SPA Modeler

Uh, wheels? Just guessing......

Wise guys.... from photos there is a firewall at the front end of each well, with a box or tank of some sort mounted upon it. And a reinforcing rib at the rear end of the opening...

http://scalemodels.ru/modules/photo/vie ... w=12&min=0

I know its a later model, but i dont think they changed the wheel bays all the much. Pages 3 on have some shots inside the main gear bays.

Thanks for those... Small on my phone, but they will look better off my tablets screen later on.

Today I had a few uninterrupted hours at the bench so far. And I think that I made good use of them to this point. During the week when I assmbled the nacelles and checked them against reference photos, I saw that there should be a firewall at the front of the wheel wells. I also saw that while the area of the upper wing directly above the wheel well was properly detailed, the rear portion was not. So I tackled both of thos issues this afternoon with the help of the internet and sheet & strip styrene. First I traced the outline of the nacelle front onto some sheet plastic and cut it out. Then I added various details using a couple of internet photos as reference. (Thanks to Mikey for some of those) Fortunately I was able to find a photo of the two different side wells and saw that there was some detail difference in the boxes on the firewall so I created that appropriately.
the first completed firewall


glued into its' nacelle




then using half round styrene rod I added the detail to the upper rear wing area visible thru the wheel well opening
Here is a shot with the undetailed side for comparison


a close up


and once both wings were done


both completed nacelle firewalls- note the slight different set ups between the two


placed onto their respective wings


lower left wing & nacelle


lower right wing & nacelle


after dinner I will try to get a bit more work done...

Nice work on the wheel bays! Really looks good.

Thanks Doc. I know it's a little thing, but this build is turning out to be a whole bunch of little things adding up.

Today I spent several hours doing airbrushing of the interior and some exterior colors (since some overlapped) Plus that is an easy way to get around the window areas and makes masking the little ones a bit easier.
Last night after I got the photos posted on here, I went back and did one final bit of work. I added the insulation padding to fuselage sidewalls in the radio compartment using tissue cut to size, folded, and soaked in white glue. This is how it looked this morning once dry


Then I had to repait the tail fun ammo chute that had broken teh other day. I put a thin stip of bras in the center and then super glued it in place
Now you see it


Now you dont (not really anyways)


Then it was time for interior painting. I used Tamiya colors. All colors used are based off of research of photos of Flak Bait as she is preserved at Smithsonian. Aluminum for the basic interior color. Black for floorboards and cockpit sidewalls above the base of the canopy level. Olive Drab for the top turret and tail gunners armor plate, and Neutral Gray in the bomb bay. For the radio compartment insulation padding I used Khaki and Khaki Drab.
fuselage side exteriors

interiors

top turret

tail gun area parts

radio compartment

cockpit parts

all the fuselage parts

engine cowlings and scoops

engine nacelle wheel wells

engines

horizontal stabilizers

wings & horizontal stabilizers

if I do anything else tonite, it will be to give the clear parts their Future dip...