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Issue 170 - http://www.modelairplaneinternational.com 45Airfi x mountings then fi tting onto the pylons.
However, the mountings were nowhere near
the required position to fi t the tanks! So these
were left off, I’ll have a go fi tting these to a
future Mustang instead.
Finishing Off
Photos of the aircraft showed them to be
kept in a fairly clean and tidy state so I limited
weathering to some exhaust staining. The
fi nal fi nish was applied using MRP’s MRP-
126 Super Clear Semimatt Varnish. Canopy
masking was removed and the rear of the
canopy was attached in the open position.
This needs a bit of work to get it to sit down
on the fuselage correctly, the canopy lower
edges need thinning and the lower corners of
the canopy cross brace have to be cut away
as they prevent the canopy sitting down over
the top of the fuselage. With everything else
now fi nished, I could unmask the gun bay and
add the detail parts to it. So, in went the three
guns – these have some tiny parts to attach,
I didn’t use all of them as they were just too
fi ddly I’m afraid! The ammunition belts need
some careful painting but once done these
look excellent. These and the feed chutes
were then glued in place. Finally the doors
were attached, the hinged door in the open
position and the others glued to the wing with
a drop of Mr. Masking Sol Neo and the model
was complete.What Went Wrong?
After my Sea Fury build, where I spilt varnish
everywhere, I though it might be interesting to
refl ect on what went wrong in a build. Things
always go wrong and in this age of instantgratifi cation where the Internet is awash with
people telling everyone that complex kits are
easy to build I though it might be useful to just
recount what can – and does - go wrong in
even a relatively simple build. I’m going to try
to include this in my future articles.
The drop tanks – well, these don’t fi t and I
left them off, I’m not sure why so I’ll have
to look at this. One of the under wing
roundels moved before it dried,
it’s only a fraction but I can
see it and it’s annoying. I
don’t think that has ever
happened before as
I am usually very
careful with
applying
decals.
The