After who knows how many hours of building, sanding, and painting, I'm very proud to finally show off a build that I've enjoyed immensely, both in subject, quality of build, and final result. Here is Revell Germany's 1/72 Bv 222 Wiking Flying Boat.
This kit represents the V2, one of only a handful of Bv 222s that survived the war, and which was supposedly sunk intact off the coast of Norway after its capture and testing. If it's still there, it would be the only fully intact Bv 222 in existence anywhere. Salvage crews are currently looking for it, but (unfortuantely), they haven't found it yet. Here's hoping they do (and can take care of it if and when they raise it).
The only problems I had with this kit were those that were my own fault. Fitting the fuselage halves together was fun, as the vast interior had to be lined up with about 9 different tabs, only of which 7 or 8 I think I actually hit. I also managed to break off ALL the beam guns, and replaced all of them with lengths of paper clips. You can't really notice. I think.
The paint was perhaps the most involved I've done on any build to date. How many coats of paint are on that thing? Let's see-
Primer coat, RLM 65, RLM 73, RLM 72, cear coat, decals (don't count), clear coat, white winter camo, clear coat, major decals (letters, nubmers, and national markings- don't count), clear coat, and clear flat coat. That's one, two, three... wow. Ten coats of stuff. It took me about a week and a half.
All the clear parts came out excellently. I was a bit worried, at the masking tape I masked with was on for almost two weeks, and I was afraid I'd have stuff sticking to the windows I couldn't get off. I'm also glad to say I didn't lose a SINGLE window, of which I'm very glad.
I tried to be relatively subtle with the weathering. You can decided for yourself how it turned out.
If anybody has any questions on anything, just let me know. I could go on forever about this project, and I doubt everybody wants to read this much on only one post.
For my next project, I think I do something a bit smaller. I've always wanted to try rigging a biplane, and that Airfix Avro 504K is looking VERY tempting...
Thanks for the comments!
(By the way, the trolley it's sitting on is completely scratchbuilt, and the kit itself is all OOB.)