Thanks Wayne.
Still tweaking the cannon blisters and am not yet satisfied. I'll show pics when I'm done. In the meantime, I got on with the IP and cockpit but first off, I painted the revised wheel well. Note that I chopped off the plastic cannon barrels and left the spar mounts. The well has been given a gloss coat to accept a wash so appears a bit odd here.
The kit instrument panels are provided as thick PE. The upper and lower panels were connected with two tabs which were supposed to be foldedso the the panels are properly spaced. Yeah, says I, that ain't gonna work so I cut the tabs and left one so I can handle the upper panel while painting. The panels were shot with primer, then RLM 66 and he instruments were picked out in black. At this point I realized that the bomb panel should be removed as I'm building the kit with no center stores.
After scoring the panel and dulling my x-acto blade in the process, I snapped off the bomb panel and painted the instruments with white and the various colours. This was followed by creating the lenses with a dab of clear parts cement. Far from perfect results but it's more than adequate in 1/48 and the fact that the panels are tucked far up into the tub and I'm modelling the canopy closed.
The tub was painted 66 and got a heavy chipping treatment before the panel was added and the PE belts were installed and painted. I like to have the lap belts standing up a bit as in reality they were quite thick and stiff.
DML took a lazy shot at providing the throttle handle as a moulded part on the side panel. I contemplated leaving this as is for the reasons mentioned but I don't think it will do. I think I'll add a piece of rod to improve this a bit.
And you are once again up to date. Thanks for following.