kahunaminor

Thanks, that would be the one. Regards,

Somebody on one of the forums was trialling a new product. They applied it over Alclad and then buffed it to a chrome finish? I was sure it was here or LSP? Maybe by AK Interactive? It is driving me more crazy trying to find where I read it! Regards,

Very nice Jeroen, Great paint and detail (as always). Regards,

Mal, Great tutorial and results. Thanks for sharing. Regards,

Great stuff Pascal, I am enjoying your work and techniques. Thanks for sharing. Regards,

Thanks for the comment Ralph. I will just keep plugging away! Not much time at the bench this week. I have fitted the throttle quadrant: Next up was re-scribing and primer: A check post priming reveals there are a few issues. The rear wing fillet join, the nose surgery and the join at the front of the lower wing insert all need a bit of work. I have also painted up the prop and spinner: Regards,

Thanks for all the positive comments and for checking in, I have attached the forward canopy and the gunsight. The armoured glass cannot be seen to well at the moment as the exterior masks are still on but once they are off it should be okay: The canopy piece was a little oversized at the rear so I commenced gluing at tyhe centre and let that set for a good while. Then I worked on each side independently but still needed a little sanding to bring it into line with the fuselage. Some minor putty touch up and then I will mask and prime. Regards,

Hi Ralph, Thanks for looking in. It is the JH Models stand. You can get it from UMM-USA and a couple of other places on the web. It is a flat pack and this is the 1/48-1/32 scale sized on. There is also one for 1/72 and another for biplanes. Regards,

Well it's been a while between updates! Family holiday and then settling back into life post holiday. I finally got some bench time. Masked and sprayed the canopies with WEM RAAF interior green. The small piece out on its own is the armoured windscreen. Cut out of clear stock and laminated two pieces. The under side is fully masked and will be affixed to the canopy windscreen internally. From all the photos I have seen, a fairly obvious piece of equipment omitted by SH. Also omitted were the arm rests on both sides of the cockpit. The stock card will be shaped and fitted to replicate them: I affixed the tail planes and filled some minor gaps: The wing MG resin inserts were affixed using PVA glue and will need a smidgeon of sanding at the front to conform to the wing: I also took the sanding sticks to the landing light covers and brought them back to conform to the wing profile better. Some higher grades, micro mesh and maybe a coat of future should restore the clarity. Regards and thanks for looking,

Great build and excellent photography! Thanks for sharing. Regards,

A lack of mojo has seen me slow a bit. Just a small update tonight. The gun sight has been completed. Support post from styrene, PE and .2mm lead wire for cable. I used a 1.5mm little lens and the glare shield punched from clear acetate that had been coated in clear green: The landing light covers have been installed and will need some sanding to fit flush. The gun camera recess painted in preparation for a clear cover. Regards,

Congratulations on a great result! The stand outs for me are the exhaust. They look very, very good. I have to ask, did you mottle or "reverse mottle" because from here I cannot tell. Nice to see you squeezed it onto a ZM base. Regards, Kent

Nice start Tom, Great detail work on the cockpit. I just picked up my second of these to do the MDC "Rufe" conversion. That said, the first still languishes in the stash! Regards,

I commenced filling and sanding the various areas that needed it. I am using "Perfect Plastic Putty" for the first time and so far (touch wood) I am happy with the result. The first area was the front of the wheel bay joins. These need to be a single piece so the join between the wings and cowling had to be eliminated: There is a seam that runs across the front of the actual wheel openings and the join line that was lost so it will need to be rescribed later. The rear wing fuselage join will also need some rescribing: I am still working on the upper wings/fuselage but it is so much better than it used to be: I have added 2.5mm "little lenses" to the landing light voids that I had previously filled with card and painted black. The clear covers will go on and masks will keep them safe (I hope): I started working on the gunsight mount and associated bits. The support is 1mm square strip and a piece of card. It has been measured so the guns sight sits just rear of the IP. I used Gator's Grip to keep the resin gunsight in place and the PE top. Paint, weather and then another little lens will go in there before the clear parts and final attachment. A shot from the front: Thanks for looking,

A small update. The chasm has been filled with styrene rod, excess removed and the sanding process started (I hate sanding). Hopefully you can see the intake has been preserved: Thanks for looking and regards,

Nicely done Ralph, do I detect a theme for helicopters? Thanks for posting, Regards,

Well that's were I am now. I hope to finish this in the next couple of weeks and then crack on to the Ju 87 for the GB. Regards,

Morning all, A little progress, the small gaps in the wing root areas and under the rear fuselage have been filled with 0.05 styrene rod. These will be allowed to dry and then sanded and re-scribed accordingly: The seam at the front of the wheel bays will need some cleaning up and possibly a dab of filler: I have also turned my attention to the chasm under the engine bay. In a probably foolish attempt to preserve the lower intake, I have glued 2 strips of 0.075 strip to give me a single piece of 0.075 X 1.5 strip. This has then been sanded down to about 0.125 and inserted vertically, fore and aft of the intake lips. Once set they will be trimmed and the remaining gap filled with horizontal pieces of strip to plug the remaining gap. I must remember to paint the interior side of the plugs aluminium to match the remainder of the cowl as it will be visible but unreachable after construction: In the upper photo, you can also see the wing root join inside the wheel bay. Not bad on one side but a bit gappy on the other. I may remedy that or just leave it and repaint it aluminium and detail wash. The canopies have been dipped and masked using the Montex vinyl masks that come with the marking set for this aircraft (another first for me - masks instead of decal for the markings!). Thanks for looking. Regards,

