Thanks all!
Hi Dutch - nothing too complex for the panel lines; I pretty much use a hobby knife blade and, if needed, a simple straight pointed scriber. For heavier panel lines, I do sometimes use dental scribers (those ones that dentists love to use but that we patients all hate), but I don't use those all that regularly (I didn't use those tools on this model).
I've also had some comments outside of this thread regarding the Master barrels, and the fact that I haven't quite gotten them to fit correctly (the flash suppressor is too far forward from the booster, and the barrel doesn't necessarily go all the way through to the breech block, for example). Indeed these observations are correct.
There are several challenges with the Master set; the barrel itself that slots into the face of the jacket and runs to the breech block is actually too long; it would require drilling longitudinally into the breech block to fit. I took the easier option and trimmed the end off; there was no science in this; I did trim it too short to make sure it didn't cause me problems (this is apparent in close up photographs, but in real life, we're talking something smaller than a hobby knife blade in total length, so it's hard to see unless your nose is 2 inches away from the part... once it's in place on the model it will be very difficult to spot... so I left it).
The second issues is the barrel / flash suppressor sticks out too far from the booster housing. This was apparent even when I built it. This part of the Master set is separate; it fits into a recessed cup at the end of the booster housing, but that cup is a tad too shallow, which prevents the end piece from fully slotting into the housing. As this is brass, and the pieces are quite small, I didn't attempt to drill this out further, in case I risked damaging the parts.
The parts are very small, even in 1/48 scale, and given the fragility of the items in question, I decided not to 'push my luck', so to speak, and left them as is. It's far from perfect, but I am very far from a perfect modeller, haha!
I did contemplate using a set of the Gaspatch guns, which I have used before on several models. I do love the Gaspatch items, but I did have a little bit of trouble fitting these to my Albatros DV; they are just a tad large for the Eduard model, so for this one I went with the kit guns and the Master set, as I have a couple of sets of the Master barrels in the stash. Next time, I think i'll go back to the Gaspatch guns.
In any case, the fuselage is now together and drying; next step, clean up of the seams and starting work on the flying surfaces.
Cheers again!
BC
