It's been a long month - busy at work, and days off with a screwed up back, meaning I couldn't even make use of the extra time to make any advance on this project! Slow progress indeed, but progress nevertheless.
I painted the forward fuselage to represent the wood. First using Uschi's decals, then, after seeing the pics of the TVAL replica and how the grain is barely visible, stripping them and just painting with acrylics. I also managed to get the rear fuselage decals done (after 5 attempts!). The Printscale Bavarian decals are VERY fragile and I went through 3 attempts before deciding to spray them with Testors sealer. That worked a treat and after one more failure due to my stupidity and cutting the wrap with the diamonds facing fore-aft instead of up-down, I succeeded in achieving a result I'm happy with. Only the rudder to do now....
I almost destroyed the whole thing when it popped out of the clamp...the shock of the clamp hitting the fuselage broke the engine, upper fuel tank and seat loose, and broke open the seam at the extreme front end under the nose. Fortunately I've managed to get everything back in place and a little filler should be all that's required under the nose....I hope
I hadn't realised how awful the painting of the metal parts on the nose is until looking at this pic, this will be corrected!
Ian
