Model Airplane International – August 2019

KIT BUILD

48 MODEL AIRPLANE INTERNATIONAL - August 2019

the underside

of the fuselage

where it literally

clicks into place.

The wings fi tted

okay, though needed a

bit of clamping with wooden

pegs along their leading edges as the glue

cured to ensure a seam-free join.

With the fuselage and wings drying,

attention turned to the smaller parts such as

the wheels, undercarriage doors and propeller.

All of these were removed from their runners,

cleaned up and attached to wooden coffee

stirrers, toothpicks or crocodile clips, ready for

spraying.

When the wheels, doors and prop had

been painted I cleaned up the seams along

the fuselage and wings before bringing them

together along with the horizontal stabilisers,

which again, all fi tted near perfectly. I must

add at this juncture that I was using Tamiya

Extra Thin Quick Setting Cement which

speeds things up when building as it dries

very quickly. Even quicker setting is EMA’s

Plastic Weld which is very ‘hot’ as solvents go

and as such should be treated with care, but

there is no reason that it cannot be used for

the entire build of the main airframe. You have

to be quick and precise with it though as it

does tend to evaporate before your eyes such

is its potency as plastic cement. The wing to

fuselage join was exceptional, so much so

that when I dry fi tted to test it, I could not see

where the join line that needed gluing, was!

The cowling was fi tted as well as the

cowling rings at the front, I did opt to leave

off the top gun cover so I could affi x it later

with the gun muzzles in place. It click-fi ts so

was placed in situ for painting.

A touch of putty was needed to smooth in

the horizontal stabilisers, but it was literally

two minutes work with Vallejo water based

putty cleaned up with moistened cotton buds.

Now it was time for a quick tea break while

the glue and putty cured for an hour or so.

Saturday 18:00 -19:30

The cowling was airbrushed with Tamiya Fine

White Primer, which dries rock solid in minutes

when decanted, thinned with some lacquer

thinners and airbrushed. The cockpit orifi ce

and cowling were all masked off in readiness

for the main paintwork.

Last job of the day today was to get the

two tone grey upper camoufl age on, this was

relatively quick as there was no masking

required just a quick blast of RLM 74 and 75.

With everything set aside to dry out

overnight, it was time for some well earned

R & R with beer and Chinese food in front of

some Saturday evening family TV and a Netfl ix

box set.

Sunday 10:00 -12:00

After a fun fi lled early Sunday morning and

The parts that are not for use are greyed out on the parts

map in the instructions. These were removed fi rst to save

confusion later on in the build.

The cockpit was assembled and basecoated with German

Grey and washed, drybrushed and detail painted. Same

applies for the engine face.

The undercarriage bays were assembled in minutes,

painted RLM02 Grey and washed with Klear/Water/Paint

mixture to add depth and shadows.

A set of generic Eduard WWII

seatbelts were fi xed to the seat

and details picked-out with acrylic

colours. A light drybrushing lifted the

raised details.

This top cover for the guns can be dropped in place for

painting, but left unglued to allow the gun to be painted

and fi tted later. The fuselage fi ts perfectly with no issues

at all as regards the cockpit interior