Aeroclub Felixstowe F.2a 1/72 ++ FINISHED ++

[Ray S]

Hello all!

 

I have to say I love these Group Builds, especially ones where I can stretch my capabilities, and this one is going to test me! I am no stranger to vacforms, but this will be the biggest I have attempted. The previous 'big' vacform was a Short Singapore III:

 

 

One thing I will have to do is find a better way to display it! Anyway, here is the kit as supplied. The lovely, solid box, and a wonderful price tag! I got this at the Gloucester Model Club show a few years ago, and with that price it was a bargain! When I opened the box, I wondered just what I had done...

 

 

There were two good, solid sheets of heavy gauge plastic with the main components, and on the reverse side of the wings, the glossiest finish I have ever seen with this type of model.

 

 

The wings had been moulded in a very interesting way. They were angled in the mould, and that was to help with the trailing edges having less to sand away. There was also a very good selection of white metal parts included too:

 

 

I will have to try my scratchbuild skills with the interior, only the control columns are supplied. There was a good instruction manual, from the days when instructions were in text, along with hints and tips for the preparation of the parts. There was also a transfer sheet, which unfortunately has seen better days - one of the roundels is damaged, but hopefully will be salvageable. 

 

 

There were a number of colour schemes supplied in the guide, but I decided to go for something a little different, and got the Aims transfer sheet for a rather interesting scheme:

 

 

This sheet has the white swirls as transfers, which will help no end. It was designed for the Roden injection moulded kit, and I hope they fit this vacform one! The instructions gave me no clue as to the colours for the rest of the aircraft, so I trawled through Google trying to find instructions for the Roden kit which does contain this scheme, but it was the only one which did not have instructions online! I put a call for help on this Forum for these, and @Steve86 came through and sent me a scanned copy of instructions for the Roden kit - thank you very much indeed Steve! I have also downloaded the Wingnut Wings instructions for the Felixstowes which will also assist immensely.

 

This will be an 'Early F.2A' with the glazing over the cockpit, that is supplied as a vacform part, and it is incredibly clear, and is not yellowed at all.

 

I am looking forward to starting this soon, but the Hosts said in our 'Chat' section that vacforms can be prepped before March 20th! So that will be the next part...

 

Any advice, hints or tips, will be greatly appreciated, I do have John Adams' vacform guide printed out already.

 

Thanks for dropping in,

 

Ray

Edited June 17, 2021 by Ray S
Edited Title

[Ray S]

And so, I started. One of the things I learnt early on was to mark around the vacformed parts with a Sharpie pen. I did that with this, and quite quickly the Sharpie was a not-so-Sharpie pen! The idea behind this is that the pen will mark the parts of the vacform which stand proud of the carrier sheet, so, when you cut it out and sand it down, you know just how much you need to sand away as the excess is still white (in this case).

 

 

After I had done this, a friend of mine at the Gloucester Model Club (Les Cooper) showed me another way, just spray the entire sheet with primer, it does the same thing, and the kit is ready for painting later!

 

 

It is time like this that you really appreciate luck - in this instance it was lucky the pen slipped rather than a blade on the fuselage! You can probably see the angle at which the wings and control surfaces had been moulded - it meant I could not get the Sharpie into the leading edges - must remember to do that later! The fuselage presented a challenge to cut out. Score along the edges and gradually break the excess off, but there are some rather odd shapes going on here, it was an odd-looking aircraft:

 

 

 

The wings were interesting! They are on very heavy gauge plastic (about 2mm), and needed quite a bit of work to address. One thing I had to do was saw through the triangular sections outboard of the wings, then remembered to mark the leading edges, and following the hints and tips in the guide, use a bit of subtlety getting the excess plastic off those leading edges:

 

 

I have to admit I shuddered a bit when I read about using pliers to bend and snap the plastic off those sections, but, after scoring with a scriber, the pliers did their job supremely well, and the job was done in two shakes of a lamb's tail!

 

The fuselage had a guide marked into it to show where the lower wing would go, a little later, and this too looked daunting:

 

 

But, later when I looked at the instructions properly, I realised I did not have to cut out that shape! 

