Over the years, I have found that leaving a project sitting for a month is an invitation for it to be abandoned. Since I have recently had a re-awakened interest in armor kits, this one was in danger of being pushed aside in favor of a T-34/76 (Model 1943). But I will hang onto the tank, and forge ahead here.
I could have skipped doing much of the detail, as it will be hard to see. Since I am planning on leaving two hatches on the bottom of the fuselage (not to mention the open bomb bay, I thought I would go ahead with the details as they may be seen.
This area will be seen through the canopy. There is nothing extra in the detail department here. I merely painted the parts. No weathering either, and I wanted the colors to stand out through the canopy so the details would be seen. You can see the Terry Dean weight filling the wheel well. It fits perfectly, and I am hoping it will be heavy enough. I think it will be. You can also see the SAC white metal landing gear. The landing gear is somewhat flexible, and I think the will mean that a slight bump or other mishap will not result in it breaking in two. The detail is really excellent, and the metal landing gear will be more durable than the plastic, particularly the nose gear.. You can also see one of the many, many ejection pin markings present on these molds. In this case on the forward bulkhead behind the instrument panel. I left all of them alone that were not completely exposed. (One really appreciates modern molding techniques that have largely obviated exposed ejection pin spots all over the parts.)
This is the left side near the tail. This may be some kind of heater? I am not sure. Since it might be partially visible, I finished it. There are ammunition boxes all over to use in the defensive guns.
The bomb bay detail will be visible, so I finished the bombs, which were quite nicely molded.
I do not like to have fragile parts like the tail guns sticking out as I finish the model, waiting to be broken off. However, there was no way to install these parts in the last step. So, I will just have to be careful.
The next step will be to assemble the fuselage. I will paint and assemble the top turret, but it will be added toward the end. Also, there is a fair amount of detail painting on the nose section which house a number of guns. All in all, I am still enjoying working on this kit. It is amazing how well the molds and the kit design itself has stood up for 39 years!
