...not a lot in here; seat, column and panel. As the canopy will be closed, I'm going to use the decal seatbelt. Wing fillets glued and drying. I'll dry fit the wings Tamiya's way and then Karl's way to see which is the best fit.
Thanks for the input. Weight super glued into position and lower wings glued. Unfortunately, there are two small tabs that prevent the entire wing structure to be glue together and added to the fuselage as one, the benefit of test fitting.
Well done so far Geo, and I agree about the 'square' letter 'J'. However, the aircraft in the reference pic looks more lie a Meteor F3 I think - note the canopy shape/style.
Dang...thanks Terry, that's the only photo I could find. There is artwork in Meteor Vs. V1 Flying Bomb that shows the aircraft with a round "J". All the info I can find states Ritch was flying YQ-J s/n. EE217, which was an F1 so I'm still OK with the model
Wings are on; some minor putty work needed on the bottom rear of the wing/fuselage joint and on the wing/fillet joint topside, nothing serious, just a choice.
Jet engine assembly line awaiting clean-up and paint. As it will all be hidden, I'll just paint what can be seen.
Nice work, Tamiya is a great place to start with most of the time if it weren't for the bloody price of the kits. Still I've dropped a number on them, on sale every time I can though. this is a really nice looking kit and you are make it look easy. Gotta be nice after working the JM-1 for a bit to go over to this.
Thanks guys. You've got that right Don. I'm going to be almost finished this before the JM-1. Engine covers needed a wee bit of coaxing but slotted into place very nicely. As expected, nothing can be seen of the engines unless you get a flashlight but they are needed to make sure the exhausts sit properly. I have an F.3 in the stash so maybe I'll detail an engine and leave the cover off.
Just need to install the cockpit (weird!!!) and the rear decking, then the painting commences.
Thank you Wojtek. Bit of a conundrum here: I was going to use the kit "YQ" decals and aftermarket J. However, the "YQ" are a brighter sky, more than likely the correct color and it also matches my last few drops of Pollyscale "Sky". So, short story getting longer, I'm going to use the aftermarkets for the entire code which means I can't use the Pollyscale...too bright. Soooooooooooo, I've got these two colors which are quite close to the aftermarkets: Tamiya XF-14(J.A. Grey) and XF-76(Grey Green(IJN)). Thoughts?