Rob's big Texan

[rob_van_riel]

You know what's really sad about all this? None of it will be visible..

The sides of the fuselage are single piece jobs, only the top in front of the cockpit is a separate part that could provide a view. The part however, will be needed to keep the front ends of the fuselage halves together, and so can't be left loose. I know there's the whole "but I'll know it's there" thing, but for two or three vaguely interesting parts and a lot of boring rods and bars...? They could at least have made it optional, by supplying an ugly but sturdy connectiong part as well as the fiddly bits

The fuselage halves, by the way, are completely bare on the inside, but the Eduard set provides beautiful internal panelling, which fits perfectly and easily without any kind of modifications to the kit parts involved.

[iggie]

You'd still have used the 'fiddly' bits; you know they are there and that's all that matters!

[rob_van_riel]

You'd still have used the 'fiddly' bits; you know they are there and that's all that matters!

Oh I'll go to crazy lengths for a spot of invisible detail, but in this case it might well have been different. This had the potential to mess up the very visible exterior of the model; I'm not certain I'd have risked a bent plane just for some invisibles..

I took a picture of the inner panelling before painting, and in retrospect, that was a good idea. I'm just a sucker for the colours of fresh brass, especially in cases like this where it emphasizes the detail. Dull green kills the looks fairly harshly. I'll have to put a rather heavy wash of the panels to bring out the detail again. But that's OK, I can handle washes



And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to close up the fuselage tomorrow
It's probably a bit silly, but to me that's always a major event when building aircraft.

[rob_van_riel]

And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to close up the fuselage tomorrow

Yup, I got there. Once completely mounted, it becomes obvious how I did manage to bend the inner module; there's a small, but noticeable gap between the front of the right fuselage half and the rear of the engine. I'll force that into place once the front fuselage has been fitted with the top part. This will hide the engine bay, but also give the fuselage the strength and shape it needs. i have no idea why there is a similar panel behind the cockpit. The lids will go on once the current joins have completely set.

In the mean time, I couldn't resist a spot of dry fitting. Big b*st*rd in this scale.....

[rob_van_riel]

You know what's really sad about all this? None of it will be visible..

More bad news from the visibility front: the engine cowling sort of aligns on three little tabs. Without cement, this would be permanently wobbly, and with cement, most of the engine detail becomes hidden. I can't say that I know of another way to design this so that it would look good both with the cowling off and on, so this is not necessarily criticism of the designers, but it is a real pity, since that engine is worth a bit of visibility.

I'm going to be a bit harsher on the cowling itself though. It consists of four irregularly divided segments, with no apparent logic behind the division, and only the most rudimentary tabs for alignment. Incredibly easy to make a total hash of, and predictably, it didn't turn out perfectly. Time to pour on the fudgery

[rob_van_riel]

I'm unambiguously DNF, so I'll continue the story here.