I've had these around for awhile, time to put them together. As usual with Tamiya near perfect fit, but this time with a slight divot. The first kit I bought was when they first came out, and Tamiya had not realized that the museum example was an F.1 that had F.3 wings grafted on that had spoilers, unlike the F.1 wings, due to damage to the original wings. Tamiya reissued the kit as an F.1 with corrected wings and also included a V-1, which the F.1's had successfully shot down 14. They later released the F.3 kit as well. I had previously gotten a Squadron vacform canopy to help convert the first F.1 to an F.3, but Monday I called Tamiya and was able to buy the necessary sprues from the F.3 kit so I can use nice Tamiya parts with no cutting and fitting, No decals but that's not much of a problem as the same squadron used F.1's and F.3's. As I read it as soon as the F.3's were available the F.1's were parked. I plan to do the F.1 as the prototype with trainer yellow lowers. The engines painted up real pretty I thought, although they are a general representation of the Welland. Good enough for me. It will be possible to have the engine covers removable, they press in place. In fact I had to shave a few thousands off of one of them to get it to fit. Both kits come with long and short tailpipes, the F.3 was Derwent powered and had a shorter tailpipe. There will be no point in posing the F.3 with the cowls open as the Derwent has a very different burner can arrangement. The first 15 or so F.3's still had Wellands but I want to build a later version with the tailpipe difference. Tamiya did not model the Derwent in their F.3 kit. They did, however, include both tailpipe variations in all the kits.
The cockpit is fairly basic and it's also very black, other than the seat and seat belts. I tried to highlight stuff a little but it just isn't going to be visible other than the seat, stick and panel. I may have to add some detail to the back of the panel on the F.3 because with the different windshield it will be very visible. Eduard Sutton harnesses were put in, using the glue that is cured with UV light. It really made it easier to do, and that was helpful because in this case it seemed better to install the belts after the seat was installed in the tub. I had bought some on the web, but then I found it was available at Walgreens and I bought some more there today. The glue is sticky enough to hold the pe in place until it is arranged right, and then you shine the light on it and it cures right up. If you have excess glue you can wipe it off before you set it with the light, but it will bring a little paint with it, both acrylic and enamels so there may be a little touch up. Sooo much less hair raising for me than CA because of my old, big, and shaky fingers.
In the last photo you can see that I added a little more weight under the seat using a stick on weight for R/C models, I've read that the model call still fall on its tail if bumped with only the weight that comes in the kit.