Thanks folks, this is doing OK as a quick build. I have made quite a bit of progress on the model, but it won't be done in a weekend. I have probably done about 15/16 hours on it, but if I was to dedicate every waking hour from friday teatime until sunday bedtime that would give 30+ hours, then it could be done. This still would preclude the use of oils for woodgraining, and the more skilled you are the quicker you work I suppose.
I have assembled the fuselage halves then the lower wing to the fuselage, painted this with a little filler added, as well as the top wing. I used Revell Aqua no 99 Aluminium for the doped areas, in thinned coats. This Italian version calls for overpainting of French roundels, which I think has come out ok. I touched up the wheels, tail skid, and drilled out some of the rigging holes.
For the prop and wing struts I used coloured pencils to give hints of colour variation in the wood, then a wood colour wash and finally a tinted klear coating. The wing struts have aluminium bands, about 1mm thin, which I tried to do freehand but really ought to be masked. The day finally caught up with me and I stopped here, for fear of making a silly mistake.
Although the weekend opportunity has now passed, I will attempt to finish this asap, as if I could have committed more time to it.
That's my conclusion really, you can build this over a weekend, just, but don't expect to do anything else!