 

For sanding the wings down, I used a number of things, some coarse sanding sticks which took quite a bit off quickly, some finer stick to restore the surfaces, and, where I had to remove quite a bit, I used these:

 

 

One of our Britmodeller colleagues had recommended this sort of thing, so I got a set from Axminster Tools, and they did very will indeed. I did all my sanding and scraping dry (many use wet-sanding), but I did make sure I was kitted up with a mask, good job we are used to wearing those now! I managed to collect quite a bit:

 

 

This may well not go to waste, if needed, I can dissolve some of that in liquid glue and it can become filler with the same consistency as the kit plastic. Anyway, after about a fortnight on and off, I have ended up with these parts roughly done:

 

 

It is big! The upper wing span is just over 40cm, but the fuselage is relatively short in comparison, only about 18cm but that will be extended when the rudder goes on. There is still quite a bit to be done with the prep of these parts, but I will do each one as I get to them

 

Thanks for looking in,

 

Ray

[Mjwomack]

This is an absolute cracker! Loving it already. Hope the police don't come across the photo of a tub of white powder and jump to an unfortunate conclusion, very wise to wear a mask.

[JOCKNEY]

12 minutes ago, Mjwomack said:

This is an absolute cracker! Loving it already. Hope the police don't come across the photo of a tub of white powder and jump to an unfortunate conclusion, very wise to wear a mask.

If @trickyrich can survive his clouds of resin dust from his builds im sure Ray will be ok with his "powder pot" !

 

Great stuff Ray, I love the Felixstowe having read the book "the spiders web" about them in service Uboat hunting.  If you haven't read it please do so it will make you build come to life.

 

Best of luck.

 

Cheers Pat

[Ray S]

2 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

I love the Felixstowe having read the book "the spiders web" about them in service Uboat hunting.  If you haven't read it please do so it will make you build come to life.

 

Pat, I check that one out, thanks!

 

Cheers, Ray

[CliffB]

A superb choice Ray.

It's hard to tell from the photos, but the ribbing on the wings looks to be suitably restrained 

[trickyrich]

Mmmm Mmmmm I love the smell of resin in the morning! 

 

You're a brave man attempting one of these but can see it'll be in safe hands, I that one you built earlier!

[Ray S]

Hello all, I just thought I would get this off from the bottom of the last page! I have been finishing off another project which gave me some difficulty, it does not bode well for this build! I had, shall I say, an 'interesting' experience with the KP 1/72 De Havilland DH.88 Comet. I will just say that I finally finished it today, and wondered even more how I will get on with the Felixstowe!

 

Anyway, tomorrow I will start this properly, and begin either the interior (scratchbuilding), or the trolley (also scratchbuilding). Thankfully I have a couple of instruction guides from other kits which will give me a bit of an idea.

 

On 3/15/2021 at 10:10 AM, trickyrich said:

 

You're a brave man attempting one of these but can see it'll be in safe hands, I that one you built earlier!

 

Thanks for that, I hope it goes well too! I will soon see...

 

On 3/15/2021 at 6:53 AM, CliffB said:

 

It's hard to tell from the photos, but the ribbing on the wings looks to be suitably restrained 

 

Cliff, yes the ribs are very nicely done. The underside of the wings are completely smooth, I will see what I can do about that. I scratchbuilt an AD1 Sparrow Scout quite a few years ago, and put the ribs on with a draughtsman's pen and some Tamiya Deck Colour paint. It seemed to work in 1/48.

 

All the best,

 

Ray

[Ray S]

Hello all, I have made a start, but it is on the ancillary equipment rather than the aircraft. I need somewhere to rest the plane as I build it, so I have started the beaching trolley. I have a couple of references:

 

 

The instruction sheets from the Roden and Wingnut Wings kits. I am glad they agreed to how the beaching trolley looked. Aeroclub did not put anything in their kit, so I am scratchbuilding one to the best of my ability.

 

Using a 'best guess' method, I drew out one of the end plates, in this case, the rear one:

 

 

I used the planing bottom as a guide for the measurements, and crossed fingers! I transferred that design to some 20 thou (I think) plastic card...