I had to break up the photo set. Whilst the wings are setting up I constructed, sanded and primed the prop assembly: I also went to work on the MLG. Kitchen foil for the oleos and the two part oleo retraction struts attached. I have also painted the wheels. Thanks for looking and regards,

It lives!! Well the preparations to join the wings to the fuselage are complete. Final fitting showed that I had to sand away about half of the cooler ducting to enable the central wheel bay beam to fit. It is such an obvious item in the real aircraft that it cannot be omitted: I then started at the front, gluing and clamping the wheel bays ain an attempt to get the best join: I then started the rear wing insert join on the one side. You can now see the reason for leaving the gap on the rear underside. The wing insert is too wide and attaching each side individually allows me to bet a better join on the wing trailing edges and fillet. By adjusting each side so the external joins matched (as best as one can) it eliminates a lot of sanding and re-scribing of detail on the underside. There are still some small gaps (apart from the one in the centre) but it should make the whole business less messy: The wing roots remain unattached at this point. The join is much better than it would have been without the gap in the fuselage and hopefully I can close it further by adding a little more dihedral in the wings once all the other seams have set: Thanks for looking and regards,

The cockpit is in! After installing the engine, it was time to shoe horn the cockpit into the fuselage. It became obviously apparent that I had painted, or built, myself into a corner. There was no way the starboard upper cockpit bracing was going to go over the flap assembly on the starboard wall. I cut the frame at the rear and just aft of the secondary IP with my trusty RB U/F saw. Removed said piece and slipped, prodded and cajoled the main piece into place. By some miracle it fit. I then simply reattached the frame with a drop of Tamiya Extra Thin and as they say in the movies...voila! The flap control was carefully cemented in place. There is some clean up to thin the forward canopy join and the gunsight will be attached to a scratch built mount later before the canopy is installed: It now sits a little higher as I had to squeeze the radio underneath but I think the arm rests (yet to be fashioned from card) that sit on top of the frames on both sides will hide the most of it anyway. Flipping it over, the floor of the cockpit appears to be meant to sit flush against the wing fillet undersides. Not far off and within tolerance. The engine firewall sits just aft of the wheel well firewall so in theory, it has been a success. The cooler pipe will fit in but its upper cover will not, but I dont think it will be seen: The engine bracing was cut in half and only the lower sections attached to the firewall and engine mount as again, the rest wont be seen on the finished build. I did a test fit and with some more slight sanding the wings should mate to the fuselage quite well. The wing fillets still sit a bit proud but some tape from wing tip to wing tip across the top to provide a little more dihedral and hopefully get the join more flush. Thanks for looking and regards,

The engine is in!! I had to sand the cylinders a tad on top and both sides as well as the firewall. A bit of finagling and it was aligned and in!: The view from the front isn't too bad: Still some touch ups to do such as the relief tube from lower sump to front plug, the air intake needs a tidy up. Oh and that bloody great gap at the underside. Still it is about where I want it and a dry fit tells me the wings should join nicely to the wheel bays for a good fit around the front. Now to attempt to shoe horn the cockpit in! Regards,

Hello all, A small update: Prepping the resin cannon. The pour stubs need careful removal. Rounded file followed by sandpaper. One down, one to go. Work on the engine...5cm push rods cut from pre painted 0.5 rod. Only doing the front as I cannot get to the rear ones and I doubt they will be seen. Pipe work from cylinder heads to collector. The pipes from the front cylinders are way too short, so I will cut them at the mounts and replace them with relevant sized rod painted appropriately. Some burnt metal touch ups, PE wiring harness, gloss, wash and weather to follow. Then hopefully I can get it into the fuselage in close to one piece! My wife is away in Melbourne for the rest of the week,the kids will be in school/daycare and with the forecast for pouring rain for the remainder of the week, I hope to get some quality bench time in! Thanks for looking and regards,

Moving forward...slowly! The assembly line: I have completed the cockpit assembly, washed and flat coated. Still need a little highlighting of the IP and some future for the glass. The wash doesn't show that well.The gunsight and arm rests will go in at the end as they will be easily accessible (I hope): The engine is moving forward: I have commenced joining the fuselage halves. The tail area and the upper seam to the rear of the cockpit have been glued. Just forward of the tail wheel assembly and everything forward on the lower side and forward of the cockpit is still open. The join on the upper rear is quite good and will require minimal finishing. The plan is to shoehorn the engine and cockpit in and then commence sealing the uppers engine cover seam. Leaving the lower seam for modification. The clip just forward of the tail is inserted and gives me just about the correct gap all the way forward: Many thanks for looking, Regards,

Time for a small update. As hinted at earlier, the tabs on the rear firewall will foul the MLG attachment points. These have been trimmed from square to triangular to accommodate the MLG leg. I wasn't happy with the attachment points, which seemed a bit shallow. The MLG legs were drilled and pinned and the attachment points drilled until just under the surface of the upper wing: The pins can be finished off later but it provides a sturdier join. I am still test fitting the fuselage and cockpit. I found the starboard secondary IP fouled the thick fuselage side wall so I removed a metric poofteenth (smaller than an imperial poofteenth) with a micro chisel: The other side had some removed for good measure.This will allow the frame to sit better, allowing the radio to be seen: Attached the cylinders to the crankcase. They still need a bit of tidying up: I also drilled out the prop shaft as I had snapped it off due to ham fistedness. I shall pin the prop later. Regards,