Thanks Stefan, I'll try to keep it interesting!
Made a bit of progress despite the effects a minor disaster here; we had a pipe leak in the ceiling of our downstairs, water damage to the walls and flooring but thankfully minimal damage to the contents of the room. (Spare bedroom) All is in hand with the Insurance and repair people, now it's just the inconvenience of all the work being done over the next several weeks. I feel very fortunate that, at this stage , it appears that the damage is limited to just the one room!
So, in my few spare moments I completed the engine. This aircraft had the 160HP Gnome Monosoupape 9N Rotary installed. The Kits engine is very "plain" in appearance and has a few errors that stand out. Although the engine is almost totally concealed by the cowling I elected to detail it a bit. First, a complete clean up of the parts was required, lots of flash and mold marks being removed. A second Spark Plug (Plain plastic sprue) had to be added to each cylinder to match the twin plugs of the original and different shades of Alclad II Metal Paint were used. Once assembled I added the electrical wires to the plugs to complete the job. After fiddling with first copper wire, then stainless guitar strings, I elected to use EZ Line for the wires which worked very well. A wash of very thin Model Master Semi Gloss Black added some "grungy oil effect" with some shading effect as well and she was done.
The only other thing I'd consider doing different in retrospect is replacing the lifter rods. they are a little thick even after considerable shaving while cleaning them up, For the tiny bit that is visible, however, I'm quite pleased with the results. Now it's on to module #2, the cockpit.
Cheers,
Lance