 

 

... and scored along the cut lines, a la vacform preparation, and snapped the excess off:

 

 

Not too bad, but would it fit? Well, the angles are slightly out, but I hope to correct that later. I then cut out the front end plate along with some plastic strip and had a great deal of fun sticking them together in a true, square fashion! I first tried using blutak to hold the bits in place, but the blutak preferred to stick to my fingers rather than the cutting mat and the plastic parts. I eventually managed, and glued the trestle together, then found the mat was out of true, so that made this wonky! I eventually put a dab of glue onto the end of one of the side bars and put it down on some melamine board, and squared it up by eye. A little later I had this:

 

 

I think I should have made the back end plate (on the right here) a little taller. I also ended up putting a 'skin' on the outside of the joining bars as I had to make them with two different thicknesses of plastic and it looked wrong. Anyway, here it is with the planing bottom of the Felixstowe nestled on top:

 

 

I will leave this to set overnight, and it may turn out that this was a trial run for another version, I will see! There is more that will need to be added to the outer part of this, so this will eventually be mainly hidden.

 

That is it for now, I am glad I have started at last,

 

Ray

[Dave Swindell]

That looks fine as a jig/stand to hold the model whilst building Ray, but it looks a tad on the long side for the beaching trolley, the Roden one is 43mm front to back.

[Ray S]

2 hours ago, Dave Swindell said:

That looks fine as a jig/stand to hold the model whilst building Ray, but it looks a tad on the long side for the beaching trolley, the Roden one is 43mm front to back.

 

@Dave Swindell, thanks for letting me know, I did wonder if I had got the size right (or not!). I think this is now confirmed as a trial run... I will try again tomorrow. As you say, it will still be handy to put the plane on anyway, so it will not be wasted. I did mine at about 70mm long! I was judging by the instruction guides - the front was by the steps on the hull up to the cockpit, and I was thinking about the first step back on the planing hull fitting the raised section of Roden part 21G (my excuse anyway).

 

If anyone else ever feels the need to let me know if I am about to make a boo-boo, please let me know! I do want to get it as right as I can.

 

Cheers,

 

Ray

[Ray S]

I decided to give the beaching trolley a miss today, I will come back to it later. Instead, I tackled some cutting out of bits. I trimmed out the lower wing cut-outs, and found the wing plastic was still pretty thick, and I found that it was easier to file away the leading edge slot rather than score/bend - remember I needed to use pliers when getting rid of the excess plastic at the leading edges! I also cut out the slot in the fuselage for the wing to sit in. It needed some careful measurement, 2mm down at the front, 1mm down at the rear - that sets the angle of incidence for the wing. Then the inner child in me could not resist a mock up of the plane, to see how things are going:

 

 

I had great fun trying to tape the fuselage up, the plastic is quite thin, and will need some reinforcement later on before I do finally join them. The joining of the fuselage is going to be quite awkward as there will not be very much plastic to fit together -

 

 

I still have to cut out the black shaded areas: front and dorsal gunner positions and the elongated cockpit area where an insert will go for the upper decking. All in all, it does not give much to glue! The red Dymo tape set the line of the wing position, it was easier to scribe along that than trying to keep a ruler steady.

 

One thing that did come to light during the dry fit in the first photo was that the planing bottom was a little wide - it may be that I had the fuselage a bit squashed, or it just needs trimming. I may play about with adding a spreader and see if that helps.

 

I lined the wings up this morning too after I had tidyed the undersides quite a bit, and was very pleased to see that the dimples that need drilling out for the struts align wing to wing perfectly. With the wings being relatively thick, I think they should be strong enough not to flex much, and also should hopefully allow me to drill through the two wings fully which will help with the rigging.

 

That is it for now, hopefully there will be a little more progress. Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

[Ray S]

Hello all. Today has been another 'cutting out' day. Last night at some unearthly hour, I thought to myself 'why do you have to cut out so much of the crew area? There is a moulded cover which has the cockpit opening in it, and that is it, no need to cut all of the area out! Or is there?...

 

Anyway, I cut out a section which would open up the cockpit area, and left the rest. I was now working on the basis that I could use the bits left and add some strengthening tabs to those, as well as some at the back end. Another problem is the plastic is quite thin, how would it react to liquid cement? I added a tab on three sections which would be covered by the moulding later, and waited for some time. Thankfully the plastic did not melt, so I added another couple of strengthening tabs at the back end.

 

 

This gave a good, solid foundation for the fuselage halves to snuggle together well (with a little aid from some tape), and, with the fuselage top decking just dropped on I had:

 

 

That is all just dry fitted at the moment, but it is beginning to show what I may end up with! The gunner openings are only just started at the moment, they are not quite round yet...

 

I then remembered something I had cut out a long time ago, a bulkhead! One was supplied with the kit, and the instructions said to fit it just forward of the wing cut out. I now got to wondering if that would make a difference to the way the planing bottom would fit.

