Alrighty, continuing on from THIS thread, I've decided to start a WIP.
I bought the kit not long after it was released, after reading the reviews (so I was warned! ), stuck a few bits of the interior together, then left it for a few years. I decided to finally make a start on it towards the end of my IJN Kako build for the Pacific War GB, mainly because I was in the mood for a challenge. "After all," I thought, "lets see how I get on. It can't be that unbuildable, can it?"
As of yesterday, after a month, this was as far as I'd got:
Now, todays progress:
The windscreen and turret are only placed on, the tail assembly needs filling and tidying and the wings have been glued at the trailing edge only. I've done a fair bit of digging on t'web and unsurprisingly, I haven't found an awful lot. I do know that I'll have to stick the tail on before fixing the wings in place in order to help get the correct dihedral. I've also discovered that the P&W engines and cowlings are too big. What I'll do there is pinch them from an Academy PBY I've got in the stash. I've bought a set of Quickboost engines and cowlings for the Cat to replace the ones I'm using.
I'll be honest - I'm quite enjoying this. I bought the kit knowing full well it was an MPM kit in an Italeri box, so I knew it wasn't a shake'n'baker. A little at a time for a few days, then an enforced stop for a few more days due to my work rota seems to be preventing burnout! As a result, progress is going to be sloooooowwwwww!
Mike.