Hello Chaps,
It's been a long haul build- 8 weeks in total, but that is because my wife and I are actively involved with contractors working on our new home that we will be moving to in mid-April....sorting out kitchen design, wood flooring, carpeting, tiles for kitchen and bathrooms, shower designs, paint colors for every room, new faucets for all sinks, choosing granite countertops and sinks for kitchen and bathrooms, new light fixtures and door handles etc etc....I hope this is the last time we have to move now, moving is a stressful and tiring event!
Anyway, enough of the waffle and lets get on with sharing photos of my completed build, which is built straight from the box, no after market additions, only using 1.010" fine black EZ-Line for the antenna cables. I hope you like....
Regarding what I think of this kit: It's a great kit that goes together well, has some nice features such as a highly detailed cockpit, pose-able ailerons, flaps, elevators, rudder and air-brakes, recessed panel lines and other surface detail. The parts were all molded very well, with minimal flash and/or parting line miss-match that required clean up before painting.
It offers two sets of markings, I chose to do this version that was active in the "Battle of Britain", and the decals are excellent- they go down very well on a gloss clear coat with no silvering, and once the finishing matt clear coat was applied, they look painted on.
I did come across two issues during the build:
1) When fitting the engine nacelles to the undersides of the wings, I had a considerable gap between the mating areas of the front and rear nacelles. This is discussed in my "Final Reveal" video and can be seen in my "Build Updates" throughout this thread.
2) When fitting the wheels onto their axles, both axles sheared off very easily and remained inside the wheel mating holes. I drilled these out of the wheels and drilled corresponding holes into the wheel struts and fitted steel pins. I then took a black rubber Tamiya propeller bushing and cut it down the middle to create two thinner bushings. I slid these over the new steel axles and super glued them into place. These then provided some surface area for the wheel hubs to glue to. Again, I used CA glue to fit the wheels in place and it worked a treat, proving me with a very rigid and stronger undercarriage.
This kit would be superb if it came with two completely detailed Jumo 211B-1 engines, external bomb pylons and bombs and an open bomb bay with internal bomb racks and bombs!! That would make it super eye candy and a fabulous kit to work on.....I can dream!
In the meantime, if you'd like to watch my YouTube "Final Reveal" video, here is the link to that:
https://youtu.be/Un29hOf2diM
Thanks in advance for taking a look at this "Final Reveal", my video and for any comments left, they are greatly appreciated!
And, thank you to everyone who has followed this build through to the end and have left kind and encouraging comments!!
Until the start of my next build which won't be until we have moved and settled into our new home- probably the end of April, happy modeling and have fun!
Cheers
Martin