Thanks Wojtek.
Those with sharp eyesight will have noticed I described the parts wrongly in my last post !
The locating tabs on the gear legs run
fore and aft, instead of across the the legs, and the locating slots in the bays run
across the bay.
However, I think I've sorted this small, but important problem, by cutting off the tabs, and filing flat the top of each gear leg. A shallow 'slot' has been filed into each locating hole, and the legs, when fitted, will now sit in the slots, with the forward link arms attaching in a similar manner. It looks like the joint can be reinforced, by resting the top of each leg against the wall of the wheel bay, which should provide a strong enough bond - I hope !
The wings have been prepared and fitted, as described below, and the locations for the drop tanks have been covered with masking tape, to allow a clean joint, on bare plastic, once the model has been painted.
PICS 1 and 2. The Starboard wing in place, with quite a large gap on the upper surface, and the port wing, showing less of a gap.
These were attached with poly cement, and then held at the desired dihedral, and small amounts of CA adhesive added in strategic places to reinforce the joint and hold it in place whilst the poly cement set.
PICS 3 and 4. The gaps on the underside of the port and starboard wings weren't too bad, and were filled later, along with the upper surface gaps. The masking tape is covering the areas where the drop tank pylons fit, so that there will be a 'clean' surface on which to attach the tanks, after the model has been painted.
PIC 5. How the model looks with both outer wing sections fitted. The fin fillets have been sanded further, and the curve of the upper fillet corrected, with the rear of each fillet joint scribed in.
PIC 6. The large ventral fuel tank has been cemented in place, and small gaps around the front section filled with CA.
PICS 7 and 8. The gap on the upper side of the starboard wing had lengths of stretched sprue laid in, and melted into the gap with Tamiya Extra Thin cement, before trimming off the excess sprue. The underside of the port wing only required a short length of stretched sprue, yet to be sanded in this shot, with the remainder of the gap being filled with CA adhesive. Once sanded, any remaining small gaps will be filled with PVA.
PIC. 9 First stage of sanding on the upper joint of the starboard wing. My hands and wrists were quite painful by this stage, so the final sanding and polishing will be done tomorrow.
The wing joints aren't perfect, although they should look much better once they've had more sanding and a polish, and a coat of surface primer, but I'm
very relieved that the wings have been fitted, and without the problems or large gaps I expected, and the joints appear to be fairly robust too.
Next step is to fit the small tail bumper on the underside of the tail, and the resin support frame in the 'V' of the front cockpit, along with the resin gyro gun-sight, adding a reflector screen from clear sheet, and paint this assembly. The windscreen and canopy will then be masked and fitted, after first completing the final painting of the cockpit rear bulkhead etc. The frames of the screen and canopy will be painted in the interior colour, matt black, using 'straight' black, and the edges sealed with PVA once the parts have set..
First though, the canopy needs a slight repair, which I'll show when I'm ready to fit it, as there is a crack and and a small piece missing on the port lower rail, presumably where it was either removed from, or broken off from the sprue, before I received the kit.
This will be repaired by cementing a thin strip of plastic card along the inside of the frame, and then filling the small hole with 'Milliput' and sanding smooth.
Both the screen and canopy will also need a good polishing before masking, as they have a rather dull appearance, which I've also noticed on other Classic Airframes canopies. This will have to be done very carefully, as the material used seems to be rather brittle.
I
might dip them both in Humbrol Gloss Clear after polishing, to improve the clarity, although I have a slight concern that this might be affected by the masking tape.
Given I can get this work completed tomorrow, then it'll be time for the first stage of painting, although I have a heating engineer coming tomorrow, to do the annual gas safety check, so the painting stage depends on how long he takes to complete his work !
Thanks again to all for following this build, and for the nice comments and compliments. As I'm more or less on target, if the painting and final stages go to plan, I might even get the smaller-scale Meteor NF.14 done, and at least that one's a 'normal' kit, which should go together fairly quickly., and will
definitely be OOB - apart from home-made Squadron decals !
Back sometime tomorrow, all being well.