bar side

Tried it today and they tightened up nicely!

That might well do it to tighten them up a bit. The wires are fine stretched sprue but just caught the light.

I think that’s it. Exhaust painted, beacons fitted top & bottom, ariels & antennas in place. Don’t think I have missed anything. The wires behind the pitots look heavier than they are catching the sun. I will power her up & do some proper RFI pictures soon, but in the sunshine this afternoon Thanks for all of the support & encouragement along the way. Those decals have been fab. She definitely brings back good memories for me

Cheers Chris Tidying up remaining jobs, a few off the list now. Pitot tubes under the nose are back in place (of course I snapped them off somewhere along the way, but managed not to loose them). Exhausts are on but unpainted. I drilled the end out a bit and added the forward facing tube that can be seen on the reference pictures. There is also a prominent loop of what I assume is hydrolic line at the back of the main undercarriage rear strut. Made that up from wire. The undercarriage is now glued in place too

She has the kind of presence that actually suits the paint scheme. So how 1/72 Daks can look a bit ‘skinny’ but old Monogram kits like this have a slightly more ‘chunky’ feel that looks right

Got the decals done tonight. They were still wet when I got these pictures. With the windows unmasked and the rest of the bits she is looking the part So to finish the kit needs some exhaust pipes, few other bit plus ariels and antennas. She currently sits on undercarriage held in place with blutac and dry fitted cowlings and props. But not much more to do. Now something came to my attention during decalling. The window positions are wrong. I guess this is due to the kit being a early DC-3 and not a later C-47. There should be a window nearer to the stripes behind the cockpit. And one less near the side freight doors. So the decals sit in the wrong place above the windows. I can live with that at this point, so if you don’t tell anyone I won’t!

Cheers, quite happy so far. Tonight has been mostly removing the window masking. More decals still to go on. Need to fit the engine exhausts at some point..

Few more bits today. I painted the undercarriage and props Might add a wire for the cable you often see looped on the rear of the gear. The props looked great until I checked & saw her bare metal ones. Now painted aluminium I got the lining around the cargo door slightly wrong. I left the hinges white and put the red stripe between them. In fact the registration goes there & the red stripe does go over the hinges. And while I was at it I put on the front colour stripes And the other side More decals still to go but getting there

Started getting the metallic paint on the undercarriage and painting the tyres. While they were drying I thought I might as well try these decals. Make or break on this build really. They were kindly scaled up from 1/72 designed for the Italeri kit, so perfect fit is not expected!. Anyway take a look and see what you think I liked the all white look but those colours bring it alive. They are interesting to work with as they are stretchy not brittle but so far so good. I think I will let those dry before putting on more. I also realised that the decals include wing root walkways which saves some effort

Not sure if I am looking forward to seeing those decals go on or slightly terrified. Anyway patching up the white has happened The undercarriage is dry & ready for painting so had to sit her up & put the cowlings & props on And primer on the bits Really nothing stopping me decalling this week

Getting some filler on those wing & tail joins. Using liquid green which is quite easy to spread on & tidy with a damp cloth. Going to spray over and all should be good I tested the lights and the leading edge landing lights & wing tip lights are good. The cockpit lights look to have packed up though. Oh well. Motors are still good too. Setting up the undercarriage ready for some paint Once I get the joins blended in and whitened then it’s decal time

Seem to have got a bit more time on this now so the remaining deicing boots on plus the anti glare panel in front of the cockpit. Just a bit of tape one the white paint With that all dry I decided no point in delaying so the wings and tail are attached and getting a good over night dry I am tempted to paint tape to go on for the wing root walkways. Once the joints are tidied up I may have to try those decals.

Thanks Chris. Time to ruin the nice white. All taped up for the leading edge deicing strips Did it bleed? Thankfully no! Leading edges needed on the tail next plus an anti glare patch on the nose. Wing root walkways could do with getting done as well. Then the wings and body can be joined.

The remains shelves have been cut out today Glued the shelves on and put some boxes on it - needs the shelf front strips on still Looks at home against the hangar wall It’s going to get a coat of grey when the glue is dry. But I couldn’t resist seeing what it looks like with some stuff around. The floor is just a sheet of card, making everything look very clean when G-FIRE came by

More coats of white on the wings and the tail is still drying in the garage Deicing leading edges and wing root walkways to mask & paint next