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Started: 16 September 2006
Finished: 22 September 2006

This model happened to be my first plane model. I wanted to try the steel wing wires from human hair.

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The parts were not too many as seen...

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16 September 2006:
I sanded the irregularities on the wings.

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17 September 2006:

Searching for some info about the plane, I learned that the pilot's seat was from wickerwork. So I prepared a development on the computer and then printed on paper, formed the seat and made rigid with CA glue.

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18 September 2006:
Then I made the seat rest of the gunner from a styrene slab and glued it in place.

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19 September 2006:
I glued the fuselage halves and applied automotive polyester putty at the joining lines.

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I prepared a mounting jig from Legos for correct positioning of the upper and lower wings.

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20 September 2006:

I prepared the dashboard on the computer too, and printed on paper. Then I glued the paper on a piece of styrene and installed it in the cockpit. Beforehand, I had applied the military black green (acrylic paint) on the fuselage.

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I got a big bad surprise...

For the decals, I had bought Humbrol's Decal Fix for treatment. I applied it before and after applying the decals and saw that the decal film still had a shine. So I sprayed a flat acrylic clear cote to end up with what you see in the photos...

So since the decals were practically not recoverable, I decided to paint the plane as a civilian one.

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21 September 2006:

Now coming to the "steel wiring"...
I painted the wing struts to imitate varnished wood. I used glass paint and mixed 2 parts black, 5 parts orange and 2 parts yellow.
I tied the human hair to one side of the struts and fixed with CA glue so that they would not slip off...

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I inserted all the struts in place, with hair fixed to their lower parts. I put the lower wing in the jig.

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Then I formed the crosses and fixed the hairs to the top parts of the struts with CA glue. I paid attention that the struts were not absolutely parallel but a bit closer at the tops; so that when the upper wing was installed, the struts would stretch the hairs a bit when they were inserted in their places in the upper wing.

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22 September 2006:
I took the lower wing from the jig.

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Now come the finished photos... The human hair application proved to be successful.

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