Jssel's Dirty Dora-Done dirt cheap.***Finished***

[jssel]

Here is where I will mangle the Modele Reduit. Looks like a great little kit.

[jssel]

To start with, here is the box art. Remember this era?



What is inside the box which should be the same as all the others:



The instruction sheet plus the kit decals at the top and some decals from the spares box below:




Looks straight forward. I once considered this for a Blitzer.

Oh, dear..........the wheel well is solid. Tsk, Tsk.

So I am pumped and ready. With two other build going on what am I thinking.

[jssel]

Work commences with the wing. Following Brews lead, I drilled out the spent shell casing chutes. Overall, a good snug fit to the wing pieces. Stretched sprue was added to the wingtip panel line and a bit of filler to blend it all in.



The cockpit piece was fit in next. Rather basic right now.




Once the fuselage halves are together(dry fit), the piece looks quite nice. Once painted and tape belts added, it will be dressed up nicely.



Worked on the propeller next. Drilled in the hole at the pointy end as that is quite prominent on FDubs. Oh........messy me as the glue oozed out the two pieces.

[Dirkpitt289]

Nice start Jeff. It goes to show that once the fuselage sides are assembled not much will be seen. Saves time as now I know all that will be needed is some belts.

[jssel]

Nice catch, Brews. I'll review that one myself.
More glueing today. Fuselage halves and wings to fuselage.



Masking tape for belts (Done Dirt Cheap)

[jssel]

I concur with that. The Walk Around book shows it to be pretty accurate, just thick.

[jssel]

So today I have the main frame together. I have found that this kit fits pretty well overall and would rate it as one of the better Airfix kits.



Now on to some detailing.

The 300 litre fuel tank is OK but lacks a little prominent detail. One is the seam line which Brews discusses on the Fixes thread. In this case, I used a very fine piece of stretched sprue and using liquid cement tacked and wrapped the sprue in place. Next will come a piece of decal that will be wrapped around the tank vertically to serve as an attachment belt. Two little projects that make a world of difference in the appearance.



Finally, a hole was drilled behind the RDF loop mount in which a piece of sprue will be added to serve as the IFF antenna. And yes, the digital photography really shows that I missed taking off the "burr boogers" off the horizontal stabs.



First casualty was breaking off the pitot tube so that will be replace with a straight pin later. I may used pins for the wing guns also.

[jssel]

I forgot to add that two holes were drilled for the boarding step which will be scratched later on.

[jssel]

External fuel tank is now ready for RLM76. Hope the decal idea will look OK.



Landing gear struts with a coat of RLM02. A good wash and paint in the oleo strut boots next.



Always a glutten for punishment, I will use the kit supplied canpy. Dry fitting has shown that the overall fit is OK but there is a step on the rear edge. Wet sanding the piece carefully with periodic dry fits and now it looks like it will set nicely on the frame.



Finally, holes were drilled into the leading edge of the wing for the gun camera aperture and a new pitot tube.

[jssel]

Started looking over my paint supplies for late war Luftwaffe today. In the mean time I laid in the missing gun tubes that are so visible in the wheel wells. I used Evergreen Rod for this.



Also, worked on the landing gear, mountingthe wheels onto the legs.



One last look at the seams and such and than over to the paint shop.

[jssel]

Working on the undersurface today. RLM76 from the PollyScale line. The wing center sections I painted bare metal with Tamiya Aluminum. The underwing crosses were cut out of full Balkenkruz(sp). When the dull coat sets up, a wash will be applied to the wheelwells.

[TimJ]

That's looking great Jeff.

[jssel]

Still battling a head cold from last week, I am up with Nyquil and so it is time to start the Luftwaffe paint scheme.

I have chosen RLM83/75/76 overall and a mottling of 81 Brunviolet on the tail. Again the paint of choice is PolyScale thinned with tap water and shot from a Badger 200 at around 20psi.









Roughed in, I will go back over a few areas. Now out comes the #10/0 hairy stick to start detailings guns, exhaust stubs etc.

I need to add here that the landing gear is a real weak link in this kit. The attachment pins are very thin and break easily.

[Dirkpitt289]

I'm always impressed by you guys that can free hand a paint job. Tried that a few months ago on a Typhoon and botched it all to he*@!!

[Titan]

That is coming along very nicely Jeff, nice paint work.

Regards
Mark