heck my references when I get back and see if I can find anything.

Our oldest became a teenager today so I didn't get much done as we had family over to celebrate. The brisket turned out nice, just a couple slices left so that's good. As a result, I didn't get to spend much time on the 262. I did get the nose cowlings on though. The smaller one required some trimming of the bulkhead to fit properly. You can see the cut back edges here. Then it was glued on too and now to let them dry.

Man, talk about going to extreme lengths to keep an eye on your stash. Maybe if you get her a small bell to ring when she needs something you can build up some brownie points for if something does arrives.

A nice assortment of items there Rob. Always nice to catch up with friends and family.

My vote would be the Do-335. I considered that one as well before settling on the 262.

Looking good.

I get the other Lancaster flying over our house on a regular basis. CWHM is a little over an hour from us so they fly regularly around the Golden Horseshoe.

Not enough windows broke and a Mi-24 didn't fall out of the sky when it passed.

So the Me262 suffers from open panel syndrome. The gun bay cover and engine cowlings are meant to be displayed open. If you look closely at the built model on the box the engine cowls are proud of the engine pods. Either that or they're the little seen up armoured version with 2" armour plate for cowlings. That being said, with some tweaking and lots of test fitting, they can be made to fit reasonably well. The fit will improved further once they're glued in place. While I worked on the fit, i decided it was best to add the nose weight to make sure I didn't create any interference issues. I also finally started painting the seats. I'll need to get those in before I install the cockpit.

Lots of work in places. Not something I'd expected from a recent kit release.

They look like old fashioned milk crates...

After unwrapping the patient, the cockpit looks ok. Next up, I fitted the ammo chutes to the fuselage halves. Then I added the Mk108 cannon to the topside of the nose gear bay. I removed the barrels for the outer pair as these will get replaced with much longer MG151 barrels. Since I'm not having the gun bay open, the breech is irrelevant and more just to hold the barrels in place. The inner pair of Mk108 barrels were drilled out in case anything is visible. Doing a test fit of the fuselage halves and nose bay, I noticed that the gear bay sides needed to be chamfered in order to fit. You can see the bare plastic where I sanded the sides. With that done, I glued the fuselage halves together.

I hope so John!

Just a slight size variance.

A couple packages arrived today. First one was from BNA. Intake screens for my Su-33, zimmeritt for a RFM Sturmtiger, and antennae for an Achilles. The second one was from Sprue Bros courtesy of Ernie. I took a quick peek in the box and it's stunning which is to be expected from ZM. Thanks again Ernie and the rest of the LSM staff!

Destructions I read. Instructions, not so much.

Oh nice. I never built the Tamiya one. I'll be following along. I have the Dragon one in the stash with a Griffon update set for it. You basically throw away 1/2 the kit it seems. Dragon take an interesting approach to the tracks. They're moulded plastic and are split lengthwise.

You're just cracking on with this. The interior is much more detailed than the B-25 kit.

It helps if I have the part right side up....

Similar to @ScottsGT's He111, I've got a bulkhead issue. K189 attaches to K190: Here are the parts. Note the tab in the centre of K189. Fit looks okay... ...except they're not flush because of that tab I'll probably notch K190 and hope that works.

Progress on the cockpit. First up was the Red Fox 3D decals. The IP dials have a nice gloss finish to them. Very much like they're under glass. Then it was time to add the sides. Having done some dry fitting, I knew there would be some issues due to warping. The problem is the assembly is too flimsy to clamp it. So I used masking tape instead. Turns out I needed different strips going in different directions to get the warp out. It looks like a mummy or something.

Nice problem solving on the gear legs. Being G-Factor, I don't you would have been able to bend them apart. If you like using Mr Color, you could try AK Real Colors. It's an acrylic lacquer like Mr Color and is even compatible with it. A bit thicker so it tends to need more thinning.