Not gonna happen but I'm not rushing it. The show is this weekend and this one won't be done. Maybe next year!
Nevertheless, I keep on pluggin' and have now completed the rear bulkhead hydraulics. Once again, I cut the actuator pistons off to be replaced later so they don't get busted. The bomb bay is now done, thank gawd!
Next, it was on to the wheel wells. These need to be assembled a little oddly because of the complex landing gear linkages so one half of the nacelle on each wing gets installed first. I then proceeded to give the relevant parts a coat of cockpit green. The paint was then darkened slightly and the ribs and corners were shot again with this slightly darker colour. Then, some Sky Type S was used to pick out the highlights on the ribs and other protruding details using a fine paint brush. Finally, me being the grime-loving ba$tard that I am, I liberally blotched the area with oil and grease stains using thinned artist oils.
Oddly, one of the 4 nacelles halves had only vertical ribs molded. All the others had grids of vertical and horizontal robs so I faked in the horizontal ones with the Sky highlight colour using a fine brush. Of course, this piece did not escape the oil splotches.
The next step will be to determine what, if anything, is wrong with the maligned landing gear struts on this kit and to try to fix anything worthy of attention. For this, I have some scale plans that I'll try to shrink to 1/48 and use as a template. Stay tuned for that.