Well, it's now ready for some paint !
All the little fiddly jobs have been done, such as filing, sanding and polishing, and smoothing out areas such as wing joints, and some extra detail has been added to intakes, and control surface hinge lines.
The model has now been cleaned and polished, although this hadn't been done when the pics were taken, and is now masked, ready for spraying the 'Sky' under surfaces.
PIC 1. The navigation lamps have been filed to shape, sanded smooth and polished, and will recieve a gloss clear coat after the model has been painted.
PIC 2. The landing lamps have been glazed, and the transparent covers fitted, and await final polishing in this pic. The moulded gun ports have also been drilled out, to give a more realistic appearance once the 'fabric' patches have been added and 'torn'.
PIC 3. All the small vents and intake scoops on the nose have been drilled out. I would have preferred to use a thinner drill bit, which I do have, but the pin vice wouldn't grip it !
PIC 4. The rear fuselage lifting points have been drilled, at lower right. Above and left can be seen the small hole drilled for the IFF wire attachment point. Small holes have also been drilled into each tail plane tip for these wires, which will be added near the very end of the build.
PIC 5. The tail lamp housing has been slightly re-shaped, and drilled out, and will be painted and glazed after the model has been painted. Just visible near the rudder trim tab, are the holes drilled for the actuator cable and horn, which will be made from stretched sprue, and fitted later.
PIC 6. Some hinge detail has been engraved into the elevators, and the trim tabs engraved. Also visible is the hole drilled into the top of the rudder, for the fin antenna post.
PIC 7. The rudder has received similar treatment. The small hole at the right of the photo is the IFF wire attachment point.
PIC 8. The top of the fuselage has had holes drilled for the bead post sight, on the cowling, and for the top navigation lamp and antenna wire lead-in, the latter two front and rear respectively of the hole for the antenna mast.
PICS 9 and 10. The model masked, ready for painting.
I hope to get the basic painting completed this weekend, in between working on the Bf109, and house cleaning !
Although this started as an OOB build, I decided to do a bit more, just to give some idea of what can be done with an oldish, basic kit, without going overboard, or using after market accessories.
Thanks again for your kind comments and interest, all of which is very much appreciated.