Another big weekend update! Oh where to begin…how about the office? Eduard’s set is pretty nice because it’s the whole tub in photo etch. Thick and sturdy pieces for sure and they fold perfectly. The dashboard and horizontal side panels are really nice, too. I used the famed Glue Looper to drop very small amounts of super glue to hold them in place. Once they were secure I dripped some Micro Clear Gloss onto each dial to mimic a glass covering. Surprisingly, Tamiya’s instructions to use XF-63 were really close to Eduard’s color, but just a shade too light and a hue too warm, but close enough since most of the tub will be in shadow. Even all the little handles and dials are a nice touch with this PE set. To get the whole tub secured into the fuselage half I added a couple little strips of styrene.
Once the tub was in place, it was time to join up the halves. I figured that I would leave out the chair and pilot until later. Same with the instrument panel hood, etc. There are a few seams that need a little TLC, especially along the bottom side of the tail. A dab of putty (or glue) and some sanding should do the trick.
I did build the PE for the chair though. It’s a nice bit of detail for the pit. The track for the canopy opening mechanism was a little tricky to bend what with it being so long…and it’s a detail you can’t see once the canopy goes on. But I know it’s there…
AND…the wings attached. THESE were a bit more tricky. A little sanding and scraping was needed to get the port side wing root to sit flush but alas there will be a little putty needed on both sides.
And the PJ Productions pilot is damn nice.