Thanks for the compliments guys. Devil Dawg, thanks for the clarification on the window. I concur that it probably didn't serve much purpose for anything. I guess my bombing theory was wrong. At least it fit well.
I had the day off yesterday so I got some quaility modeling time in. I like to "rig" my radials, especially the ones that Tamiya offers. To me a radial that is easily seen is naked without its wires. Some people replace these with Quickboost but I never understood why. Here we have the Pratt & Whitney R-2800. I will briefly show how I do my radials, but if you would like an in-depth tutorial, check this out:
http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/149327.aspx
I began adding the harness "points" to the reduction box with styrene rod. Its two .10 rods fused together with Tenax (like a shotgun barrel if you will). Just slice off a piece and glue it on the edge of the housing thusly....
Finished....
I painted the engine as usual. I painted gear box XF-19 Sky Grey and the cylinders Alclad Aluminum. The assemby was then glued together. It doesn't look like much yet.
The next part is the most time consuming, but not real difficult. I used some fine wire I stripped from an old stereo cord. I chopped it to the right size, bent it, then attached it from the ignition point to the cylinder with "instant" super glue by means of tweezers. I just worked my way around the engine. Once done, I painted them a copper color (I normally use a brass colored wire but I couldn't find where I put it). Some may paint these wires black or leave them silver, but I find that it blends in too much. With all that work I want them to stand out a bit. It then gets a post shade, Testor's clear gloss coat, Detailer wash, then Testors Dull Coat. At the end, I give the engine a quick shot of XF-19 Tamiya Smoke to give it that dirty oily used appearance. Here's how it look when finished...
In this session, I was also able to turn my attention to the airframe. First I sprayed the panel lines XF-1 Flat Black. I then took XF-2 Flat White and added a dash of XF-19 Sky Grey to dirty it up. I sprayed the underside. Once down, I then taped off the center section at the wing fold in preparation for the Intermediate Blue. I found a formula for a Tamiya mix of Intermediate Blue, which suggested a mix of XF-18 and XF-2 Flat White. I faded it with more white due to the theater of operations. I then used rolled blue tac to mask off the demarcation lines.
Once this was sprayed, I masked off for the Non Spectcular Blue.
I used the same reference source and mixed XF-17 Sea Blue, XF-8 Flat Blue, and XF-2 Flat White. I then sprayed it down. There is nothing like Tamiya paint cut with their own lacquer thinner....like silk.
It was at this point I decided to fade the wing tops in lieu of my normal steaking. From what I understand, the Non-Spec-Blue faded very fast, especially in this theater, so I wanted to represent this. I added more white and went to town. I then taped off the control surfaces and lightened the a bit more. This looks about right to me. The surface got a postshading with a mix of diluted XF-69 NATO Black and XF-64 Red Brown. I added some subtle staining around the fuel tank and engine cowling.
Here we can what a difference a wired radial makes...
Here I added more postshading. I then added a touch of XF-1 Flat Black to it and added the exhaust streaking along the bottom. I suppose it could probably use more.
That's where I stopped. I'm still waiting for the decals.
Joe