 

 

How I had forgotten that I know not! Anyway, it did spread out the splayed sides of the hull, and the bottom plate fitted very well indeed, so that was good. The top decking also fitted better too, and it showed me that the hull should not be joined together at the top, it makes things too narrow, so I must have over sanded that area, my fault, not Aeroclubs.

 

Tomorrow, If I get a chance, I want to see if I can start doing something about the interior. I will use my two other branded instruction guides for inspiration, and hope I get something nearer the right ballpark than the beaching trolley!

 

Oh yes, I have wondered whether to cut out the remaining excess after I have glued the fuselage together, it may make the top deck fit better. (Rhetorical question, no answer expected!)

 

Thanks for looking and the comments, take care all,

 

Ray

[Ray S]

Hello all. I have started the interior now. It is not going to be 'accurate' more of a 'representation' of the detail.

 

The Wingnut Wings guide suggests a change in levels of the flooring along the fuselage, with an angled step just aft of where the pilot would sit, I have decided to keep it level, more like the Roden guide! If my skills were good enough, I would go with WNW, but they don't.

 

It looks like the flooring was wood, so I have used the bulkhead that I remembered yesterday as my datum line, and measured out some card and fettled it to fit along the upper edge of the splayed out section above the planing bottom. I felt that this would be effective as I would not have to get a good fit against the fuselage side. I measured the 'planks' and scribed them to give a wood effect.

 

 

I have sanded it down a bit now so it does not look so rough. WNW gave a good reference for the framework, so I had a go at doing one side of the fuselage framing. I used .8mm square rod for that, and again did it for effect rather than accuracy (I think I should have used thinner rod, but I have run out, and stretched sprue/runner does not turn out right for me) :

 

 

I will sand that down and level the rods off when it has all set properly, before getting some paintwork on.  This is what things are like just dry fitted at the moment:

 

 

One good thing that has happened is that the lower framework will allow me to fit the flooring to them, and have it hanging free, which I think was much more prototypical. That is all I could do today, all that leaning over was awkward on my back!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

[TonyW]

Nice work.

 

The Felixstowe is such a graceful looking aircraft. There's something about those huge wings that gives it a very stylish appearance.

 

I have a Roden Felixstowe part done up in the loft.  I'm at the stage of fitting the wings. I open the box now and then, shudder a bit, and then close it back up.

[Ray S]

On 3/27/2021 at 3:19 PM, TonyW said:

Nice work.

 

The Felixstowe is such a graceful looking aircraft. There's something about those huge wings that gives it a very stylish appearance.

 

I have a Roden Felixstowe part done up in the loft.  I'm at the stage of fitting the wings. I open the box now and then, shudder a bit, and then close it back up.

 

Changing the subject just a little, I have the Roden Gotha GII/III and Rareplanes Gotha GIV/V ( GIV/V was very kindly courtesy of @PeterB), and I am thinking of doing a double build of both at the same time, possibly in a later Group Build (High Wing). I have been putting the Roden kit back for about 12 years so far every time I take it out of the stash to have a look!

 

Anyway, I had another good day getting some of the interior done. I have fitted the framing on the starboard side too now, and worked out something not too far off for the rear upper gunner station. I have also produced a floor for the mid upper, this time I have sized it so it fits against frame runners and is just the right width for the fuselage, so it will not sit under the flange. I have also toyed with making a raised section for the cockpit/front gunner, but I am not sure if I can add it as that would make the kit supplied control columns too high; I will see if I can do anything about that.

 

According to the Wingnut Wings guide, behind the pilot seat is a waterproof wireless system, so I have made one of those from the very thick off-cut from the wing's leading edge excess plastic, it looked about the right width. It looks like the right-hand pilot seat is mounted on the front of that wireless, so that should position them okay, and the port side seat is tiltable so crew can go aft, and it appears to be on a frame.

 

This is where I am at at the moment, still lots to make before I get to gluing anything, but some interior paint should be able to go on soon before I add some panels and detail to the framework.

 

 

I have used some thin Aizu tape for the strengthening strips on the floorboards, but it looks like I may need to straighten them up a bit.

 

Thanks for looking and for the views, comments and likes, they are all very much appreciated.

