Part 2: The Build

First off I should explain to you, the reader, that I consider myself a casual modeler. Therefore any problems I had with this kit will probably occur to any other casual modeler building this or any other kit of this nature. On close examination of the gray kit parts and the resin I did found some very minor flash. This is to be expected with any limited run kit and was easy enough to clean up with the edge of a No. 11 X-acto blade. Being limited run, there are no locater holes or pins anywhere on the kit. As with most model kits construction begins with the cockpit. This consists of plastic, PE and resin. In the long run it comes out pretty nicely represented, however I didn't discover the decal for the instrument panel until after the cockpit was closed up. Next is fuselage assembly. Instructions call for the tail wheel parts to be assembled and then glued into the side of the fuselage before the halves are joined. That is an invitation to disaster. By test fitting I found that the completed tail wheel strut could be inserted into place after painting. Despite the lack of locating pins the fuselage, with the cockpit in place, went together with out any problems. I chose to build the racer represented on the box art and the instructions indicate that the rudder is to be cut down in height. But it is not a perfect fit so some sanding and adjusting are required. Instructions also call for the tail wheel doors and the PE push rods to the rudder and stabilizers to be placed at this time. Another potential disaster waiting to happen - do it last.

Next is the assembly of the wing starting with the landing gear bays and the leading edge air intakes. This was a challenge in itself but came out looking fine to me. The wing to fuselage assembly went well, no real problems. There was a little bit of a gap between the top of the wing and the side of the fuselage but that was fixed with a little Mr. Surfacer 1200 and wiped smooth with a rag and denatured alcohol. I skipped the installation of the resin exhaust pipes, too much chance of them getting broken while handling the model. At this point the engine is assembled. The engine is twenty-eight pieces of resin. After all of the resin parts had been soaked in a small jar of Westley's Bleche-Wite to prepare for painting, the parts were cut free of the pour blocks and sanded for a good fit. Assembly went well except for the vague instructions resulting in some minor misalignment of the parts. Also I had foolishly glued the two cowling parts together before I realized that the engine firewall was to be placed in it before they were joined. I wound up super gluing the firewall behind the ridge it was supposed to be in front of. The engine assembly was glued to the front of the fuselage and the long air intake glued and faired in to place. Turning the model over revealed a serious gap between the cowling and the bottom of the fuselage. This was filled with sheet styrene and Tamiya putty and sanded into shape.

The vac-u-form canopy was then carefully cut from it's molding sheet and sanded to shape, (as best as I could anyway) and dipped in Future and left to dry overnight. The lower windshield was then glued to the fuselage only to find that the only other place that touched the fuselage was the tip of the back end. Frustration set in at this point so I said (bad words) with it and glued it down. I filled the gaps along the lower sides of the canopy with Micro Scale Kristle Kleer and smoothed it with a damp cloth. After the canopy was masked off I sprayed on a primer of a flat white to search for flaws. They were fixed and the model was primed again with Floquil Reefer White. The instructions call for the main body color to be a Model Masters # 1732 Light Gray. I didn't have the Model Masters color in my collection but I found a tin of Boeing 707 Gray, (from back when I built a lot of airliners,) which was close enough. When the paint was sufficiently dry I sprayed on a heavy coat of Future Floor Wax and left it to dry for a few days. Using Blue Painters tape I masked the areas to be painted Bright Blue (Model Masters #2032). This was all the reason for not putting all of those small pieces on the model when they called for in the instructions. They would have been ripped off or crushed by the masking tape. The Bright Blue was put on very wet but it still had a slightly flat appearance. This was fixed with a liberal coating of Future and brought to a nice shine. Decals were very thin and in perfect registry and went down with no problem at all. After the decaling some of the small parts were put on the model. Here I started doing things my own way. I didn't use all of the PE parts such as the push rods on the elevators, stabilizers and rudder. I know what a mess I would have made. The resin exhaust pipes were too fragile and kept breaking so I used some brown 22 gauge wire insulation cut to length and super glued into place. They look pretty effective with the end of the tube spread open. I had considered using the landing gear from an injection molded kit because these kits parts were so bulky and fragile. But in the end I decided to stay with the kit parts. Well, I guess that's about all I can say for this kit. I can recommend this kit for a more advanced and professional modeler as it builds into a nice looking finished kit. I think the casual modeler may want to avoid it until after they have some experience dealing with limited run kits containing photoetch and resin. My thanks to Accurate Miniatures for the chance to review this kit.

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