Hey FSM,
Some unforseen life matters kept me away from my bench for the past 4-or so months. I was recently able to sit down and (finally) fondle some plastic. I got back to a kit I initially planned for the Animalistic GB. I figured I'd post a WIP here for those that don't get to the GB forum very often.
The build was going to be a simple OOB with the addition of some resin wheels. I'm still not sure of the markings yet, but I know it'll be a -Q. I like the big ol' honkin' barrel sticking out of the spinner, and the .50 cal. gun pods haning under the wings. This is what I was starting with when I originally opened the box back in March.
I got back to building about two weeks ago and jumped back in with the Airacobra's front end. After deciding to keep all the panels and doors closed, I built a couple of bulkheads and filled some of the nose with Liquid Gravity.
I also got the cockpit done, and since the armament up front wasn't going to be used, I filled that space with a bunch of pine derby car weights.
With the gun compartment and cockpit access doors glued closed, I considered scribing the rest of the kit. Getting the doors and panel to fit cleanly resulted in some lost raised detail. I'm thought rescribing would keep all the detail consistent, i.e. recessed.
Next I planned on tackling how to build up the kit while keeping the nose gear and exhaust stacks off until after painting. I came up with a couple of ideas...
Revellogram's instructions have you install the nose gear, NLG doors and exhaust stacks before closing up the fuselage. Well, knowing me, I had to come up with a plan to add the gear leg and doors towards the end of the build to avoid breaking them off.
I decided to cut off some of the gear mounting "well" to allow the strut to be slid in after things go together. Leaving the forward and upper parts of the well allowed me to know when the strut was far enough forward and still support the weight of the completed model. (Hopefully that makes sense.)
After solving that problem, I turned my attention to the exhaust stacks. The starboard side can be installed after paint, but the port side needed to be installed before the fuselage went together. So, to make painting and masking easier, I came up with a way to install the port exhausts after the completion of the major assembly and painting.
First, I shortened the length of the stack's backing so that it could fit through the slot in the fuselage. I also sanded the back of the stack's backing flat.
Then I used some small "spacers" and a strip of styrene to build a backing for the stack.
Now, I can simply drop the stack through the slot and glue it onto the backing once everything is closed up and painted without having to worry about masking.
Having figured out the assembly challenges, I turned my attention to rescribing the kit. It's not 100% accurate, but I'm sure it'll look OK under some paint and weathering. Here's my start with the completed fuselage.
Here is a mock-up of the major assemblies after the rescribing. Again, not completely accurate, but I think it looks pretty good.
As usual, thanks for looking! Comments, questions and criticisms are welcome.
Stay tuned...
-O