Ok… back to the landing gear.

See photos 03 and 04

Next I glued on the pieces required to complete the landing gear. Here you want to test fit the gear against the doors before you leave it to dry. I drop a little Tamiya Thin on the parts then position them on the doors. When I’m satisfied they’re fairly close to the correct position, I let them dry overnight.

See photos 05, 06 and 07

Paint them; add the doors and you’re pretty much done. Run a sanding stick on the sides of the nubs just enough to clean them up a little. This cuts down on the amount of forcing you sometimes have to do to insert the landing gear, but also gives you a little wiggle room so they are positioned straight and even.

See photos 08, 09 and 10

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Ok, because I need a break, I’m going to take some time to highlight some of the crap on my bench used during builds. I really don’t know where to start with this ‘cause man… there is a lot of stuff. I think I will refrain from commenting on anything in any detail. However, if you have any questions regarding some of it send me a PM and I’ll try to get back to you with an explanation. Let’s look at some of the stuff on the bench…

See photos 11 thru 39

Alright, let’s paint a little…

Pull out the Tamiya tape (just use Tamiya don’t fight it), we’re going to mask off the top of the fuselage to receive the paint that cut’s the glare of the metal for the pilot. I have applied the tape by eye, yes eye, getting as even side-to-side as I can.  See picture.

See photos 40, 41 and 42

Then with the help of Blu-tac, I start covering up the cockpit area so it doesn’t get any overspray in it. Add some tape to cover up the rest and that step is done. As you may have noticed, I tend to re-use tape I’ve saved from other masking needs during the build. This is due to the fact Tamiya tape is just darn expensive.

See photos 43, 44, 45 and 46

Now use paper towel (buy the paper towel that comes in half sheets), and tape it along the first Tamiya tape line to cover the rest of the kit for overspray protection. If you want to prevent bleed through (meaning sometimes when you paint along a taped edge, the paint will seep underneath it so when you remove it, there won’t be the nice straight line you were going for), then take some flat clear coat and brush it down the edge of the tape. This will prevent the paint from seeping under it. Then get out that trusty airbrush and spray away. I remove masking as soon as possible, the faster the better. This means less chance of lifting the off the paint at the edge of the tape, particularly on foil.

See photos 47 thru 53

Larry Shred

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