After a week on my back with a recurring disc problem (motorcycle in my misspent youth), I finally was able to hop onto my feet and re-attack the Henschel.
...wheelpants...
I have to say, I think I've done nine or more models with wheel pants and without question, these are the least satisfying. They're not horribly horrible, but..close.
The kit has some genuinely bad fits, but none of them are beyond fixing (physically, not visually).
My choice of radial engine turned out to be a trifle small for the Henschel, but deadlines being what they are, I decided to go ahead with what was available anyway.
I hope that overall, it's not that noticeable an issue.
Now after much to do, I decided to go ahead with simply burnished cowling bumps (forgot what they are called). I tried five or six patterns with cuts in them as per Ron's suggestion. They were great at getting the dimensionality of the piece, but I couldn't get a pattern that looked smooth enough that it wasn't a distraction to me.
They aren't particularly even or uniform, although all done from the same pattern, but I think less may be more when it comes to these items. The spacing of these, by the way, is off in the kit. The crooked angles are my fault, but the spacing isn't!
So all that remains is the antenna wire, I think.
The kit definitely has it's weaknesses, but I still like it.
The upper wing winds up being surprisingly strong and stable.
And while the kit is definitely a throwback to the "klunky" era of MM models, it does build up into a very solid model and flies around the room irritating my wife very well.
The most satisfying part of this build was finding the joystick that I had lost early on.
I was happy with myself for the job I had done on it (an early sub assembly), but moments later I lost it completely! Just before completion, I found it resting happily beneath some scraps. I was thrilled, as I really hate losing parts!
While I wouldn't recommend this kit to my worst enemy, I did enjoy it and I do like the prototype.
However, with the very near completion of this model, I think I have to relinquish further involvement in the OTDAEABT Contest, except as an avid observer. Sorry if I've abused the opportunity, but Ron had me pegged when he said "some" of us were just using the contest as an excuse to build all the old MM kits lying around!:D Guilty as charged!
My thanks again to Ron. My stack of unbuilt models is almost measurably lessened!
Chris