Got in some more work on this, Gentlemen.
Pretty near finished it, in fact....
Some bits of detail and finish repair had to be done on the nose before putting the upper wing on. These were advanced trainers, and often used for gunnery training, so the Vickers was often fitted.
The upper wing went on very nicely (though as you can see I had to do a bit of clean-up at the apex of the rear cabane inverted vee, and the spot still needs a lick o' paint). I added the front cabanes after the wing was on; they needed a bit of trimming.
I like the Rising Decals set very much, the decals are good quality and go down extremely well once in place.
I did have a bit of a problem with the tail numbers, though. They made the mistake of assuming what was on one side was the same as the other, but in photographs I have seen, it is pretty clear that on the port side is type and weight, and on the starboard side is location and something else. The sheet includes decals for two examples of the Ko-3, one with type and weight for both sides, and one with location and something else for both sides. I swapped these around, but when I went to put the separated '23' down, it rolled up on itself as I slid it off the backing, and froze. So I had to make new numbers for the tail, and the font I had available in dry-transfer gives numbers that are a little wider than they ought to be, though they are the right height.
Photographs which do show the underside of the lower wing of these machines reveal the serial number there. It is not always in the same position, but one such photograph of an early 80hp type shows the number in very close to the wing root.
Next will be putting in the rigging, adding the aileron cranks and propeller, and the usual bits of touching up....
