Hi all,
A minor update tonight. I am now working on the cockpit and foward fuselage structure.
Roden supplies all of the bulkheads in the forward fuselage, which is great! There are alot of sprue attachment points and mould release tabs on the bulkheads, and a number of them were bent. Careful removal with a sharp knife and straightening helps here. Also, I beleive Roden gets you to install the 3rd bulkhead from the front (part 45A) backwards - the side with the rounded top should be on the port side to match the others, and the flat topped side should be on the starboard side. Also, make sure this bulkhead is slanted at the correct angle. In fact, the entire engine support frame work structure was a little tricky - I installed the fwd and aft most bulkheads onto the supporting boards first, aligning, then fitting the centre bulkheads.
Roden provide positive locating tabs on the fuselage sides for the bulkheads, which in the instructions attach to the fuselage before closing. As the roden fuselage is not very stiff, I could see alignment issues if I followed the instructions. Therefore, I decided to take a different approach and build the forward fuselage interior as one assembly before installation into the fuselage. This ensures allignment of all of the forward fuselage interior, and as the bulkheads have recesses for the moulded fusealge stringers, it is an easy job to scratch the stringers and run them all the way back along the fuselage. Here's how it looks (obviously unpainted):
And here is is with some of the major components dry fitted to give an idea of where everything sits.
Next is on to painting - I have never tried to replicate a wood grain in this scale befoe so it should be fun.
Interesting about the Voss figure, I think it would be great to have one to top off the build -pity I have no idea how to paint figures...
BC