Gentlemen, thank you all for the witty responses to my last post. I enjoyed them
. I hope that everyone on the Forum who had the opportunity to celebrate St Patrick's Day, had a good one. I certainly did, and am now feeling a great deal greener - particularly about the gills!
Between the cracks, I did manage to make a little more progress and here are the results:
Pictures 12. The main undercarriage, painted but not assembled yet. I still need to paint the outer doors in RLM 65 and will do that first, before assembly. The metal tie-clips are made from the soft wine bottle collar metal, unpainted. The bottoms of the tyres have been flattened using a hot iron. The painted tail wheel is positioned, so I can now fit the fuselage halves together.
Picture 3. The radiator and oil baths. The grills have been painted in a very thin, oily, black/brown wash, then drybrushed with Boltgun Metal. The oil bath exterior will eventually be painted yellow, with just the rear shutter left in RLM 65.
Picture 4. The cannons were painted in RLM 66, then drybrushed with Boltgun Metal.
Picture 5. Yes, in a fit of bravado, or madness, or indeed, alcohol, I decided today that I was going to try modeling this kite with its flaps and slats deployed. This, for me, is a very brave (or foolhardy) move, as I have never tried this type of drastic surgery before. I am relieved to report that I managed to separate all the components, with craft knives and saw, without causing too much damage. However, the manufacturer doesn't make this easy, as a number of the cut lines go through locating pins and the slat on the bottom wing half is right on the thick gluing plastic.
I realise now that I've given myself a lot more work to do, sanding and thinning the tailing edges and I still have to figure out how I'm going to replicate the inner flap faces and the inner slat carriage. Hopefully at this point I won't botch it, as I have no spares to fall back on, though I do have some good reference photos to work from.
That's it for now. I'll keep the forum posted on progress (or disasters).