Building a bit

Following the instructions for a sec

After unboxing and observing the contents I spent that evening's remaining hobby time by assembling the important first pieces. The bits required some cleanup, but not that much at this point.

Just a couple of tiny pieces got installed into the wings in addition to a clear piece for the landing light, that I may remember to mask up later on. But what's the point of that, since the piece covers just some unpainted plastic... pah. After the surprisingly pleasant and well-fitting wing assembly I added a couple of cockpit floor pieces and the separator between the pilot and the machinegunner. I also assembled the tiny dudes (these miniluftwaffians consisted of three pieces: torso, arms and the lower body) and started pondering on how would I paint this whole setup even half-sanely.

My second evening

After the crew I got to build the airframe itself. The tail end worked like a charm, just like the wings before, but the nose was a bit more of a complication. That piece that had the front radiator texture got some heavy damage to its pegs because I had to use a surprising amount of pressure to get the nose pressed together. Luckily a gentle amount of glue saved my cooling system.

In case you haven't noticed, it's been bothersomely difficult to take these WIP photos with a cell phone with one finger while the other hand is occupied with holding the model at a barely tolerable angle. Sorry!
The important thing was that the legendary nose shape of this model was already forming nicely. As I have been saying for many, many years, in its uglyiness this is a damn pretty plane.

Somewhat surprisingly the instrument panel settled in beautifully. Now we had actually already reached the point where the assembling had to be put on hold and the airbrush-compressor combo was to be dug out. Otherwise I would never get to paint the insides at all. Or any sort of detailing, that is, I could, of course just blast some dark grey and leave it at that, but I wasn't going to!