Construction and Painting

I finally got round to chucking some paint on this one. The cockpit is nearly complete and the wheel wells are coming along nicely with the eduard PE set.  

The Model at about 90% complete. This canopy mask took a long time to remove and tidy. I had a go with some Windsor and newton masking solution as we needed some anyway, and the results werent so great. The latex stetched a lot more than i remember maskol doing. and stuck in some places. Next time im using maskol! 

A bit of a jump in my photography. The model is done!
A big plus for this kit is that for most of the building process you will have three sturdy sub assemblies: fuselage and two wings with a wheel well on each, which can be test fitted regularly and even hold still in position without glue (not recommended though).
 

I mixed the colours using tamiya acrylics. I didnt look up any guides or rules for period colour schemes on this one, just threw together some mixes as close as i could get to those recommended by the instructions: a mix of a blue-grey and neutral grey for the underside, neutral grey for the top, and a mix of nato green and dark green. 

The underside details are nice in this scale. The only letdown for me was the PE Eduard door arms, which replace the existing chunky tamiya plastic ones. They are very fragile with barely any surface area to hold onto the bomb and landing gear doors, so mine have ended up as a bit of a swelling of super glue where each one has been glued 3 or 4 times to get it where it is now. 

Overall im really happy with the finish on this one. I like the colour scheme and the buildup of grim using various Mig Enamel effects. I had a few major mistakes towards the end of the build which detract a bit from the quality, nut i did my best to cover these issues up!