Thanks Wayne. I appreciate it.
Lots to show today, beginning with the hollowing out of the exhaust stacks. The lower set in the below photo shows the kit supplied pieces and the upper row shows the beginnings of the drilling out process. After the drill, some scraping with a knife thinned the edges a bit to the extent possible.
Next, the gear doors were too thick for my liking so I got out my trusty Dremel and thinned the edges that would be visible:
A part of the build I wasn't looking forward to. The kit had the option to install clear nav lights. To do this, the molded plastic bulges had to be removed (which I had done some time ago) and then small holes had to be drilled to receive the nub on the clear light. Having drilled the holes, I painted the nubs on the clear parts red, green, and white for the port, starboard, and tail lights respectively and glued them into position:
Then it was on to some weathering. Below is a shot of the grimed up underside with the landing gear and bomb racks installed
Next is a detail of the gun bay hatch with the fasteners highlighted with a wash of black and brown and the ejector chutes (which I drilled out some time ago) getting some smoke treatment with black pastels.
Here's a close up of the cockpit area with some serious oil stains having been applied and a bit of chipping done with a silver pencil. Note that I've begun to install the side glazing, including the broken one, and that I still need to blend these into the fulselage and paint the frames. Pics later when these are done.
Here are two shots of the finished exhuast stacks. These were painted first with a mixture of gloss brown and silver and then the tips were highlighted with Humbrol steel. The exhaust stains are black pastel chalk.
Left to do is to finish the side glazing panels, install the sliding canopy, pitot tube, and antenna wires. Should be done next weekend. Thanks for stopping by.