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 Rank: Pro Groups: Joined: 24/08/2009 Posts: 48,827 Points: -13,348
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 Rank: Vice-Master   Groups: Registered
Joined: 06/06/2010 Posts: 566 Points: 1,657 Location: UK
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Looking good Kev.
Great start & following with interest.
Wilfy
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 Rank: Elite      Groups: registriert, Registered Joined: 20/03/2011 Posts: 2,356 Points: 7,122 Location: UK
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Super stuff Kev  will be following your build and look forward to your enhancements progress.  Spencer
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 Rank: Super-Elite  Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/01/2014 Posts: 5,060 Points: 14,980
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Wow, fantastic start Kev, this is going to be a fantastic build to follow by the looks of it.
Looking forward to more
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Rank: Pro Groups: Joined: 24/08/2009 Posts: 48,827 Points: -13,348
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Thanks for your comments and interest Wilfy, Spencer and Dave, great to know that you are watching and it's very much appreciated!! 
She's certainly an interesting aircraft to research and an equally interesting kit to build.
Kev 
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Rank: Pro Groups: Joined: 24/08/2009 Posts: 48,827 Points: -13,348
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Hello all,
Managed to get some more done on this build, consisting mainly of a lot of fiddly and time consuming detail work to the cockpit and gun bay areas, including some etch parts being added and a few scratch-built items.
First up I added a couple of electrical wires to the control column using copper wire. The upper part of the fuselage immediately behind the observers’ position needed some extra rib detail added as this will be semi-visible through some of the cockpit glazing. I scratch-built some ribs out of thin styrene sheet and then drilled them to represent the lightening holes on the real thing. The holes look a little rough maybe, but this is quite a small part on a 'Macro' camera setting and should look better when painted.
At the rear end of the observers’ position is a twin radio set which looks nicely detailed on the front face, but the rear is just hollow (Eh? That’s not up to Tamiya’s normal high standard!), and will be noticeable when viewed through the open gun bay access panel, so I glued some thin styrene sheet to the back of it and added some basic cabling from thinly stretched sprue.
I have also added various scratch-built parts to both cockpit sides, such as the pilots’ and observers’ lamps and their relevant cables, a few etch parts were also added, and some prominent missing parts were made out of styrene sheet and rod. From my reference material, there is a holstered flare pistol near the floor on the starboard side of the observers’ station, which isn’t represented in the kit, so I carved a case out of some scrap sprue and added an etch strap and buckle from my spares box – I’m quite pleased with it! You can see it as the sand coloured item in the photo of the fuselage sidewall below. I also added a couple of bits of pipework to the floor of the observers’ station to make it look busier. It’s not completely accurate but believable and will only be slightly visible anyway, but it’s worth suggesting some extra detail in this area?
There is still a small amount of detail to be added in the cockpit area, but I needed a break from that, so I then started to do a little work on the guns and gun cradle for a pleasant change.
In the photos you can see that the 'drum' type ammunition magazines were hollow on the rear, when they shouldn’t be (come on Tamiya, what are you doing here?!) and according to reference photos, they should also have a 'bar' type handle and brackets at the top, so I added some detail from styrene sheet and stretched sprue. The scratch-built rear face of the ammo drums isn't entirely accurate but it's similar to the real thing and looks much better than an open hole I think?
The gun barrels in the kit were really naff!! They were way too thick, the ends were too flared and they weren’t drilled barrels either, so they were binned and after very carefully drilling out the gun bodies, I fitted my aftermarket brass ones from ‘Master-Model’ which are far better. I'm amazed at how they are able to machine such thin and delicately flared barrels as these, a beautiful piece of craftsmanship in my opinion!! The ammunition magazines were then fitted to the guns and with the extra details I think they look quite good (even better when painted)?
Next job was to start building the gun cradle. The main components are shown below, which took a lot of fiddly seam scraping and yet again Tamiya have slipped up – the cartridge ejector chutes for the rear pair of downward facing guns had hollow rear faces – time for more styrene sheet!! When that was done the various parts were then assembled into a framework, some ejector pin marks were filled and some missing plates and straps were then added on top of the upper central crossbar from the 'Eduard' etch set. I won’t be permanently fixing the guns to the cradle for now as I want to make it easier to paint and weather them, plus I still need to add some electrical cabling to the rear of the gun firing solenoids and also between the frame and fuselage. I have temporarily blu-tacked them in place in the photos below to give an idea of what this all looks like when built and it certainly is quite a detailed area!! The guns aren’t completely aligned correctly but they will be when glued in place, though the staggered layout is as it should be.
So, that’s where we are currently up to with this build, still a little more to do with the fuselage internals but not a massive amount, although I do still have some more 'drilled' ribs to make. Next update should see it all done and hopefully painted, and finally assembled so that I can then get on with closing up the two fuselage halves and hopefully move onto a different section of the aircraft. Maybe I’ll build the two engines next?
Before I do that though, I need to do a bit more to my ‘Matilda’ tank build and hopefully make a start on my 1:9 Soviet Ace bust and 'Buffalo Airways' C-47 builds?!
All comments and criticisms welcomed.
Kev  ModelMania attached the following image(s):
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Rank: Super-Elite Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/01/2014 Posts: 5,060 Points: 14,980
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A job well done Kev,
This will be a stunning build when you have finished
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Nicely done Current builds:-C57,Zero, Lamborghini Countach, Caldercraft HMS Agamemnon,Robi,R2-D2, MFH Cobra .
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Rank: Pro Groups: Joined: 24/08/2009 Posts: 48,827 Points: -13,348
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Thanks for looking in guys, much appreciated.
@ Daran - Yeah, I was intending to update last week but got carried away with doing some detail work and didn't realise how much I had done!! Those barrels look even better in reality by the way, a beautiful bit of lathe work if you ask me?
@ Dave - Thanks for the compliment Dave and I hope that the finished build will be worthy of the word 'stunning'!!
@ Andy - Thanks mate, just taking my time and adding what I can, it's going to be cramped in that cockpit when it all comes together .... though probably not as cramped as your Stug IV interior will be!! 
Kev
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Rank: Pro Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/06/2011 Posts: 434 Points: 1,309 Location: milton keynes
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some great detail work there Kev really enjoying the updates Regards Dan Built - MP4/23, Zero, Deagostini Falcon, Model Airways 1903 Wright Flyer, Senna Mp4/4.
Working - Mclaren M23 1/8th scale to complement the Deagostini MP4/23 & Mp4/4
on the bench, Model Airways Sopwith Camel.
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Rank: Super-Elite  Groups: Registered
Joined: 30/01/2013 Posts: 4,604 Points: 13,607 Location: Monmouthshire UK
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Some lovely detail there Kev, looks fantastic Steve
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Looks fab Kev, the added detail makes it look something special... very well done... Regards Alan
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Rank: Pro Groups: Joined: 24/08/2009 Posts: 48,827 Points: -13,348
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Hello Dan, Steve and Alan. Many thanks for looking in on my build guys and thanks also for the very nice comments, much appreciated.
I am really enjoying this build, it's good fun doing a bit of scratch-building!
Kev
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Guest (7)
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