I've started earlier than anticipated, as I wanted to get some of the slightly tedious modifications and corrections done to some of the cockpit parts, before starting the build proper.
Considering the age of this kit, it's not too bad overall, and quite well detailed for the period, although rather over-priced, at £30 nowadays (typical Hasegawa !), for a fairly basic kit.
Planned mods include removing some of the raised panel lines and re-engraving, as well as improvement to some of the kit's cockpit parts, and some scratch-built additions to the cockpit, radiator, oil cooler and wings. I haven't decided yet, but I might add some rather nice, turned brass cannon barrels, as the kit parts, moulded as part of the upper wing, although reasonable, lack detail around the muzzle, and are too thin to drill-out.
Anyway, first job was to prepare the cockpit entrance flap and the seat for scratch-built and aftermarket detail, the latter being the fabric Sutton harness.
PIC 1. The kit part for the entrance flap, which also has a separate locking latch and bar provided.
PIC 2. Removing the ejector pin marks and the moulded crow bar. After clean-up and a polish, the outer frame will be enhanced and corrected, a crow bar made from stretched sprue will be fitted (in bare 'steel' - the incorrect red examples seen on many models are a post-war addition, the red colour denoting emergency equipment.), then the assembly will painted, and home made decals for the warning instructions added, at the correct orientation for a CBAF-built machine, and in red, not black as seen on restored examples.
PIC 3. The seat as provided in the kit - more or less the correct shape for the later, red/brown 'composite' seat, although lacking the harness slot and parachute strap recess, as well as the depression in the base of the seat pan. It's also slightly 'angular' around the rim edges.
PIC 4. Work underway adding the required mods. A harness slot has been drilled and filed on the starboard side of the seat pan 'wall', and the recess cut on the port side, with the actual 'bulge yet to be added. This was to allow room for the rather bulky, wider, main harness strap of the seat-type parachute, to prevent 'kinking' of the rip-cord cable which was attached to this part of the harness, running around to the parachute pack itself.
The edges of the seat have also been thinned and rounded, and, as with the slot, await final sanding. The 'lozenge' -shaped depression in the seat pan has been roughly marked out, and will be cut, shaped and filed, with a piece of plastic card added underneath to provide the base of the recess. Again, this depression was a safety feature for the parachute. The pack closing flap, beneath which there were three steel cones, through which the pins of the 'rip-cord' passed, was accommodated within the recess, thereby allowing the pack itself to 'sit' on the base of the seat, without the weight of the pilot pressing down on the cones and pins and perhaps bending them, which could prove fatal if the pins jammed in the cones when the 'chute was needed.
When that's all done, the 'leather' back-padding will be added and the seat painted.
Once these two items have been completed, attention will focus on adding some scratch detail to the cockpit itself, and tackling the tedious job of drilling-out the lightening holes in the cockpit frames.
Thanks for your interest and encouragement, and I hope to post some more progress very soon.