Marek Marathon A5M4 "Claude" 1:33

[cjwalas]

Thanks, Ron. I'm liking it more and more myself. But the kit is not without its challenges, that's for sure. Overall, though, it's pretty straightforward and well fitting.
I do have a question for anyone who might know;
The cowl is composed of these pieces;

The black is the outer surface and the gray is the inner surface. Now the gray area is larger than the black area;

I've never come across this before and as there is no mention of the A parts whatsoever in the diagrams, I'm guessing that the two are to be glued together for added strength and then trimmed to the black edges?? And then simply glued edge to edge?? The cowl is bound to be one of, if not the, most difficult steps of this model and I'd like to make sure I'm not screwing it up in advance!:D
Chris

[rjm]

Did you download this? It looks like the grey should have been printed on the back
side of the page that has the black parts.
Bob

[cjwalas]

Yes, this is a download, but the gray is part of a separate sheet, not a back printing section. The two sheets would not remotely come close to lining up if you did print them back-to-back. It does look like it should be the printed backside, though.
Chris

[cjwalas]

Landing gear on!

This is at least my 30th pair of wheel pants and/or spats and they just don't seem to be getting any better. No matter how much I form the pieces, burnish the edges, etc., they never look as good as I'd like. These actually go together very well. I think I just do them too quickly and they distort during drying... yeah, that must be it.

I painted over the center join of these. It always bothers me that the prototypes always have such nice and smooth fronts while our paper models (especially mine) have a huge scar running down the fronts.
The cowl is next and I've tacked the engine in place lightly to have something to work against. Wish me luck on this!
Chris

[B-Manic]

Nice work on the spats Chris. LUCK on the cowling - looks like a lot of trimming will be required.

[dansls1]

Spats look good - good luck on the cowl

[cjwalas]

:oWell, looks like I needed a little more luck on the cowl.




I'll probably finish the model off with it like this, but I think I may want to go do a little filling and painting to make it work better. I used a marker instead of paint and it only pointed out the weaknesses more.
The top bulge piece does not fit. It's too short, but that's easily hidden with marker or paint.
The engine is a little too large for the cowl. I had to do some some surgical mangling to make it work which affected the finish on the cowl.
I can feel the finish line in the distance and almost see it... almost.
Chris

[Ron0909]

Chris,
The shape of that cowling is really nice. It's easy to see the care you used in forming the segments. Maybe (if it's still removable) a light coat of black spray would even out the imperfections you are talking about? Either way, I wouldn't feel any disappointment with your current results as it looks great
Ron

[cjwalas]

Thanks, Ron, I do appreciate a kind word! The problem wasn't the fit or the shaping, it was when I tried to glue all those nice fitting pieces together and smeared glue all over. I've sanded the joins down a little and it looks a little better, just need to paint it. I'm calming down now.
Chris

[alpinemike]

This looks great Chris. Love the colors. Nice clean work.