I've got most of the Gooney assembled. It's been bad news and good news. I remember that someone who did the "new" Airfix Hurricane complained about an extremely tight fit getting the cockpit into the fuselage. (I think it comes in from the bottom.) I've had lots of tight fits - that can be good, if things "click" into place. With this kit, a little more sanding and muscle than I'd like has been required. There's a spar that rests on the lower fuselage piece that's to anchor the lower wing. It does - after very serious surgery was done to pare one end of it away and whittle down the bits behind the engines. Using that kind of wing assembly is a good idea generally - it helps get a good dihedral and a smoother wing root join. And so it did after being reshaped. I don't think this was a case of driver error as the spar lay flush against the bottom of the wing. The wings did have a good join - but it needed very careful gluing with the "hot" Tamiya Extra Thin "Quick Setting"glue. The tail plane woke me up. The horizontal stabilizers and elevators went right in - perfecto. The the rudder required another fight. The side doors (I haven't decided to keep them closed or not) were another adventure - the big one fit perfectly, the left one had almost no contact surface with the fuselage so it fell inside the plane a couple of time. I haven't put on the landing gear yet - I'm hoping for the best because the gear was terrific on the Airfix P40 just done.
I think the spar was simply bad engineering, but aside from that all problems have been manageable. I think what disappoints me a bit is that Airfix knows what to do, but they just haven't quite spent the time to seal the deal. Airfix could be a top notch company with more effort - and probably more cost. I don't mind Tamiya prices at all, but others no doubt disagree.
This has been nipper Christmas and that's good. As noted in my earlier build note, the sprue gates on this kit are too thick for my taste - although I've seen worse. (Knock on wood, I don't see any gates putting the part in jeopardy.) But it's been very nice using my latest addition to my sprue cutter / nipper collection the Tamiya 74123 side nippers. I bought these on the advice of uber-guru on all things concerning modeling tools and technique Paul Budzik. If you don't know this gent (a pioneer author for Finescale in the 90s among other things) do subscribe to his YouTube Channel Scale Model Workshop. (It's linked to a more detailed an very useful web page.) Budzik has skills I'll never have, but I've learned much from him about priming, spray guns, air brushes, panel lines, fancy files etc. His 13 minute spot on "Sprue Cutters and Nippers" is by far the best of the type. Budzik dismisses the stamped steel cutters made by Xuron and others and I agree totally. (Xuron does make very nice PE cutters that are long, thin and sharp.) He thinks Tamiya's line of forged steel nippers has the most bang for the buck. I do have the Tamiya 74035 which are short and fairly thick - tough nippers that can handle pretty thick sprue but still get the job done. The 74123 are longer and sharper and probably a bit more delicate - if the part need a little extra reach, they're great, and they're very sharp. We're talking under $25 for either of these guys - maybe $19 for the 035. I also have the God Hand, a brand famous among Gundam modelers. Budzik considers these the sharpest, and he's right. They go through sprue like it's butter and cuts can be nearly perfect. God Hand nippers are for the eccentric - they're $50 and not always as good as the Tamiya. But I've also damaged model parts (or dropped them) because of bad a bad cut. As every part on the Airfix C47 has needed some prep, the nipper brigade has come in very handy. And they also last for years.
As you can see, I do have the bird primed:
Primed by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
This is in preparation for some serious black basing to act as a foundation to a multi-layered fade with salt, oils, filters and maybe pigments. I only paint with water based acrylics, but make an exception for priming airplanes. Budzik is right that automotive lacquer primer (if and only if it's "sandable" and "fillable") is simply great. This comes in a can and if you follow the directions, it lays down a splendid coat. Because it's lacquer, it does bond very lightly to the plastic - both covering scratches, but leaving all panel details in perfect order. You do this outside unless you have a shop - very powerful fumes. (And because it's not a modeling product, it's dirt cheap. Check Duplicolor 1698 "Hot Rod Black Primer" for $6 a 12 oz can.) Because the primer is so good, it covers what I had filled correctly - which is most of the plane. But because it bonds, it will also pick up imperfections and they exist - in my models they always do. Next stop, begin the black basing.
Eric