Got some more work completed on the Devastator today (Sunday 03 Sept). So far, no major problems. The interior detail is pretty darned good, even for a 40-year-old kit. I decided to not go all-out on the painting for the cockpit, as most of my reference photos show that it's mostly zinc chromate green, with black instrument panels, switch panels, etc. So, not a lot of detail painting needed. Plus, it ain't gonna be a competition build anyways, and it'll be sitting in my display case with only me looking at it, so............
Port-side cockpit interior. As mentioned before, not a lot of detail to paint, so I only used some interior black for the few details. Interestingly, this is pretty darned accurate based on the reference photos. Not a lot of switch panels or instruments on the cockpit sidewalls.
Starboard side........... I forgot to mask the small windows in the lower side of each fuselage half, so they got lots of paint when I sprayed the interior. I waited a day for the paint to dry, then took a Q-Tip soaked with denatured alcohol (100% alcohol - no rubbing oils in it), and scrubbed off the paint from the windows. Worked like a charm. Not sure if that would've worked if the paint had cured for more than a couple of days, though.
The cockpit floor was pretty easy to paint, too. The details that you see are molded-in, and are accurate. As I said before, not bad for a 40-year-old kit. Please disregard the ejector pin marks on the pilot's seatback. I got lazy.
This is the upper portion of the cockpit. I guess it would be called the upper cockpit railing, as it is right at the upper rim/ledge of the cockpit; the rear-firing .30Cal sits on the rear of this. The small oxygen tank is supposed to be red, but, with the underlying color being green, it didn't come out the shade of red that I had hoped. Oh well... better luck nect time. More views of it below......
Got the fuselage closed up. The gaps along the seam were very minimal. When I did my test fitting, the rudder showed to be gapless, but, once I got it all glued together, it now shows a slight gap . No biggie; easy to fix, but didn't expect it. The area around the nose at the bottom didn't want to go together well, either, but rubber bands coaxed it into cooperating.
I'm hoping that I don't sand away too much of the raised panel lines. But, if I do, I guess I'll be honing my sprue-stretching skills, not that I had any in the first place.
Another aspect of this build is that I had gotten WAY out of touch with using Monogram instruction sheets. I have gotten so used to following Tamiya, Hasegawa, and Academy instructions that these Monogram instructions are hard for me to follow. But, you know, it is good to be reading them again. Brings back a lot of the good memories of my childhood when I was building these on a regular basis (with no paint!!), and helps suppress a lot of the bad ones. But, that's not for this forum........
That's it for now, folks. Hoping to get some more done later this evening while I'm watching my pre-recorded viewing of the NASCAR Southern 500 from Darlington, SC (that way, I can forward through the commercials, do my own slo-mo stuff during the wrecks, etc.). Let me know whatcha think!!
Gary