All,
I started another little build tonight. I volunteered to do a beta build of his unpublished model which is turning out to be lots of fun!
Here is the kit shot:
Firstly, you fold over and glue parts like the struts, tails, props etc. that need it. This part is really cool since one side of each of these pieces is much larger than needed so that when you cut on the "correct" side, you end up with a perfect fit and no white areas of miss match. Love it. I also embossed along all the fold lines so that forming the fuselage and tabs would be easier.
I followed the directions but I used the wooden bulkheads for doublers where they made sense. Here you see those bulkheads doubled with the "wood" parts.
Then I cut out the tabs and fuselage parts and glued them together. Then, on to the gunner's tub. This is a tricky piece as you need to form it with a nice rounded contour in the cockpit opening to make it look right. This wasn't hard but just took time. I also glued in the gun ring temporarily as a way to help shape the rear cockpit. I still didn't get it completely circular...likely just me! Still, it looks pretty ok to my eye.
Then the formers were installed and the fuselage parts glued together. Just taking my time, everything lined up a treat. I was especially amazed by the black stripe and how the fuselage lines look almost seamless. Someone with more skill could, no doubt, do a better job.
Finally, I couldn't help adding the distinctive tails since those scream Hannover. Again, the parts fit almost perfectly and are straight "out of the box". Here it is as of tonight.
So for me, the biggest issues have been the rear cockpit (which is also highlighted as tough in the instructions) and the lower fuselage under the tail. Mine doesn't look quite right. I'll show a picture later.
All in all...great fun and I'm loving it.
Cheers,
Dan
