External Fuselage Details

Details on the nose:
-create four slit openings just forward of the windshield;
-create the stripe on the nose-spinner junction with a paper stripe;
engrave some lines;
-add a small intake over the cowling;
-rebuild 4 triangles near the oil radiator outlet (kit pieces are too thick);
displace antenna mast 1 mm to the right


 


 

The small doors of the rear fuselage, underwings and wing roots are not sharply made on the kit, and must be rebuilt with something very thin; I have cut paper doors, painted apart from the kit and glued with vinyl glue on the already painted model.

The vertical stabilizer should be asymmetrical to correct the propeller reaction; the above drawing shows this.

We have to file the right leading edge.



 

 

The ventral radiator cowling has a small rectangular access hole on one side; it must be closed with thin plasticard, leaving a recess only.

The radiator plate must be extended to cover the depth of under fuselage recess too; it must be covered with a square textured paper (from chocolate, for example) and painted with thinned black.

We have to build an horizontal deflector in the radiator duct.

There are no pins to position the radiator cowling; make reference to the underwing panels, in line with the radiator lip.



The canopy is good, clear and nearly exact in shape; only the rear part is slightly too straight and wide, and this could lead to an angular junction with the rear fuselage; we have to slightly file (and eventually polish) the posterior edge of the clear piece.

The metallic strut of rear fixed part of canopy is not clearly moulded; it must be masked and painted (or made with a glued stripe of paper, as I did).

The frontal struts of the windshield should be internal to the canopy, so they must be painted with blue-grey, not with exterior colour.

The gap between windshield and fuselage must be entirely filled and overpainted, while the junction between fuselage and central/posterior canopy parts should remain slightly visible.

If one wants to make the canopy open,  it’s necessary to vacuform at least the sliding part.
A vacuformed canopy is available from Falcon.
 



 

The exhaust pipes require work to counteract the effect of out-of-register moulding. I suggest to make the rectangular base thinner by 0.2 mm, and to add two thin stripes of thin plastic or brass, 0.2 mm wider than the rectangular base, to create a bit of cavity effect, and to highlight it while painting.

The stripes must be longer rearwards than the rectangular base, and extend to the rear of the exhaust slot on the fuselage.
 
Sometimes a starter tooth is present on the spinner, probably of last built examples.
This is for connection to the spinner of a shaft moved by a start engine mounted on a truck.

 
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