.

All parts seen below are only dry fitted as the weathering is yet to be done.

Side walls of the cockpit are full of detail as you can see.

the next stage will be the weathering the method I will use has not been decided upon I see 2 options, the first is as Phil does in the video using highly thinned flat black sprayed on. This is a technique I have not used before.

The second option is to put a coat of Klear on and then use an oil based wash of Black with an edge of burnt umber. 

Belts will be added after the weathering but before the sides of the tub are glued in place.

Next up is of another sub assembly I have been working on while the tub has been coated in clear and I am waiting for it to dry ready for weathering. I have now decided this will be an oil wash so I will wait at least a couple of days for the Klear to have the best chance of drying so the thinners do not have any adverse affects. 

So next up was the fabulous Merlin engine that is made of many sections that all go together especially well. It is made up of two sections, the main engine block.

Once all the extras where fitted and the supercharger mated to the the main engine block everything received a coat of Tamiya semi gloss black as called out in the instructions and this is what came out.

The Klear on the cockpit parts has now dried as has the oil wash I decided to use. Having only used an oil wash once before it was a soflty softly approach. I made the wash using oil based paints of black and burnt umber heavily thinned with Oil paint thinners. This was then applied to the areas I wanted to weather and then very gently removed using various shaped cotton buds. Once this had dried a flat coat was applied. 

I have not had any success with using Klear in the past to get a flat finish so I have started using a product I found in a small wargaming shop in Bristol. I am very impressed with the flat coat as it goes on very easily and dries quickly to the point where parts can be handled within an hour and no risk of fingerprints. 

This is the product and comes in a big rattle can. Quick passes over the area seem to work well. As with all rattle cans if you spend to long spraying an area it can end up pooling.

So far I am loving this kit, every time I walk past it shouts at me to do more unlike any other kit. I can not tell you how good the fit or the detail of every part is. 

It may seem I am jumping around the build somewhat however it is nice to be able to work on other sub assemblies that will come into play later in the build while waiting for things to dry etc.

Next up will be joining the fuselage halves and taking care of the seam lines although test fitting them shows very few if any areas that can pose a problem. Hopefully that wasn't my final last words.

There is a spar running through the centre of the wing assembly and like a doughnut I have attached it the wrong way round which now means the engine assembly bulkhead does not fit onto the main section of the fuselage. Hopefully the following photos will help to explain my problem a little more clearly.

As the instructions would have you do it.

You must excuse the odd labels on the next shot it is not something I have any knowledge of doing As you can see the Groove on the Spar labelled A should match up with the hole labelled A and the same for the B labels.

So to correct this I need to reverse the main spar. The upper wing has been glued in place so it can not be removed, possibly on the upside if you go back to the second photo the main spar has not been glued along the main centre section as it is floating.

So for the next step I am pleased to say the minor removal of the wing spar seems to have paid off as you will see shortly. I did have a look at spliting the wing and removing the spar that way but the leading edges of the wings where so well joined it seemed the wrong thing to do and risk making a great join rough and ugly requiring more work.

In the meantime I have also been working on the engine frame that will hold the engine to the front bulkhead. this has been sprayed with XF71 and then the detail picked out as per the instruction call outs.

This was then sprayed with the obligatory coats of Klear left to dry for 24 hours and then an oil wash applied. This was mixed from Lamp Black and some burnt umber, hopefully getting close to an oily colour. Yes I know some of you prefer a pin wash however it was considered and then decided that a wash would look better in the engine bay. I promise I will try a pin wash on the next build. Once partially dry some of the wash was removed with a cotton bud dipped in thinners. The result...

Progress so far in this build has now reached the painting stage. All of the seams have been taken care of in particular those around the machine gun ports which needed a little work.

Normally I prime using Tamiya fine white from a rattle can but have decided this may not be the right option here as I do find it can go on a little thick and the detail on the panels is so fine I thought it would run the risk of filling up all the little engraved rivets. Instead I have opted to use Tamiya sky grey and then pre shaded the panel lines using flat black.

To jump back a step I did not have much luck using acrylics as a primer, it seemed when I gave it a rub down most of the paint came away as opposed to leaving a nice smooth finish. Quick respray using Tamiya white fine primer very carefully applied so it did not fill the detail and a rub down with a very fine cloth and hey presto the smooth finish I was after, back on with the pre shading and away we go.

First up was the underside which was post shaded and some of the panel centres lightened. (Should have taken the picture before the mask was applied but forgot)

I really was not happy with the free hand camo and so decided to clean up the lines by applying white tack along the edges mask off the rest and really clean everything up. Finally I felt much more happy with the finished result and got on with some post shading. This morning the Klear coat has been applied in preparation for the decals. Hopefully this can be started late tomorrow afternoon, although I may leave it a little longer and really give the Klear a good chance to dry fully. Plenty of other bits to be getting on with in the mean time.

Having just had a perfect wedding and a great honeymoon I can now confirm I am officially a married man and have come back to earth with an almighty bump after the shock of going back to work and life returning to normality.

It is nice to get back to the bench and make a little progress on this build as it gets very close to completion. While I am waiting for the final coat of klear to dry before the weathering some of the smaller panels have been washed and matt coated along with the landing gear.

A big thank you to everyone who has offered their encouragement, thoughts, tips and advice throughout this build as it has all helped in one way or another. The Kit is, as you would expect, simply stunning and a joy to work with. If you have it in the stash then I can thoroughly recommend it sees the bench soon as you will love building it. If it is on the list to buy and add to the stash do not hesitate in purchasing it as they are worth every single penny.

Well here it is Finally completed and what a joy to build.