This week I had a few problems along the way.
Here is a pic of the airframe masked up ready for the top splinter camo in RLM70
When I removed the masking the paint came away in two places leaving bare plastic. This has not happened to me before and I can only assume that when giving this big model its alcohol wash i missed these two patches. here is a shot on one of these:
That was not too difficult to repair. It require 'feathering' with a sanding stick, masking the section and the spraying RLM71. More problematical was how the undercarriage on one side broke away when removing the masking. In addition the wheel axles also broke off. The axles were weak components anyway and there was no hope of them holding the weight of the aircraft so I was going to replace them with steel pins anyway. I cemented the undercarriage back - pick below:
While that was drying I filled the holes in the wheels where the axles would fit with plastic rod. I then drilled them out to fit steel pins, drilling the legs and supergluing them into position. here is a pic of the wheels with the holes filled and the pins all ready.
As you can see below it all worked and the plane is sitting on all three wheels now.
I gloss coated the aircraft - that is why it is all looking very shiny, ready for the decals which will be the next step. These will then be sealed by another gloss varnish, washes will be added before the first matt coat, some more weathering, the final matt coat and then final fixtures and fittings.
In theory I need four more sessions but as it is a large aircraft it may well be more and seeing that I will not have much, if any, time for this over the holiday it may not be finished for next Friday. My next update will be the finished model but it could be a few days later than normal.....