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- I found the original operating features, such as the landing gear, tended to be oversized (comparing to photos) and simplifed, to make allowances for all those fat fingers. I ended up thinning the nose gear doors and boxing in the gear well, courtesy a (shortened) Heller CL-215 nose well. I also used the CL-215's nose gear leg and a pair of F-101 nose wheels (very close to the size, tread and hub design I needed).As the new nose well is thinner than the kit's opening, shims were added to each side and sanded once completely dry. Also remeber to reduce the width of each nose wheel door, accordingly.

- engines and cowlings, also from the parts box, originated with a 1/72 Hasegawa Tracker. The scoops, in my case, originated with a Modelcraft Wellington Mk.1, but since I plan on doing the Merlin-engined Mk.2 version, they're fair game. The front of the scoops (parts box) are the intake screens from a 1/72 Airfix Mosquito, backed with a spacer of sheet plastic. The three cowl flaps are simply sheet, glued to the cowling. They stood proud of the cowling on the real thing. The 'bumps' on the cowling were vac'd over a master that was a 1/4 solid tire (soild tire, 2 halves), blunted a bit. The exhaust's consist of a single stack per side. The existing 'exhaust channel' on the kit nacelles, was narrowed (both sides of each channel) with sheet to allow for only a single stack (hollowed rod) - not the three per side as the kit.

- On my particular subject, the 'hub cover' didn't extend completely to the prop. Therefore, I removed the kit hub, replacing it with the hub from a B-17 prop. When that was completely dry, I filed the new hub down approx 1/2 and did the same with the kit hub I removed. Once done, I simply mated the two. The prop tips had to be blunted as well.

Model by Scott Hemsley
Photos by Andy Irving.

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