Hi all, I am back with an update!
I’ve spent the past couple of days doing nothing but working on this build, everything fits like a dream as you’d expect with a Wingnut Wings kit.
Since I reignited my passion, the living space is quickly being taken over by aircraft models. My girlfriend respectfully requested that this one to be hung up to avoid more cluttering - we live downtown in a major metropolitan area, our apartment isn’t very spacious. After all, my joy in this hobby is making them, so I’m totally okay with this proposal.
Having the plane up also gave me the freedom to experiment with some painting and weathering techniques when it comes to the cockpit, in the end, some worked, some could’ve been better.
The instrument panel is the first thing I started on, in my excitement, I overlooked a small hole left by removing one of the instruments WnW had modeled on by mistake. I fitted the turtle deck and found it hardly visible so I’ll leave it as it is, and be able to sleep tonight.
The seat was painted only by hand, no airbrush involved. I tried treating it like a painting and blending different tones together - a layer of black in the creases, gradually working to lighter, diluted leather color. The heavily used areas I dabbed a little bit of dessert yellow with a cotton stick, and picked out the details with deck tan mixed with a tiny bit of hull red. Not as good as some other leather seats I’ve seen here but I’m happy with it
I had so much fun messing with the bombs, I know you will barely be able to see them so these bombs took on some heavy weathering, and became a testing ground for all newly procured weathering products. Once all buttoned up, they look fine to me.
The floor was painted wood, then chipping varnish, then rubber black. I didn’t really liked the chipping result so I threw around some dirt. The end result looks a bit messy to my eyes, but I can hardly imagine anyone taking a broomstick to it back in the 1910s, I’ll call it “authentic to the conflicts of the time”.
I had wanted to try out some leather print decals on the stools, however, an untimely storm made sure those decals were put to good use decorating the cardboard box they came in… I wasn’t disappointed by the end result so I’ll leave them as they are.
I'm still a long way from being done with the cockpit, all the parts are painted but weathering has just begun. I wanted to add some wires, bomb release handles, and just have some fun with it!
Next, I will probably follow the instruction and getting the fuselage pieces together, get ready for laying down the decals, but I’m still trying to find the right shade of dark blue for the nose, the one I have now seems way too dark might as well be black; maybe I will jump ahead and have some fun with these tantalizing leaky old engines! I am definitely building them uncowled, so I won’t skip any details here.
Something I wanted to say, it’s a strange experience building and documenting this kit - I’m one of the younger members of this forum, still in my 20s, working on a machine separated from me by an incomprehensible distance of time; made by a company that no longer exists, possibly even the last one of these kits; without the tested patience and talent expertly exhibited by everyone else here… I hope I can do this kit justice.
Stay tuned, I will try to update more frequently!
