OK, so on with the modelling. After wrestling together the Revell 1/48 He 111, (see below)

I decided I needed to build something fairly easy. As I had a Hasegawa 1/48 bubbletop Typhoon in the stash, along with a bunch of aftermarket goodies (Avieology sharkmouth decals, a slew of Ultracast resin), I figured this was the way to go. Just to complicate matters, I decided to add the Aries gunbays too. I began with the cockpit inserts that enable Hasegawa to use the same sprues for both car door and bubble top versions and soon realised that this was not going to be the easy build I thought it would be. I felt like I was back on the London Underground! Mind the gap!!

Getting the insert to fit resulted in the gap in the photo above and panel lines that didn't line up. The other side was slightly better.

I glued some scrap plasticard in the gap and trimmed it off

All seams to be filled at a later date. I then got to work on the interior. I opted to use the lovely Ultracast seat and proceeded to paint this up, nearly going blind squinting to get all the fab detail with my little paintbrush. It looks the biz when done though.

For added interest in the cockpit I have done the framing in alluminium and the side walls in a black / interior green split. I prefer this look to the standard all over interior green and this scheme was illustrated in the recent Airframe and Miniature book. For the instrument panel, I used Airscale RAF instrument decals. I must admit to approaching this task with some trepidation due to the small size of the decals. I was fully expecting to lose them and find them stuck to my face and other places, the next day. My fears were totally unfounded though, as they performed perfectly. I feel that the combination of this fantastic product, drybrushing and detail painting have produced a great little panel. I will definitely think twice about getting an Eduard panel for my next project (they are nice though).

Anyway, with this build well on the road, that's all for now. More to come later.