Hiya,
Well - I'm just getting mine ready for paint - all assembled bar props and a few twiddly bits...
I too was tempted by pressure hulls, laser cut decks and photo etch flood holes but in the end just got some CMK figures and the WEM photo-etch set - and I've ended up using very few parts from that!
The biggest improvement in these models is opening up the flood holes in the hull halves and opening up those in the deck. It's actually not difficult - but *very* time consuming. I used a rounded scalpel blade (well - quite a few as they kept fatiguing!) and thinned the hull and deck components from the inside. You'll need to be brave as areas of the deck become almost paper thin in places.
Don't forget the long openings in the hull sides at the top of the saddle tanks - this makes a big difference.
I used black card and plastic sheet to blank off some of the interior area and used plastruct and sprue sections to suggest some detail. I can confirm that very little/nothing can be seen unless your opening deck hatches so the resin pressure hull is not really worth it IMHO and, I hear, doesn't fit too well anyway.
If I were starting again I prolly wouldn't bother with the photoetched either - use stretched sprue instead.
Oh - am using the ULAD decals for U-96 of Das Boot fame - if you want any of the others from the sheet let me know and I'll pop 'em in the post
Will try and take some pix tonight...
It's proving to be a brilliant cure for AMS for this aircraft modeller!
Just wish I hadn't paid full price several years ago - and I was tempted to get another from ModelZone - one hell of a bargain.
Iain
32SIG http://www.skywriters.net
