Thanks guys but no figures in my cockpits usually. They hide the details.
300 litre drop tanks are next. There are two of these, one on each wing. I referred to a few sketchy detail photos on how these were mounted plus a few other references for typical tanks and set about scratch building the detail parts I needed. First I had to scrounge up two tanks. The good news is I found two that I could use. The not-quite-so-good news is they are not quite identical but pretty close. The upper one in the photo is a Tamiya one and the lower one is a Hobbycraft job. I'm trying to find ways to accurately duplicate the nice Tamiya filler cap for use on the Hobbycraft tank. More on this later once (if) I've successfully done it.
Having carved off the solid mounting detail on both pieces and filled the rear ring on the Hobbycraft one, I drilled 4 holes in each and glued in some copper wire with CA glue.
Next, after aligning the struts with drilled holes under the wing, braces were added. This was a frustrating exercise as there was no good way to hold these parts to allow the CA to set but I got there eventually.
Next came the shackle attachment for the strap that surrounds the tank. This was fabricated from plastic card. Also, two holes next to the attachment point were drilled in the wing and tanks to receive the fuel and pressure-equalizing lines. What's not clear is whether the retractable landing light was removed to make room for the tank but I decided to leave it in as it looks like the parts would clear the attachment points.
The test fitted tank is shown below with the two lines added. The strap around the tank has not yet been added.
The distance from the top of the tank to the shackle point was eyeballed and the strap was then added to the tank. For this I used Tamiya tape cut to width. The high point of the strap will connect to the shackle once the tank is mounted, I hope...
The completed tanks will now be set aside to be mounted after the model is painted. Thanks again for your continued interest.