Details have been painted with a fine brush. Copper wire has been secured to the front of each foot rail. These will act as locating pins. Additional detal has been added to the fuselage floor using styrene strip and fine wire to substitute for the missing part of the cockpit cub. ‘The reduction gear housing, magnetos and ignition harness from Teknics’ excellent R-2800 engine were added to Tamiya’s ‘flinder banks. Tamiya’s cylinder banks combined with Teknics’ parts after painting and an oil wash, At this stage, several of the ignition leads needed to be repositioned. The final eect of the Aires cockpit i very pleasing, although much of che detail will be hidden forever once the fuselage halves The rear of the solid reduction gear housing was hollowed out to facilitate the ‘prop action’ feawure of Tamiya’s kit First, the resin part was drilled through. Next, a motor tool fitted with various burrs was used to enlarge the opening. ‘The deeper reduction gear housing requires the engine to be ‘mounted further inside the cowl. A few millimetres was sliced off the engine mounting post to maintain the correct alignment of the front of the crankcase with the cow opening.Despite the non-standard cockpit, the motor components fitted The electrical wiring was fed through a hole that had been dried perfectly. A new propeller shaft is supplied with the Prop Action _in the bottom of the wing. After testitting, some more resin kit, which connects to the motor via a short length of vinyl tube. was trimmed from the side of the cockpit tub near the starboard side wing root 8 far, the most awkward part of construction was fitting the ‘A reasonable match war made between the outer and inner outer wing panels. Tamiya supplies a purpose designed wing spar, wings after considerable fiddling. Clamps were used to maiacain but a perfect join is by no means certain alignment while the liquid glue was drying The liquid glue eliminated the wing fold line between the wing All national markings were painted using custom-made masks. panels. After the model had received its base coat of Insignia Masks for the roundels were fashioned with an Oifa Compass. White, the position of the wing fold was marked with Dymo tape Cutter and Black Magic ‘Make Your Own’ self-adhesive masking and carefully re-scribed. macerialTho first round of masking was followed by 2 coat of Tamiya With the blue markings painted over the Insignia White base {AS-20 Insignia White, decanted from a spray can and applied with coat, the model was masked in preparation for the main the Testor Aztek A470 airbrush. camouflage colour, Tamiya’s AS-2 Light Grey (I)N). ‘The base colours and markings are now in place, including the A selective wash of Raw Umber oil paint mixed with odourless anti-glare strip on the upper fuselage deck. This comprised 2 thinners was applied to panel lines and structural feacures. The imix of Flat Black and Dark Grey, with panel lines highlighted in ‘wash is still wet in this photo, and will take several hours to dry. 100 per cent Flat Black. The ‘FAS’ and ‘201 markings were sourced from a Hobbycraft The pale walkway was masked and sprayed. However, at this, kit decal sheet. These were placed according to reference stage disaster struck when the port side docals blistered severely. photographs. Disappointingl, the wing walk decals did not include the pale coloured walkway inside the red border.