Military Illustrated Modeller – September 2019

Closing Up The Fuselage

 Military Illustrated Modeller - September 2019

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All in all this phase went without too much drama. This is the only way to do the nose in my opinion, then on

to putty everything, then sand, prime, repeat...

At this point the wing is just snapped in place to check the fit.

At this point the lower cowl is held in place with Blu-Tack and tape to check the fit. About half an hour was

invested in these two pieces alone. They're getting there, but not quite perfect at the moment. Also, the

entire airframe has been rescribed where needed and riveted. I know, the panel lines these planes were

possibly puttied and sanded, but since I'm an unrepentant riveter, it got the treatment. I have seen SCW

109s with very prominent panel lines and visible rivets, so chalk it up to artistic license.

My weapon of choice is the Rosie The Riveter. Early versions of this took used a substantial metal gear -

sharpened to make relatively distinct rivets. Later iterations use a photo etched wheel, which is infinitely

better. I have been experimenting with riveting for quite some time. The best method for me is to use

sections of Dymo tape, cut into strips of various widths. The tape was applied over Tamiya tape, before

cutting. This makes allows you to use the Dymo tape many more times before it loses it tack. The adhesive

on the Dymo tape is very strong (it is intended to make labels that stay put forever), and may remove paint

or even putty from the model. On this model I used riveters of .045”, .050” and .055” sizes.