Progress the last couple of weeks has been spotty and frustrating.
The brake lines on the main gear are quite complex, with the main hydraulic line teeing off to the back and front of the wheels. There must have been an inner and outer brake. The outer line ran through the hollowed out axle from the tee in the back. To replicate this, I had to modify the kit strut (Photo 1) to add the hollow axle and lines. First, I added a thin slice of plastic hose to represent the end of the hub. Then I drilled a hole a bit into the axle but not all the way. I also drilled part way in from the front hub. Brake lines were then added to front and back with 26ga copper wire (Photo 2) . Note that the tires were also flattened.
Photo 3 shows the finished gear. I had also drilled out the lightening holes in the torque links. Funny how Tamiya has great details in many places but leaves out some highly visible things like this. It was at this point that I realized all of my detail work at the back of the wheel hub was going to be hidden by the wheel well door. Worse, all the stuff I added was going to interfere with this piece, so I had to hollow out the doors (Photo 4) and squash the brake lines so the gear doors would fit on.
The work that was going on in parallel was the seemingly endless work needed around the rear canopy to fuselage joint (Photo 5) which needed several passes of white glue and putty to get a smooth transition. I also had to grind down the fuselage here with my Dremel tool to blend in the canopy piece.
Good thing I had my little Kettenkrad to work on when I needed a break from the 262. Photo 6 shows some progress on this little gem.
On to painting this weekend. Pics tomorrow.