Thank You everyone for the helpful replies! Rick, it's good to hear these struts are stronger than they look - or feel - I do remember being very dubious about the WNW DVII U/C struts, but mine survived a 2000 km trip to a convention, by car, standing on it's U/C, and 3 years later is OK! Must admit I did add wire cross braces... Frank, I know it works well for you, but I'm a bit scared of adding too much tension on the struts with my ham-fisted efforts by using fishing line! Ferry, I also shy away from monofilament as it tends to be affected by heat and humidity, maybe it's just me!
So, on with the build... did the masking now, tissue crammed in the cockpit, but careful marking of the upper strut attachment points... to prevent fitting problems later!
Then a very thin coat of a brew of flat black, medium grey and my last bit of Nato black, Tamiya acrylics, thinned with their thinner and a touch of gloss and a drop of acrylic retarder.... (Mix really well, dance around it three times making whooping noises and you're good to go...)
Wait a minute, I hear you say, this wasn't going to be Josef Jacob's Dr.1... Well, this is just the first undercoat. A dark glossy colour kills the translucency of the plastic and shows up flaws much, much better than any other colour, have you ever owned a black car? The armour modellers are into "black-basing" these days, where they start with a black colour and go to successively lighter shades to get that 3D effect, I'm not really aiming for that but it may help... Need to let this all dry...
Regards,
Marc
