FM 1/72 Me 410A-1, IIZG26, Gelbe Sieben, Werl, Germany 1943.

[speedgraflex]

Thanks, Lyle—I should have added a narrative. Those swatches are water soluble graphite I was mixing earlier to weather the exhaust pipes—not entirely successful with that approach. Fitting the engine cowlings was a bit of a bear. I am not sure the joins are entirely successful—let’s say I am at 85 percent on those fittings. The side to side fit was the problem. I decided to lock the cowlings in place from the front and work backwards toward each join. The fit of the wings is exemplary, though, so perhaps the cowlings are my fault, somehow. I did try to follow the instructions this time. I resisted an early temptation to cut off locator tabs within the cowlings. That was probably a mistake: always follow instincts.

[Floki]

Now she's really starting to look like a aircraft, great work so far Bruce! I hope that gap at the wing root can be wrestled into shape.

[speedgraflex]

Thanks for your post, Clint! The gap is not there when the wings are adhered to the fuselage. The plastic is a bit flexible—and the joins of the fuselage are not yet established, so that was a fitting maneuver. I mainly wanted to find out if the engines are aligned properly using the kit tabs. They are quite close. As a side note: this is the first kit in I don’t know a long time I am using styrene cement to hold everything together! I am not entirely sure if this is going to work here st the wing-fuselage joins. My thought would be to use Superglue... but maybe not? It may be too brittle as a bonding agent. There is definitely flex in the join.

[Stuart]

Great progress Bruce.

I'd personally always go for Cement rather than CA for bonding plastic, but it's horses for courses. CA is great for attaching gear and suchlike though.

I'm interested to hear a bit more about your attempts at using water soluble graphite - I assume as a wash? I have some of those as well, and a large selection of watercolour pencils - I've often wondered how well they'd work on a model.

[speedgraflex]

Stuart, I should have answered you post haste, but like a dummy I told myself to save writing a one off reply for something better. Well to heck with that. I think graphite is a powerful tool. It’s stable, adjustable and fixable, too. In fact, you can add depth to the color that is far more subtle than charcoal. I am also seeing enormous potential to create oil streaks, too. This stuff is potent.

I used to go all German for graphite with Staedtler as Top Gun, but I recently snagged a four pack of Derwent Graphics of Cumberland I believe and well wow they included the water soluble sticks which I thought at first was a waste of material but—these rock on enamels.

[speedgraflex]

I am not sure if I posted this photo of the U.S. war prize Hornet so here goes—

[Stuart]

That's a great picture Bruce - Thanks for sharing. At least it looks like I drilled my nose guns in the right place!

[speedgraflex]

Cheers, mate. I have not mixed Tamiya RLM 82 for dispersal in 1/72 since the Horten days of yore or those salad days when there were too many greens in my life. Here goes the bright green or just more accurately to me at least the green...

[KennyX]

That’s “Fine and smooth and sexy as hell” Green, that’s what that green is!

[KennyX]

God that’s pretty. That’s nice surface detail on that, too.