Thanks very much guys. Been on holidays with the family and the surf has been good so not too much modelling has been happening!
Anyway, found some time so decided to do a bit of work on the oil cooler and radiator. Below are a couple of reference photos of the radiator courtesy of Geo's Veltro build thread.
Predictably, Eduard has provided PE for the coolers, so the first step was to sand off Hasegawa's moulded detail.
At this point I was faced with a choice. The instructions call out the grilles in aluminium so the easiest way to do this would be to paint the backing plastic black and then paint the PE grilles aluminium and install them. However, I find this a bit stark. I think a more realistic weathered finish can be achieved by installing the PE, black-basing the whole assembly and then drybrushing the grilles. So, the next step was to install the PE grilles, which was a 3-layered affair. The side detail and brace at the rear of the radiator housing and door at the rear of the oil cooler housing were also installed at this point.
A word to the wise for anybody building this kit, the fit of the PE was not perfect and a bit of test-fitting and sanding was required to make sure the PE would not impinge on the housings once fitted.
Anyway, once that was satisfactory the whole lot was black-based, including the resin engine plug, but more on that later...
The grilles were then drybrushed aluminium. I should have also photographed these on my cutting mat as the contrast is poor here, but not a bad likeness to the top reference picture I think.
Starting to get sick of the sight of PE and about to get sick of the sight of resin...