I am battling a cold this week. That means more time at home but modeling isn't so fun when you are not feeling 100%. During my brief forays into the workshop, I did manage a little progress on my nightfighter.
I am using Eduard canopy masks. These are my favorite as the yellow kabuki tape offers the perfect combination of tackiness and flexibility for the job at hand. I am one of those that has a hard time with masking the old fashioned way. I can sit on a build for days just procrastinating on this one point so I elected to use these pre-cut masks to keep the build moving. As always, the Eduard masks were a perfect fit.
With the masks on, I could now mount the windscreen, which in turn meant I could take the fragile gunsight and mount it to the instrument panel. And wouldn't you know it. Soon after this picture was taken, those tiny reflector glass pieces were knocked loose by the windscreen. I couldn't even find em. I contemplated leaving them off since they may not be distinguishable through the closed canopy but my OCD kicked in and I replaced them.
The canopy is attached in the closed position and the little nose cap is glued onto the front end of the fuselage, signaling the end of major construction. Seams were primed with Mr Surfacer 1000 and tidied up.
First step in painting is the canopy frames which were painted dark gray to match the interior.
I am planning to do a little chipping on the engine nacelles as well as the walk/wear areas on the wing and fuselage near the cockpit. So a base coat of gloss black was applied to those areas.
A little hiccup here. The paint on the fuselage went down a little too grainy for my tastes. This has happened to me before and I'm guessing it has to do with the paint mixture and the distance between the airbrush and the model surface.
I'll try to do some wet sanding/polishing to get it smooth. If that is not successful, I will wipe it off and do her over.