Thank you my friends for your great support!
CockpitIn all our plastic kits we have to build the cockpit at first, to be able to close the fuselage. This one is a bit different, the fuselage is painted, but the cockpit not yet done - this is now the next task.
Some parts was prepared at the very beginning, e.g. seat and fuel tank are soldered. Now I primed the parts.
To save time I painted then wood base and grain with acrylic paints followed by Clear Yellow and Clear Orange.
For the level gauge of the tank I used the etched part of the kit, but added stretched clear sprue.
A bigger amount of small PE parts are prepared:
Some parts are mounted into the frame.
But I indulged in a little luxury in the cockpit - a wooden steering wheel! The kit wheel was a flat PE part.
The cockpit is finished! On the left side the "Kristal Klear" on the amperemeter is not yet dry, and behind that I scratched a pulsometer and replaced the flat kit PE part.
The complete cockpit can be plugged into the fuselage and fits perfectly without rattling. The amperemeter (Eduard) is now visible.
Perfect flat on the front ...
... causes a new problem. My part of a ring on the engine wall was to thick and do not fit between tank and fuselage. But with the help of the mill this could be fixed easily.
The kit contain a piece of 0.1mm aluminum and a drawing in the manual for a maintenance cover. I would use the alu on the wooden fuselage variant, but for my painted over machine I used brass (later tinned).
Then I turned a fuel and an oil cap from 2mm brass rod.
But I dropped both on the floor and found only one. The parquet monster has eaten a cap! I have to turn a new one.
And now what you have all been waiting for!
A possible option for the black outline is to use a fine marker and draw the outline. Some very small tipped markers are available.
Ken, that was a great idea! I had no one, only a dried up CD marker.
But I asked my wife, and she has some markers, the thinnest is 0.05mm. I tried it on the middle of the tailplane, which is hidden in the fuselage cut later, and it works!
So I added the lines on the tail. Not perfect, but acceptable.
Cheers,
Frank