I pulled out the Pup and started giving it the once over in order to decide what to do next. The fit of the fuselage to the lower wing was atrocious. I started this kit with no idea just how close the tolerances on WnW kits can be and all that came out in the lower wing to fuselage joint. the bit of cockpit tub hanging down below the airfoil shaped cut out was a scosch wide and a bit more than that too deep.
A bit of judicious scraping cured the width issue. The cockpit floor needed to be much thinner and the part of the lower wing piece directly under the cockpit had to be thinned considerably as well. I had at it with sanding sticks, X-acto blades and files. In nearly half a dozen sessions throughout the day, (I have learned to walk away from the bench, an effective technique with many applications), I thinned the cockpit floor to paper thin and scraped the center part of the lower wing piece until it was more flexible than I was really comfortable. Finally I got the fit between lower wing and fuselage that I was looking for. I will be approaching my next WnW interior assembly with a weather eye for layers of paint on mating surfaces now that I know how hard they bite.
With all the handling of the lower wing, I noticed some drops of something had splattered on the CDL paint I had applied 2 yrs ago. It was then I found the CDL paint I had mixed had dried up. I just don't see a way to match colors again, (I use Artist's Acrylics mixed with Future for paint.), so both wings get a bath in brake fluid and I will just start over. Might have been more realistic if the two lower wing panels has slightly different tones of CDL since damaged panels were often replaced with undamaged or repaired salvaged panels. Something I would quickly tire of explaining.
I had dealt with rib tapes by painting them a lightened shade of my CDL. I am under the impression that the edges of most WWI rib tapes were frayed. I heard it explained that doping the frayed edges down sealed the tape to the wing fabric. I bought it and so I didn't really want razor sharp lines defining the edges of the tapes. I used a small brush and carefully free handed the very nicely molded tapes. I kept a damp rag to hand and simply wiped off any mistakes. Took a while, but I was real pleased with the result. Just for giggles, I masked a couple of tapes and painted them. First time using that Tamaya yellow masking tape, nice stuff. The rib tapes came out with lovely sharp, crisp edges and just did not look right to me. So after the brake fluid cleaning I will be doing all the lower surface rib tapes by hand. No way I would ever attempt hand painting rib tapes but for the really nicely molded tapes on the WnW Pup's wings. They made it real easy to keep the paint where I wanted it.
sp