 

All the best,

 

Ray

[Ray S]

Hello all. What a glorious day we are having at the moment, lovely sunshine and very warm for late March in good ol' Blighty. Being a health-conscious person, I stayed away from the harmful rays of the sunshine (bearing in mind my shadow was longer than I am so I could not benefit from the vitamin D gain), I decided to do some more to the Felixstowe.

 

I think I had got to the point where some paint was needed, so I have loosely followed Wingnut Wings' guide, and gone for a varnished ply interior with some added darker wood effect for the framework. They also suggested that there were two colour options for the rear end of the aircraft, varnished ply or clear doped linen. If varnished ply was chosen, then a raised line on the outside of the aircraft would need to be removed from the model. Now, Aeroclub had moulded that line, so I chose to do the back end interior CDL, in this case Revell 89 Beige (WNW recommended Humbrol 28 camouflage grey) and left the raised line in situ. 

 

 

I have used Revell acrylics so far, 16 Sandy Brown for the varnished ply, 85 Brown for the darker wood frames and flooring, and 8Matt Black for the bitumenous tar waterproofing at the bottom of the hull interior. Some of it has been satin varnished (Humbrol 135 acrylic), but some does need a bit of reworking.

 

At the top left is the start of an instrument panel. I did try to cut a thin bit of plastic sheet out and drill holes for the instruments, but my eyesight and/or hand coordination must be way off kilter because I could not get them anywhere near the way that WNW showed in their instructions. I am not sure how to scan them and reduce them in size to fit a 6mm wide by 5mm deep panel, if anyone can let me know I would be very grateful! If I cannot figure that out, I will just try and paint them on with various sizes of cocktail stick ends.

 

I feel like I am beginning to get somewhere now that the paint is on! It will also allow me to start adding various panels which fitted onto the framework in the cockpit and gunner stations.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

[JOCKNEY]

Looks terrific Ray 

 

Cheers Pat

[Ray S]

This is turning out to be a complex build, but perhaps not the way you may think.  It consists of two halves, a bottom and a lid (top decking). Then there is the wing, which needs to be fitted before the lid. The fuselage is slightly too narrow for the top decking (I think I over-sanded the fuselage), the planing bottom is too wide (I may not have sanded enough), and I need to get it all dry fitted together in such a way that I can start gluing and know that everything fits, but I also have to build the interior away from the rest but still keep dry fitting to know that everything fits... I wonder if I am over-thinking it?

 

Please note, I am not complaining, it is what modelling is about! Apart from that, it gives me things to think about and solve before I go to sleep. Last night for example, I thought it would be a good idea to get the lower wing in a position where it could be fitted when needed. Now, Aeroclub gave it some very nice top surface detail, but the underside was completely plain, albeit highly glossy (originally). I am not a super-detailer, but I wanted something to show underneath, so I bent double over my workbench today and started drawing:

 

 

Amazingly, the wing was an exact 3cm front to back, and after I had measured a number of sections along the wing, it was the same all along! I had actually sanded it fairly true and not taken any front or trailing edges back too far. I marked with a 2H pencil on the lower section where every wing rib was by using the top detailing as my guide, and then drew the ribs across the wing. My original plan was to tape the wing to the plans that Aeroclub had supplied, but they were a bit larger (about 3/4 inch in total) so could not just draw across the ribs shown. As I went along with the tapes, I kept turning the wing over to check that my tape tapes were in alignment with the plastic moulded ribs:

 

 

Not too bad. I also noticed (prior to this) that there were no 'mini ribs' between the main ribs and the leading edges (as seen in this image) so I did not have to add any top or bottom - they were not shown in the Aeroclub, Roden or Wingnut Wings guides, so I presume there was a plywood leading edge. The ribs stopped 5mm away from the leading edge, hence the thicker tape in the first photo, to stop me putting them in the wrong place. Quite a long time (and a bit of back ache later), I had:

 

 

I have now given this a good coat of enamel gloss varnish, and hopefully that will help seal the Aizu tape in. Oh yes, I also found that it seemed to take longer to remove the small excess Aizu tape tags with a razor blade than it did to apply the tape in the first place! It was a brand new blade, cut the excess easily and accurately, but the tags then promptly stuck to the blade, my fingers, the tweezers I was using, in fact almost everything. It is funny it never sticks like that when I try and mask a canopy!

 

I am tempted to paint the tape ribs with a darkish brown before I paint the clear doped linen to see if I can get some 'shadow' effect, I hope it may work with brush painting.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Ray

[AdrianMF]

Ray this is an epic! Loving what you are doing here.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[TonyW]

That wing looks so much better for the tape detailing and the fuselage is coming to life now a bit of colour has made an appearance.

