Unusual Approach

Yesterday was a rare day off at the workbench. The Collings Foundation came through my neck of the woods with their TP-51C Mustang, B-17G Flying Fortress, B-24J Liberator, and B-25 Mitchell. Well maybe it wasn’t an actual day off since I took some reference photos for an upcoming B-24 build. Regardless, my son and I had a great time checking them out. 

The current set of builds seems to be taking a different approach than my past group builds. Today saw two of the kits get work completed and that was as far as I went. I can’t find my usual flow to work on them simultaneously. Maybe once they begin to transform into airplanes I can get a better grip on the builds as a whole. Either way I am making progress and that is really what matters.

This afternoon started off with the Arado Ar234 getting it’s turn to be worked on. The aircraft is in a great position after today. The cockpit is almost complete with just some final details to add. Other gains were the clear parts getting masked, the wing and fuselage halves being affixed, and the engines getting assembled. The clear parts will take a dip in Future Floor Polish before I apply the interior color. The fuselage looks decent. The normal sanding will be required and I think I can get by without any filler. The engine nacelles on the other hand will need some extra attention. The fit wasn’t the greatest but it shouldn’t be a hard fix.

The other kit that advaced today was the Mistel 5. Actually the Arado E-377 was the subject of this two part kit. I don’t want to get any parts confused so I will begin the He-162 once the basics are complete on the E-377. That doesn’t look to far off with the efforts produced today. The fuselage halves and wings were affixed as well as the engine nacelles.  It’s going to be all sanding from here before I can move on. 

I would like to say that I will get a little more diverse tomorrow with all kits seeing some work being done but I think I am entering into a new strategy here. It’s working so I will go with it and see where it leads. My actual goal is to start assembly on the Me-262, Sea Fury, and F-4 Phantom. Not a lot to ask for but as long as I am moving forward then that’s perfect.