Thanks for looking in guys.
Finished of the masking today having sorted out the parts that need internal fittings and deciding now on how to approach the build. But before I go into today's work, a couple of words in warning for you good folks who also have this Great Wall kit.
I've done a bit of reading about the kit from well known modelling magazines one of which reports this kit as being at skill level-beginner. My response to that is
'Poppycock'. This kit is no way a beginners kit, it is very detailed and a very complex build, the instructions also being somewhat lacking in good direction.
The kit also provided a clear plastic mask kit which is again quite useless as it is made of some kind of plastic coated material and springs loose, the pre-cut shapes are also inaccurate though I have found some of them to be a good template for making internal masking from Tamita tape, these are needed on some of the clear parts. So my advice here is get the Eduard masking set, it is almost perfect though they did completely miss providing masks for one part.
The kit also provided a small PE sheet. This has been coated in a very thin film of plastic which if you're not familiar with PE could be completely missed until you come to paint the part and the paint won't stick. I did read this so was not caught out like the author of the article.
Lastly, I have found to my detriment that though the kit is very detailed and the parts look very good, they are sadly somewhat brittle in my kit and fracture very easily. So great care is needed when removing from the sprue or if your intending to modify the part.
So to the build. First up that plastic film on the PE, once nipped and scraped back a bit, it peels off perfectly.
As for the fracturing plastic, this happened to the instrument panel which I had just made some drill markings into the dial faces for holes to thread wires out the back. When picking the panel up to drill the hols, it fractured into four pieces, one so small it was soon lost.
Lucky for me though, I was planning on using an Eduards PE panel so I just fabricated a new part from scratch card and carried on.
Thought you all would also like to see the latest tool in my store. It's a pencil with a slightly sticky core very similar to Blue Tak but less pliable and tacky. Great for picking up those fiddly micro bits for positioning that tweezers just love to send into orbit.
Apologies for the 'War and Peace' bit guys but I'm sure Mike and Dale will forgive me.