finally i think ive made enough progress to warrant a few phots. ive been crook as a dog for a couple of weeks, and its still cold enough in my shed at the moment to make model work unpleasant when Im trying to cough my lungs up. but the weather is improving and so is my temperament.
ive fitted the cockpit bath the IP, the engine, put the two fuselage halves together, fitted the undercarriage (in the "up" position), and fitted the wings. both the fuseelage joining and the wing assembly has been difficult, and as the shots show, ther is lots of filling. i have had a lot of trouble getting the fuselage and the wings to marry to each other, and ive spent the best par of three days, adjusting, filling and sanding. ive made a pretty cool tool to sand in the pit of the wing and fuselage, basically a piece of pointed ruber on the end of a smal stick, which i can attach my fine emery. ive still got sanding to do but i am beginning to be happier.
Ive not fitted the tail yet, deliberately. i think i will do the white tailed version, and leaving the tail wings off will make masking a lot easier. i can paint the tail planes separately and attach them later i think.
im going to use a method described by Terry for the white tail. basically after making off , apply another coat of white on the top of the mask, to seal off any leakages past the masking and bleeding into the white tail. im keen to test the theory.....