I have been making a fair amoiunt of progress cleaning up join seams on the fuselage and wings and re-scribing where necessary. I have also been making up sub-assemblies, including the superb Merlin engine. This really is a kit in its own right and goes together perfectly. Some of the pipework was a bit complex but a bit of patience was all it needed. There are more parts to the engine and its mount alone than there are in most of the Spitfire kits out there!!!
it does seem a pity not to paint and weather it but I do have 7 more Merlins in my stash to build and I will want some variation in a future build to do a fully painted, weathered and displayed Merlin, so this one will be sealed into the aircraft as previously explained. For that reason I have left off the p.e. and magnets that enable the panels to be removed, something else for a future build.
Some pics.
First some of the main sub-assemblies that I have finished ready to paint. I could have left the tyres off to paint the centres first but decided that they will be easy enough to do in-situ after a test fit. Pity they use rubber tyres, one of the less impressive elements of this superb kit. I have aftermarket for one of my later Spitty builds.
The engine, lots of parts and not finished yet....
The cradle. It should be easy to paint the cradle and engine seperately in a future build.
The engine fits snugly in the cradle and all the pipework falls exactly into the right position. The engine is fixed with a screw which pulls it into just the right position as it is tightened.
A view of the rear of the firewall and the screw..
The firewall dry fitted to the fuselage. Perfect!
A few more parts added....
All very nicely fitted....
There are still some more parts for the engine build to get on with.... I will finish this off and then pull together some of the sub-assemblies and small parts ready for painting.