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- #81
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks Scott, very informative. I see now how the unit was mounted but, again, I'll make my life easier and stick with the pre-mod finned cooler to avoid having to scratch build the intake and exhaust fairings. I also think that I'll stick with the nose landing light as well since the way the profile shows the original nose cone. I'll rely on the excuse that my model will depict the aircraft fresh for the UK with no mods and no dings from the sprogs.
Cracking on then, the instrument panel which was assembled a few years back was installed onto the inside of the canopy insert. Again, the absence of locating pins or any helpful reference points made this a trial and error affair, as evidenced by the glue marks. I used CA gel, quickly gluing the panel on and then seeing if it fit into the cockpit. The third try did the trick. The glue marks look ugly, yes, but will be hidden under the sill when everything is together. The center console, seen on the left side of the resin sprue, was painted, as was the compass. The latter doesn't appear in the instructions, nor is there a shelf on which to mount it.
Mounting of the console was another brain teaser. The instructions just tell you to slap it onto the instrument panel but again there are no locating aids. The unit needs to sit flush with the floor though so how to measure the gap? I'm not small enough. To do this, I stuck a piece of tape on the back of the panel and trial fit the canopy. Then I looked through the nose to see if the tape was touching the floor. Adjust the tape as necessary and repeat until the right distance is found. Note the excellent detail on the instrument faces that the kit provides - amongst the best I've seen but unfortunately largely hidden.
With the tape now the right length, the console was glued in place and this allowed the rudder pedals to be fitted as well. Pretty ugly modeling but I gooped a lot of glue on the IP and other parts because I don't want them coming loose. Again, all this is invisible through the nose.
Here's the other side with the console now painted, compass glued in, and the PE levers glued on.
During the CA gluing, I used some accelerator and some of it ran onto the inside of the clear parts. It left a dull stain and neither water, alcohol, nor Windex removed the stain. However, a bit of Future brushed on a tiny trial area seemed to hide it so I dipped the clear part in a bowl of Future and will allow that to dry over night before gluing the insert to the model.
In other news, I drill out the small clear illumination panels. The kit provides clear parts for these but they look pretty ratty and will likely not fit well. I plan on closing the ports with Testors Clear Parts Cement once the model is painted, since the holes aren't too big.
That's it for today. Once the canopy is in place, there will be yet more masking and then a coat of grey green applied to everything to both create the interior colour as well as to see where I need to fill or file. Thanks again for stopping by.
Cracking on then, the instrument panel which was assembled a few years back was installed onto the inside of the canopy insert. Again, the absence of locating pins or any helpful reference points made this a trial and error affair, as evidenced by the glue marks. I used CA gel, quickly gluing the panel on and then seeing if it fit into the cockpit. The third try did the trick. The glue marks look ugly, yes, but will be hidden under the sill when everything is together. The center console, seen on the left side of the resin sprue, was painted, as was the compass. The latter doesn't appear in the instructions, nor is there a shelf on which to mount it.
Mounting of the console was another brain teaser. The instructions just tell you to slap it onto the instrument panel but again there are no locating aids. The unit needs to sit flush with the floor though so how to measure the gap? I'm not small enough. To do this, I stuck a piece of tape on the back of the panel and trial fit the canopy. Then I looked through the nose to see if the tape was touching the floor. Adjust the tape as necessary and repeat until the right distance is found. Note the excellent detail on the instrument faces that the kit provides - amongst the best I've seen but unfortunately largely hidden.
With the tape now the right length, the console was glued in place and this allowed the rudder pedals to be fitted as well. Pretty ugly modeling but I gooped a lot of glue on the IP and other parts because I don't want them coming loose. Again, all this is invisible through the nose.
Here's the other side with the console now painted, compass glued in, and the PE levers glued on.
During the CA gluing, I used some accelerator and some of it ran onto the inside of the clear parts. It left a dull stain and neither water, alcohol, nor Windex removed the stain. However, a bit of Future brushed on a tiny trial area seemed to hide it so I dipped the clear part in a bowl of Future and will allow that to dry over night before gluing the insert to the model.
In other news, I drill out the small clear illumination panels. The kit provides clear parts for these but they look pretty ratty and will likely not fit well. I plan on closing the ports with Testors Clear Parts Cement once the model is painted, since the holes aren't too big.
That's it for today. Once the canopy is in place, there will be yet more masking and then a coat of grey green applied to everything to both create the interior colour as well as to see where I need to fill or file. Thanks again for stopping by.
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