Ah, no worries mate.....are you gonna be done by Wednesday or will you need a little extra time?
Well Wayne, I never thought at the beginning of the build that I would be still working on it this close to the deadline! However I'm hoping that I'll have the final shots posted before Wednesday, but i'll be a close thing. I'm assuming I won't have any last minute disasters or my camera won't pack up. And Terry, I even managed to change the colour of the lens. Thanks also to Jerry and here's my latest update.
Photo 1. I got the canopy unmasked. It's OK but I've never been totally happy with my canopy painting to date. I had one panel break on a frame line when I was taking off the masking tape but I think it's a fairly easy fix. I added some grip bars to the front canopy section and some instruments, from the kit, to the middle section, under the radio antenna.
Photos 2 3. I eventually attached the fuel tanks, after repainting. This was fiddly because it was done out of sequence, and with the tubes in position it was very difficult to accurately locate the tank struts. I broke a couple forcing them in but managed to repair them. As you can see I managed to tint the lens of the landing light. I did this the lazy way, tinting the Sellotape with a Sienna pentel that works on shiny surfaces and then putting a new layer of tape over, to protect the tint. The panel around the aperture still needs to be matt-coated.
Photos 4 5. The entire aircraft had already been given a matt coat, then the underside was weathered, mainly using black brown pastels, brushed on, for the exhaust and gunsmoke stains. And that, I think, is the underside completed. The topside got the same treatment for the exhaust stains and the navigation lights have been added to the wing tips. (Forgot to take a c/u of those, wiil do that for next post).
Photos 6 7. The cockpit has been uncovered and finalised before the canopy is attached. This entailed fitting the machine guns and ammo belts to the rear, and the gun sights at the front. In the end, I opted for the tubular roll bars, rather than the head armour behind the pilot, as it looks better and I think is more accurate for the Bf 110G-2, at this period. Some wear needs to be added to the roll bars and to the sills. The little gunsights are a b*gger, as they are so flimsy. I've already knocked one off twice, by just brushing against it, but fortunately recovered it on both occasions. I notice on the second shot that the starboard ammo belt has come away from the gun, which will be fixed before the canopy goes on.
Photo 8. I've started to fit the canopy but can already see the need to close some joins to the fuselage with PVA. At this point the natural light was beginning to go, so I just grabbed this shot against the setting sun, before finishing for the day.
That's where I am Sunday evening. As far as I can see, all that's left to be done is to finish the canopy, add the spinners/props (already painted), the pitot head and the aerial wires, unless I've totally overlooked something. That's apart for some final touching-up of the paintwork and some metal wear around the sills etc. So I'm still hopeful I'll get it submitted in time.