Postcard from the edge

[The Wooksta!]

Cockpit internals, most of them, are either primed or now have their first coat of 66.  Actually, it's RAF Extra Dark Sea Grey, but it'll do.  Just don't tell the Luftwaffe fanboys.

[The Wooksta!]

Cockpit internals all painted and in place.  I've left out the three seats that go right at the back on the reasonable grounds they're virtually invisible.  I was also supposed to paint the control columns black, but again, they're dark enough anyway.

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So, get that in and close up the fuselage. A mammoth sanding task awaits...

[The Wooksta!]

By contrast, here's the cockpit for the Revell civil Condor kit.

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Bit basic is the best I can say.

[The Wooksta!]

Cockpit is in, with a chunk of Lego to keep it in place and the fuselage is now closed up.  As I suspected, it was pointless doing anything aft of the front seats as you can see sod all, and that's without the canopy.

However, the cockpit section is ensuring that the front won't close and subsequently there is a 4mm gap at the front end.  This is bad, as it needs to be filled (plastic card shins to the right profile and P38 will do the trick), but good as it's pushed the nose section out to just about the right profile.  I was planning on building it up with filler - indeed, I might have to yet - but hopefully this could be less of a job that I'd feared.

Having said that, underneath is going to be a filler hound and the less said about blending in the Revell 290 back end...  Hope it sunny over the weekend.

[The Wooksta!]

I got the front end fixed with a 3mm shim built from laminated plastic card and filled where required with my usual superglue and baking soda.  The top has been filled and sanded back, given a coat of filler primer and left.  However, more filler is required and I've yet to fix the 290 back end on yet.

I'll open the P38 later to make a start on underneath.

[The Wooksta!]

The nigh on Sisyphean task of filling the fuselage underside is a solitary skim of P38 from being about there.  I've yet to fit the 290 back end as it needs some fettling.

The port wing is glued and taped up.  I'll fill the engine mounts and the gaping hole that was the leading edge with P38 tomorrow, before commencing yet another Sisyphean sanding task of re profiling the leading edge and wasting in the engine nacelles. This is going to make reworking the fuselage look easy.

[The Wooksta!]

The leading edge has had it's first sanding and looks ok and the nacelles have been sanded back.  I'll give it a blast with filler primer and see what needs doing.  Think that the nacelles will need a tad more and some points on the leading edge could do with a skim, but it's looking better.

I also filled some areas on the wingtip and trailing edge to give a better profile.

[The Wooksta!]

The Revell 290 rear fuselage is in place and has the first application of P38.  Sanded back the top and the port side before I had to stop and have a brew.  The fumes are giving me a headache.

I'd also faired in the back end but can't go much further there until the tailwheel bay is in place, so that's next on the job list.  Once it's in, I'll fill the inside with superglue and baking soda, then a load of P38 to make it all nice and solid.

[The Wooksta!]

The P38 on the rear fuselage is all sanded back and it looks really good.  I've sorted out the Trappoklappe opening.  I cut down the Revell one and gouged out the P38 for a better fit - it was easier than sanding down the Revell door.  The area around it needs some work but it is close.

I still need to build up the rear fuselage around the tailplanes and drill out the portholes, scribe in the door hatches and sort out the ventral gondola that goes under the nose.  There's a few areas underneath that still need some filler, but the fuselage is close to finishing.

The port wing has had some remedial sanding and it's looking good.  Just need to waist in the nacelles to match the engines.  I've gone back to my original plan of using the Special Hobby BMW 801TJs from their Ju 388, mainly as they're a better fit than the Toad ones.  I've also got to scribe in the control surfaces and there's some blisters I need to add.

Now I have to do it all over again with the starboard wing.

[The Wooksta!]

Photos from last night's club where it was met with widespread apathy...

Philistines 

See you in North Shields, I've got those Eduard Fw 190 sprues for you 

Ta!  I've some bits sorted out for you too. As well as that Gauntlet.

[NARSES2]

Cheers mate 

[The Wooksta!]

Having put aside the airframe for now, I've been cleaning up the engines.  The resin will fit but I'll be adding some bulkheads (the same Fw 200 engines I used earlier are perfect) and some support shelves for the upper exhausts.  I'll also need to blank off what was the u/c bay front.

Not looking forward to the props, cleaning up 24 individual blades and assembling 6 is going to be tedious.

In addition, I have to look for a box of resin bits cast at the back end of 1999 specifically for this build.

[The Wooksta!]

Sorting out those sodding prop blades took nigh on an hour.  One of the spinners had gone walkies but it's since turned up, so I may get at least one assembled. 

The engine cowls have had some blanking plates added to fill what was the u/c bay front.  Again, one might get assembled, but I don't like the fans though as they seem to be too far back in the engine to allow the cowlings to close properly.  I'll see what I have lurking in the 190 spares box.

Found the box of resin bits pretty much straight away as it was exactly where I'd not looked last time.  At least two of the casts were not up to standard and given that they were in that horrible Halfords Fast Glass stuff, the four decent ones were a bugger to remove the pouring lugs.  Still, that's done and that's another small job ticked off the list.

[The Wooksta!]

No updates as it's been on hold whilst I work on the resin on and whilst I do something a bit lighter.  But here's some photos I should have posted earlier.

Fuselage underside.  A hell of a job to get this level and smooth.  It should be level with the underside of the wing, but it's another element Contrail got wrong and my adding filler to flatten it all out has exacerbated it.  Still, I can fix the backstory.

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Shots of the port wing during filling and sanding

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Revell back end now in place.  This is prior to slathering with P38 over plastic card planking.

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Two shots of after all the sanding.  The brace bars above the tailwheel bay can just be seen.

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And the area cut out for the Trappoklappe.  Needs some tidying up though.  I'll have to rebuild the Revell door too.

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[NARSES2]

No wonder the makers of P38's share price has gone up 

I admire your diligence mate