[Ray S]

@AdrianMF and @TonyW, thank you for your kind words!

 

I gave the lower wing underside a coat of thinned Humbrol 64 grey enamel this morning to cover up the pencil marks from my drawing - believe it or not, no matter how much I searched, I could not find an eraser! This grey should also tone down the clear doped linen that I will use for the main colour later.

 

I have also been given some advice (over in the 'Chat' section) by @thorfinn on how to print the image of the Wingnut Wings instructions instrument panel small enough to fit the card panel I have made. I could not work out how to do it, but the advice given was superb, and I can now use that rather than try and drill/paint the instruments. Despite there being lines on the panel to show where transfers go, I can still use it as at 6mm x 5mm, you cannot see the lines!

 

I have started to add some interior side wall detail, and the Lewis gun ammunition drums in the front gunner station. For them I used some 2.5mm rod sliced with a blade for the drum, and some 0.5mm rod for the little raised bit visible on moulded drums in other kits, and then painted them black followed by a dry-brush of gun metal.

 

 

I have also added a document case on the port half. When I had done that, I played with some fresh masking tape and have worked out how to close the fuselage up when the time comes, with the top decking and planing bottom dry fitting reasonably well, so that has settled my mind a little. I have still got some more stuff to add inside, including two stowed Lewis guns which would have been used from gun ports just below and aft of the rear gunner station. I am now wondering what kit I could nick a pair from in my stash, and would I regret it later?

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

[PeterB]

Hi Ray,

 

I have several pairs of Aeroclub Lewis guns if they are the ones without the sleeve/jacket on the barrel. If you ever need any let me know.

 

Pete

[Ray S]

13 hours ago, PeterB said:

Hi Ray,

 

I have several pairs of Aeroclub Lewis guns if they are the ones without the sleeve/jacket on the barrel. If you ever need any let me know.

 

Pete

 

I will keep that in mind, thanks very much for the kind thought!

 

Ray

[Ray S]

Hello all! Today has been a pivotal moment with this project! The first thing I did was to join dry-fitted the fuselage together again and confirm what I thought - I needed to add a shim to widen the fuselage a bit for the top decking not to overhang. It was not much, but I added two bits of 20 thou card strategically along the centreline which had the strengthening tabs already fitted. Then, heart in mouth, I added the glue! As the plastic was fairly thin in some areas, I was really worried about the plastic possibly melting! Aeroclub suggested both the strengthening tabs and the use of round rod on the underside to help support the joints, so I used some 1.5mm rod for the aft end and some Revell Contacta cement to try and hold it in.

 

 

I cut the rod over-sized, and it will also become a support for the planing bottom later on.

 

 

I did not glue the front end, there is something slightly awry there, I think I mentioned previously that I do not think I sanded the front straight, so it may need filling. The area where the top is recessed slightly will be cut out later, so those spreaders will go, and the top deck should fit okay then, albeit with the help of some tape.

 

While that sets, I cracked on with the interior. @PeterB, I have decided to leave out the side guns, I may still put mounts in but Aeroclub guns would be too good to end up inside here, thanks for the offer though.

 

One thing that WNW and Roden showed in their guides was that there were ammo boxes behind the mid upper gunner, so I made a couple out of the very thick wing leading edge offcut and some other plastic card. The Lewis ammo drums were made from plastic rod which I had sanded to half circles, and then I used some 0.7mm Aizu tape to show some detail for the drums:

 

 

That turned out fairly well I think, it will not be easily visible, (but I know it is there!). It was fitted to the rear flooring (after I remembered to paint the ledges I had to add to make it fit):

 

 

I added a bar across the fuselage where the pilot and co-pilot seats would fit (a very rudimentary thing indeed in real life) and I used a pilot from an Airfix BE2c to judge its position. Then I spent a great couple of hours adding some other bits shown in the WNW guide (aeriel winding wheel and mount, hand pump and wireless operator's station) and got it painted up as best I could. Again, I am not sure how much will be seen.

 

 

 

I also re-did the strapping on the floor, I painted some more 0.7mm Aizu tape Revell Brass and put that over the original tape that I had put on earlier. I had great fun with this, and soon it will be hidden.

 

That is it for now, thanks for looking,

 

Ray