Come on, get crackin. I'm anxious to see the build in progress matey. It's gonna look pretty good.
I've made a start bill so, you're wait is over. Time to get on with it!
Pic 1
I made a mistake with the accessories. I got the wrong resin radiator. What I needed was the type of radiator with enhanced carb dust filter. This was added to counteract the dusty conditions operating from rough strips after D-Day. More on this later in the build.
The other item I decided to get hold of was the larger "Tempest" tail planes. These larger surfaces were fitted to all Typhoons built after about serial MN604 I believe. Since Sharky is MP197 and my references agree that it had the larger tailplanes, I put the order in.
Pic 2
Hasegawa have fuselage inserts that allow construction of either the 'car door' version or the 'bubble' version. I started by aligning these with the panel lines and the outside edge of the fuselage and gluing them in place on each half.
Pic 3
I was expecting this. The top view shows a gap of about 1mm. I'm going to have to 'fangle' this with knife skills and putty.
Pic 4
This is a comparison between the grey plastic Hase wheels and the lighter Ultracast wheels. Not much difference in detail, as the Hase ones are already bulged. Note the air valve in the Ultracast ones.
Pic 5
The real difference is in the side view. The Ultracast ones are noticeably thinner. How thin should they be?
Pic 6
I can thank Chris ( DerAdlerIstGelandet ) for this photo taken at Hendon recently and very timely (Thanks, hope you don't mind!), which indicates the thinner version is definitely the right choice.