I am doing my usual thing, jumping from one project to another. Now that the Spitfire Mk. XIV is done, I managed to spend a bit more time on the Bf110. This last week I was surprised how much I did get done on the model, we could see some paint going down on the exterior over the next couple of weeks.
There had been a little mishap a couple of weeks back when I knocked one of the main undercarriage legs and damaged it. This was put aside until I could repair it last week and that just needs a short length of rod replacing on it now to finish the repair. Anyhow, I finished painting the interior and assembled it so that the fuselage could be built up. I do not know why the cannons slung under cockpit are included in this kit as they cannot be seen, especially once the fuel tank is glued in place on the underside of the fuselage. A little bit of cleaning was required on the joint lines, but this only took several minutes to deal with.
One thing has puzzled me with this kit! The nose section comes as two parts which, if you want the nose closed get glued together. But, if you would like the nose open to display the guns, you need to cut off the upper front half of the main section and glue it to the rear upper section. Why did they do this as two parts, the upper and lower halves separately. After I had cut the nose section, there was a gap from the saw blade and I used a etched blade which was thinner then a razor saw.This needed to be rectified with some plasticard which was cut, filed and sanded to shape. You will see what I mean in a photo below.
The tailplane and rudder section assembled without any trouble. I left the tailplane/rudders separate from the fuselage tail section for now as it is easier for handling, also to save them from being damaged. This is the stage of the build where I can start to dry fit things together, just to get an idea of the size of the model and how it is looking. So far, this has been enjoyable to work on and with the engines included in this version of the kit, you can expand your ideas on how to display the model once it is finished. How I am going to display this one, I have not decided yet.
Progress might slow down a little over the next month on this project, I might have a review build to do which will have a months deadline for completion. I will find out on Wednesday if this is happening. There is also another project in the planning involving a couple of Tamiya F4 Corsairs, but more on this later.
Happy modelling.