Thanks for the positive comments guys! I'm creeping forward with this build but ran into a little glitch that gave me pause. First a bit of detail work... the FuG16 antenna under the port wing could use a little refinement.
The tip was cut off and replaced with a strand of electrical wire.
I prepped the model for decaling by spraying on a coat of Alclad Gloss.
This is when I noticed that I had painted the fuselage bands way too large. No excuse really... just got careless. I tried placing the fuselage cross to see if this was something that I could accept but the error was just too obvious.
So starting from the tail, I narrowed the blue band with some white and then the white band with some blue. Comparing the profile with the picture below, you can see how far off I was.
After letting this dry, I will mask off the front edge of the blue and re-apply the camo pattern.
I congratulate and recognize the effort to do things as they should be (just right), I also consider myself a perfectionist, but in this hobby ... sometimes it hurts a little, but the satisfaction of the result, having overcome adversity and know that I did it well, always worthwhile.
I love the way you're going to build this great bird.
Picking up where I left off... the correction of the blue/white fuselage bands has been completed with the background camo filled in.
I had trouble attaching the landing gear. Both main legs snapped at the joint near the mounting peg due to the pressure I applied to force them into the square hole. The joint is awkward to secure since you have to push perpendicular to the gear leg. The tail gear leg broke when the model slipped. I superglued the main leg breaks and used a brass rod to secure the tail gear.
The decal was finished. The EagleCal decals are excellent... thin, minimum clear carrier overlap and crisply printed.
The decals were sealed with gloss and then an overall coat of flat (actually 50/50 mix of flat and gloss).
Ok... this one is a wrap! Weathering consisted of giving the panel lines a dark pastel wash and adding the exhaust stains. All of the bits and pieces were added including the drop tank, landing gear covers, various antenna and aerials. I broke the kit pitot tube so it was replaced by brass tubing. The DF loop antenna kept breaking so I had to redo it about 3-4 times... what a pain! Anyways, she's ready for pictures...
It was tremendous !!, at the bottom of the wings I loved the metallic part.
I admire and learn a lot from your work John.
What material do you use to wire antennas?