Scale Aviation Modeller International – March 2019

of a RLM 65/70/71 splinter-

camoulaged machine D8+LP

as seen at Bad Zwischenahn in

1941. The ex-Matchbox issue
      includes much more interesting
      decals, more of which later.

THE BUILD

Construction is straightforward

and holds no particular pitfalls.

The cockpit build is pretty

conventional; rather thick

decals used for the instrument

panels; reasonably-shaped

seats and some busy internal

framing on the fuselage

halves. The cockpit loor

builds onto the wing centre

section, and home-made lead

foil seatbelts, Tamiya XF-02

and Pro-Modeller dirt wash

created enough interest for

the limited visibility through

the tiny transparency panes.

Before closing the fuselage

halves around the cockpit, the

aperture for the back-seater’s

place needs to be opened up.

Here is the only real potential

for confusion as the fuselage

halves have distinct recesses

moulded inside, and distinct

panel lines moulded outside,

which don’t coincide. A cut on

the external panel line would

lead to an aperture dangerously

close to being too large, so

caution is warranted. With the

fuselage assembled and ixed

to the wing centre section, the

upper and lower outer wing

panels can be assembled. The

kit includes stifeners which

it inside the wing panels,

intended to support the joint

between inner and outer lower

panels. They’re necessary!

Don’t leave them out! Fit of

the assembled outer panels

to the fuselage is pretty good

although I ended up using a

thin strip of plastic sheet on

the underside of one wing to

close the gap and minimise the

amount of iller. The laps and

ailerons are separate pieces,

so to add variety I posed the

former slightly drooped and

the latter slightly ofset. The

tail planes it OK, and the

canopies need some minor

smoothing of the mating

faces to improve their

integration with the

fuselage. Masking

the canopies proved something

of a chore due to the myriad

small panes, - and not entirely

successful, - a set of masks

from Montex might have been

worth it, but wasn’t available

at the time of the build.

The wing centre section and wheel bays

make up straightforwardly from five parts

The only contentious part of the build

is where to cut the aperture for the rear

cockpit. Neither the internal or external

marks is completely correct

The wing halves and

internal joint stiffener

MARCH 2019 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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