As I continue to avoid the B-25 a little longer 
.... I figured I'd try something else that was painless like the Spitfire, or should I say allegedly painless. I'm once again back into a Luftwaffen mood. It's also another opportunity to break out those AK Real colors again.
Eduard redid their ten year old FW 190 Anton series recently. They must have tired of the complaints about the how tough these were to build due to overcomplication/engineering which caused unecessary fit issues. I absolutely hated the A-5 and D-9 I built and even found some new cuss words. They must have figured out most modelers aren't diorama builders and generally don't want all the engine and gun panels exposed (well...at least I don't). I would rather have a root canal than having another crack at the early versions again. Anyways, I had the new tooled A-4 Profipack in the stash that I've wanted to build for quite some time. Now is as good a time as any to drag it out.
I opened the box to discover that I had bought Montex masks for this turkey a while ago. I like surprises. It seems I had intentions of building Eberhard Burath's colorful JG1 machine with the striped cowl. So I shall continue with my trend of building the mounts of the lesser known aces of the war. Burath only scored 7 kills, but 6 of them were B-17 bombers in defense of the Reich.
I started with the cockpit. Their Profipack offers PE, which looks quite well done. For cockpit panels they also offer you the choice of flat plastic (for the mounting of the PE), flat plastic for provided decals if you wish, or plastic with detail molded on (probably for their weekend edition). I went with the PE. I tried to match the color they close for RLM 66 using XF-24 Dark Grey and XF-19 Sky Grey. The PE seatbelts were quite well rendered too.
Of course I managed to use the wrong cockpit tub. I was supposed to use the one with the grooves in the hatch behind the pilot's head. I hate when I do that. I can never accidentally pick the right one....
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They did a nice job on the IP too. Looks better than decals I think.
I had no issue fitting the tub in the fuselage. Look! no finnicky cowl gun deck to mess around with. Of course placement of the upper instrument panel was a mystery as their instuctions on where it went pretty much made it a guessing game. This is another complaint I have about Eduard, their intructions aren't precise enough sometimes. I used a piece of sprue behind it to glue it where I suspect it goes.
The BMW 801 is nothing special, nor does it have to be. It's just a face of the engine. It will be hard seen behind the propeller fan. I just painted and washed it real quick like.
A test fit of the fuselage. Not bad. Time for glue.
