Finally finished this build and now it's ready for painting. This is definitely the most challenging build I've done to date. The tricky base kit plus all the AM PE really adds complexity.
My goal is to faithfully reproduce the plane as it was during combat operations in April 1945. Some of the "above and beyond" items:
- Adding a better scale blast tube to the spinner. Yellow 10 had a 20mm cannon through the spinner and the kit parts don't look even close to the reference photos.
- Attaching the cowl flaps was like marching through hell. What a learning curve. Took me three tries before I got them respectable.
- The entire flap installation process is a pain, but the wooden flaps are a standout feature of the aircraft and I thought they were essential.
- The tail wheel has a whitewall tire. I used Tamiya flexible masking tape cut into thin strips to achieve the effect. (photos coming)
- Quickboost resin supercharger intake. Installation turned into a saga since it didn't fit correctly.
- Quickboost resin exhaust stacks. No drama here and I think they look much better than the kit parts.
- Added a PE ring around the gun camera port since the molded feature looked weak.
Here's the supercharger intake. The AM part is very different from the kit part and looks much closer to the reference photos.
The PE cockpit deck is very detailed, fits perfectly and looks great.
Here's the gun camera port ring. This was a good mini project. I think this could be be a good AM offering and am surprised that Eduard ignores this detail, both in the base kit and as an AM offering. It's very noticable on the real aircraft and looks indistinct as molded.
Hat's off to all the PE cowl flap veterans. What an ordeal. Gator's Grip Hobby Glue was the gamechanger for me on this. First time I've used this stuff. I couldn't imagine doing this with superglue. Gator's Grip is just tacky enough for the parts to stick, dries quickly, is strong and cleans up with water. Highly recommended.
Here's the cockpit deck and windscreen with RLM 66 applied.
Priming complete. There was quite a bit of clean up after the first priming session. Many flaws became evident with all the surgery and PE attachments. Glue blobs around the cowl flaps, sprue gate nubs not completely sanded, panel lines that needed rescribing, standard stuff.
Several times during the build I wondered whether all the extra AM effort has been worth it. I'm certainly right at the envelope of my building skills. It's sometimes frustrating dealing with an unexpected issue, but at the same time it's really rewarding when I can successfully execute a creative solution.
Now on to painting...Thanks for following along.