Last time I was looking for my favorite axe for my banana shaped AML P-40
I didn't find it - probably the girlfriend has it again
All I was left with, was my little saw
... and some frustration to vent
Ah, the pleasures of being human

Back in the race
Granted, some sanding and filling was required
And I needed to fix all the collateral damage
The cuts in the wing and the drill head skid marks around the exhausts
But first I wanted to install the radiator
Which is a nice resin casting
And which needs to be cut at the correct place
... which is not in the middle (doh!!!)
But at its feet - very close to the casting block
I glued the pieces back together
With some peeking, you still can see the fine radiator mesh
It was a reasonable fit
... and this almost was

I first covered the big gaps with pieces of plastic card and strips
And I did some dremeling
So I wouldn't have to sand too much
Then filler
And then I read about Robert Rensch (his build on Internet Modeller)
He bended the wings for more dihedral to close the gaps
Interesting approach - but too late for me now
Luckily I still had some dihedral, so we dully continued
After sanding, a first coat of primer followed
Looking for trouble spots
The basic shape was now more or less straight
But some areas still needed attention
Building the front end up, with little pieces of Evergreen plastic strip
Filler again
And I decided to fill all remaining fuselage panel lines too, since many were already lost
Glueing the front end of the wheel well bulges to the wings
They didn't extend to the upper wing : filler needed again
Adding some "belly" elements and the cowling flaps
All reasonable fits
The carburator air intake needed refining
A small piece of plastic rod did the job perfectly
The horizontal stabs were butt joined
Not an ideal fit - certainly not at the wing root front end
Filler again
I had bought some sanding sticks at the Dutch Nationals
They were quite useful now... and quick too... I should've used them sooner
Adding the gun houses
Another coat of primer followed, revealing a few problem spots to attend to
A final sanding session, using sanding paper 800 to 1200
Followed by a final (I hope) coat of primer
Things look better now
It was a lot of work - but much to my surprise I enjoyed it

Mainly because I got a lot of "job" satisfaction out of it, making this model acceptable again - though it is certainly not perfect, I learned a lot of things can be done with plastic, filler and some time
Now some adventures with paint !
Thank you for your time people
* <i></i> * *
William De Coster / Belgium

1/72 - Airfix - Spitfre PR.XIX : Part I (incl Flying Legends 2011 show report) - Part II - Part III - Part IV (incl. Pilsenkit 2011 show report pt.1/2) - Part V (incl. Dutch Nationals 2011 show report)

1/72 - Airfix, Trumpeter and AML - Curtiss Hawk 81 : Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V

1/72 - AGA - Polikarpov I-3 : Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V
Just like the perfect woman doesn't exist, I will never build a perfect model.
Puts me on a par with God