Hi Rick! Thanks for checking in. Yes, the engine error is major. I can only think they saw the good photographs of Jacob's plane and decided this was the right engine! Hopefully Aviattic will come to the rescue with an Obureusel for us - the remainder of the kit can be worked on!
Hi Europapete, Great to have you along! No, this is not a serious build, just fun! And I think a purple heart would be more appropriate! But I don't think it's all bad, the fit is great, outlines are really OK and some details can be easily added...
So here I go back to "Step 1" in the instructions: The frame halves are cleaned up, and all the transverse tubes attached. The instructions would have you add the ammunition bin, cockpit floor and rear wall at this stage, but I want to paint them separately first. I may be making a lot of trouble for myself (or even creating "Mission Impossible") but the frames are flexible and I can get them to fit in the fuselage halves first... It all looks a bit bland without paint...
The rear wall of the cockpit is a problem: It has the upper transverse mounting tube for the upper seat support moulded integrally: This makes it quite crude and will be obvious. I also has too great big fat ejection pin markings and two diagonal battens that should be wires. Just not good.
There is a quite simple fix: Just reverse it, add you ovwn transverse bar and diagonal rigging... You were going to do that anyway, I know... There are a few minor sink marks that help it to look like fabric! The lacing round the edge can also be added after drilling out all the fine holes, but my life is too short for that:
Then I started on the rear face of the firewall: The engine support struts and carburetor
glued in place: There isn't much detail here, I will check how much is visible before I start adding stuff!
All in a light, translucent grey plastic so not very interesting! But some progress is made:
Regards,
Marc