Thanks very much, Glenn and Charles, glad you like it.
Well, I've been pleasantly surprised! Having seen and heard so much about the awful fuselage joint on this kit, confirmed by Vic's experiences and by test-fitting the kit parts, and with the experience of the Buccaneer still fresh in my memory, I managed to complete this stage of the assembly with very little hassle, and the gaps and alignment are nowhere near as bad as I anticipated.
Having said that, this is certainly not one of Airfix's better offerings, being generally poor quality, bordering on crude in some areas, with most of the parts made from a low-quality plastic which even feels 'cheap', and reminds me of early Chinese, imported plastic toys from the 1950s.
This kit was first released in 2004, so not 'old' compared to some, and was priced at £25 ($40 US), which is 'Tamigawa' territory, but without the 'class'. From the box art down, the kit cries 'third world, unknown company', and is a prime example of how out-sourcing should not be done!
Fortunately, I obtained this example in a sale from a well-known outlet, at half price, which to be honest is about what it's worth and, at the time, the Italeri kit was out of production, and the Hobby Boss product had not even been announced.
To be fair though, I don't mind using a basic kit, if it can be made into a good model, and the price is not a rip off, and now that this is starting to take shape, I think it could turn out to be a very nice model, with a little extra work improving various areas.
Anyway, back to the build.
PIC 1. The gun port has been drilled out, and a length of hypodermic needle supeglued in place to represent the muzzle of the 27mm Mauser cannon.
PICS 2 and 3. The auxiliary vents on the underside have been drilled and reamed, and await cleaning in these shots. The moulded-in RHAG hook will be replaced with a scratch-built item later in the build.
PIC 4. The variable geometry wings, and the 'flying tail', have to be fitted onto the internal location points before joining the fuselage halves. Shown here is the very flimsy 'sweep' mechanism, which is very poorly produced. The kit provides small plastic 'washers' to lock the pivot arm to the wings, but these were not much use, and I used the old-fashioned method of flattening the joining pins with a heated knife blade. I wasn't at all interested in having operating wings, and nearly just glued them onto the swivel pins, but I knew that, when it came to sanding and plugging the fuselage joints, it would help if the wings coud be moved to allow access.
PIC 5. The utterly useless, and extremely weak method of mounting the tail planes. There are two 'stop pins' on the lower fuselage which prevent the 'planes from moving more than a millimetre or two, so it would have been much better to have a more substantial method of mounting these parts. I was going to use a length of brass tube, but I seem to have put it somewhere safe ...!
PIC 6. Having seen the problems Vic had, and after countless test-fitting sessions, it was very evident that there would be a large 'step' between the upper and lower fuselage halves once joined. The solution was to fit a 'spreader' - just a measured length of sprue - to push-out the thinner lower fuselage section, in order for it to at least partly match-up at the joint. This thin plastic is used for all the kit parts, with the exception of the upper fuselage half, which is thicker, much more rigid, and has recessed panel lines and detail. The rest of the kit has somewhat crude, and often ill-defined, raised detail.
PIC 7. The kit instructions call for 15 grammes of weight in the nose. So, using the formula normally employed for calculating explosive charges, with 'P' being the executive consideration, and where 'P' = 'Plenty', I bunged in around 40 grammes of roofing lead, held in place with 'Plasticine'. That nose ain't going anywhere apart from down !!
The black-painted area is intended to provide depth in front of the cockpit, so that the empty space is not seen beneath and in front of the instrument panel.
PIC 8. With the wings and tail planes sitting on their respective locating points, the upper fuselage half was carefully lowered into position, and glued in stages, starting from the nose. The joint was aligned as best as possible, with drops of 'superglue' also being used where needed, and the vulnerable areas tightly taped ( 'Bulldog' clips were also used initially, to 'pull down' those areas prone to parting under tension.).
PICS 9 to 12. Although some sanding, and a bit of filler, will still be required, the join is nowhere near as bad as I expected, and I think it should clean up nicely. It's certainly 200% better than the horror story seen on the Buccaneer, which some of you may remember, and any damage to the surface detail is rather irrelevant, as what little detail there is is mis-aligned and very feint anyway, and will need to be re-scribed.
So, with that major hurdle out of the way, I'm a somewhat happy bunny, and I can proceed with the joint correction once it has all fully set. Meanwhile, I have now identified which particular aircraft is going to be depicted, and have started planning the home made decals which, if all goes to plan, I should be able to print later this week.
Thanks yet again for your interest and kind comments, and I'll post another up-date soon.