There's not much to show for a weekend's work, but the model is now ready for painting. All the joints have been sanded again and, where required, smoothed over with 'Superglue', and any sink holes or gaps have also been filled with this, and then sanded back. In order to check the joints, and see what the sanded surface detail looks like now, the upper surfaces were brush-painted with a coat of Humbrol matt Khaki, which will also act as a primer and base coat for the Dark Earth, which will be sprayed on once the model has been masked where required. This will allow the slightly lighter colour to be built up, giving a slightly weathered look, although as this aircraft was relatively new, care will be taken not to overdo the worn look.
Unfortunately, my Humbrol Dark Earth has once again dried in the tin, and I'm unable to pick up a new tin until Wednesday or Thursday, therefore I'll start work on the sub-assemblies such as the main wheels and props, and also make a master from which to mould the SBCs - all fourteen of them!
I'd considered making these by moulding them in resin, but this will prove a relatively expensive way of doing things, considering the cost of the resin, hardener and mould materials. Consequently I intend to mould these as I would clear canopies, by heat moulding with a male/female mould, but using plastic card instead of clear sheet. This should allow me to produce the outer container shape fairly easily and consistently (I hope!), without having to make a fully detailed master, and a two-part silicone mould. The majority of the finished containers will be placed on bomb trollies in the diorama, so the underside detail and the incendiaries themselves will not be seen. Those few which will be in the bomb bays, or posed being winched into position, can be individually detailed as required, and I'll cover this when I reach that stage.
If all goes to plan, I hope to have the basic model painted, decals applied and finishing coats on by the end of this week, or over the weekend, and then fit the canopy, nose glazing and turrets, and the main gear struts and wheels. Once this stage has been reached, work will commence on the diorama base itself, building the model into the surroundings as items are added, and fitting the fine details such as antenna and antenna wires, but again, this will be covered in detail once that stage is reached.
Meanwhile, here's how the model looks to date, and thanks again for your continued interest and kind words.