I have been working on this kit for a few days and thought I would put it on here as another WIP. I was waiting until I got to close the fuselage before I did, just so that there was a bit of momentum with the build. Had to put the tools down for Model Expo but generally has been moving along quite quickly.
The kit exhaust is terrible! it is closed at one end and sits too far inside the fuselage. The real thing actually juts out a bit. Looking through my stash, I whipped up a copy of a Panther exhaust which suited this build very nicely.
Kit on the left, better one on the right. (I would have used Harold's exhaust but it was out of stock at the Aussie supplier, and I needed it yesterday!
The new exhaust needed some trimming to fit but it is a vast improvement
Onto the the cockpit. I have had this kit in the stash for a year and it came with the wonderful AMS pit. (Top job Harold)
The kit comes with an excellent pre-painted photo etch panel, which works very well with the AMS pit.
The seat: Will benefit from some placards once I have finished the exterior
Almost button up time. To minimise the weight of the model, I ground approx 10% of the weight of each fuselage half from the area aft of the main undercarriage line (the kit plastic is quite thick). The benefit of this is that I was able to add only a small piece of lead to the inside of the nose cone. I taped the model together and test fitted it and added only enough weight until the model was able to tip itself back onto its nose wheel from being pushed down onto its tail. Once the wheels are flattened to add the weight effect, this will further push the pivot point aft, helping out a bit more.
The intakes....The instructions call for a method totally opposite to what you see here. Basically, I sawed through the piece that joins both intakes and then glued each intake together as seperate units, which makes the construction of each very simple and easy to make smooth.
The young fella is learning pretty quick.
3 days progress!
