Hello PM's, thanks once more for your kind responses. It's a tough build and any encouragement is very much appreciated! I have a bit of backlog so herewith the second progress report of the week, but the moment of zero backlog and real time is nearing very quickly.
The lack of gluing tabs for certain parts will be a challenge in time to come, but I have dealt with that before. Regarding the engine nacelles for instance, the Orlik Mosquito build 4 years ago has the same design. We'll see when I get there!
One of the last items to be glued in the cockpit area are the hydraulic pedals at the pilot's position. Again lots of small parts that make up the end result. The pedal assemblies are glued between the structural members that make up part no. 19 in the nose.
When checking internet pictures of the real thing I noticed several hydraulic lines connected to the cylinders behind the pedals. As they are quite visible in the nose, even after installation of the "bee-eye" dome, I decided to include the visible part of these lines, made from 0.6mm diameter plastic rods. Not an easy task as the lines need to be pre-shaped and glued in a very cramped and small space. But once started, the job should be finished. The end result is shown in the third and fourth pictures.
For reference I include a real cockpit picture here where the pedals and hydraulic lines are clearly visible. Certainly, Halinski made a very finely detailed cockpit but boy oh boy, it's simple compared to the original
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The above is the result of sparing a few minutes here and there over the past few weeks and you may have noticed some changes to the nose. That relates to the nose dome and will be the next episode, some time.
Cheers,
Erik