Sometimes all the seam-filling goes, well, seamlessly…and sometimes not so much. This time was the not so much category. I had to go over the fuselage seam a few times, searching out those tiny areas that either show the seam or air pockets in the putty. Since the window in the shop faces east, having that bright morning sunlight (unlike myself, who’s not very bright at the best of my times, and certainly not in the morning) enables me to see things that usually don’t show up for me until it’s painting time. So all that got done.

Since I generally don’t start a build that I know how to finish, there’s always that particular thing floating around my consciousness just waiting for its turn to enliven my day (because don’t all inanimate and insensate objects just float around waiting to enliven with our days?). Checking how well or not things fit is to see which of those aspects of the work will need attention as well as how much attention. I’ve known for awhile that the canopy, the forward and fixed part as well as the part that slides back to open the cockpit, doesn’t fit well at all. I also intend to model this aircraft with the canopy open, except that the kit part is too thick and sits ridiculously  and unrealistically high. That means I’ll need to vacuform something thinner. But at the beginning of it all, the forward canopy is too narrow. And ever since I added the few details to the landing gear bays that I did where I used UV-setting resin, I’ve been planning on using this medium to attach the canopy. But all that gets to wait while I finish the last seam, the one going across the inside of the canopy:

Given the proximity of the instrument panel, I wanted to protect if from the work. Since there are several really small parts that could be dislodged if I used tape (and the fact that returning them to where I want them will be quite annoying because of lack of access), instead I made a “portable” mask from pressed paper:

That will drop into the gap between the instrument panel and the edge of the fuselage:

The mask worked as hoped for.

The rear of the cockpit’s interior is flush with the sides of the cockpit opening on the actual aircraft and because of where the cockpit assembly fit, there was a gap around that bulkhead (fit problem, obviously) I’d intended to putty that. But in order to fit the bulkhead where it should go, I’d need a time machine to talk (loudly) to the engineers. Since that’s not possible, I did the best I could with what I had to work with:

I masked off as much of the bulkhead as I could and got creative:

Once the mask was removed and the putty worked, I guess it’s better, but it’s not accurate. It’s just the best that could be done short of splitting the fuselage halves and starting this part over. Nope. Not doing any deconstruction that I don’t have to. Best part of being good is knowing (or guessing correctly) when to stop. So I stopped here (of course finishing down the putty and repainting the affected areas, which were minor).

One on my peeves is using opaque paint to replicate things that are clear or translucent. I have two wingtip lights and two landing lights to do, and only the landing light located under the starboard wing was acceptable (relatively speaking because of…wait for it…fit problems). So three of the four landing lights needed to be redone using clear plastic or acrylic. I’ve already shown you how I dealt with the light located in the leading edge of that wing by using clear sprue. The wingtip lights are too large for any clear sprue I have on hand so I ended up using a quarter inch (.635mm) section of a clear acrylic rod.

That process started by cutting away the opaque plastic where the lights go. This let me ascertain how big the replacements had to be:

I used a razor saw to cut a slot in the end of the rod:

And then sliced across the cut to get two pieces:

References show that the actual bulb comes in from the side of the wing. Red is used on the left, green on the right, so I drilled a very small depression that I added the appropriate color to (sorry about the blurred photo, the camera clearly needed caffeine as well), then I sanded and polished the faces of the acrylic that will be in contact with the wing before gluing the acrylic (with the properly painted “bulbs) to the wing. Usually I would use superglue for this. This time I decided to see if the UV-setting resin would work…it would certainly give me MUCH more time to get the acrylic correctly positioned and it worked great:

Most of the excess acrylic was ground away:

Then sanded through grits of 320, 400,600,1200, and 2500, before being polished with Novus #2 Plastic Polish:

I liked it, enough so that I did it again for the other wingtip:

Attention shifted back to the canopy. One small part of the bracing wasn’t cast into the part. I used 0.005″ (.127mm) scrap styrene and (nerve-wrackingly) added it:

When I test fitted it, it didn’t fit well. (How odd!) Not only was it too narrow to fit the fuselage correctly, the front bottom didn’t fit the curve well, either. Part of that was my responsibility because somehow I sanded away a section of the fuselage where the canopy meets it. Rather than trowel on the putty, I took a section of 0.030″ (.762mm) scrap and added more than enough to fair this into the fuselage without a gap:

Then followed much sanding, filing, and fitting until it finally fit correctly (or at least the way I want it to fit, which I’m hoping is the same thing) (the sliding part of the canopy was also fitted and filed; it’s only use for it is to pull plastic over with the vacuum mold and in place to confirm that I had the front of the canopy correctly fitted):

I decided that since I’m using a new-to-me tool, UV-setting resin, that I was going to decrease my ignorance of this material by seeing what I can do with it. Before I started, I used a permanent marker on the areas of the forward canopy that contact the fuselage. This would keep the plastic from looking like, well, plastic. To spread the canopy to the desired width, I started by tacking one side of this part in correct alignment:

Then I spread the part to fit the other side of the fuselage with a fingertip (using the base of the finger is painful and bloody). Considerable pressure outward was applied and I kept waiting for the attached side to snap free. It didn’t move at all! I filled in (most of) depressions left by applying multiple coats of resin so that I would have enough to sand down to invisibility. But before I did that, I masked the sections I want to remain clear because brain-fade can strike at any time. I have this one part that must be used, and I wanted to protect it from being scratched. Once masked, files and sandpaper blended the canopy to the fuselage. There were a few areas that needed minuscule amounts of putty, but so does the rest of it so putty was applied:

And putty reapplied for the couple of spots that I’d missed:

And it worked wonderfully! It’s looking like I have my new go-to process for adding canopies or any clear parts!

With that out of the “hanging over my head” category, the sliding canopy needed work as well. I tweaked its fit a little, then dealt with the fact that it’s too narrow also. I figured out how much I needed to move it and then used 0.040″ (1.016mm) styrene as a spreader to push the plastic to where I wanted it:

I set up the vacuum molder and mounted the buck on a stand (replacing the superglue I’d usually use for this and used the UV-setting resin instead and had at it):

Using a vacuum molder to copy parts is called “a pull.” Set the buck, heat the plastic, turn on the vacuum motor, and it pulls the plastic down and around the buck. Then the new part is painstakingly cut away from the excess and the buck. It’s not uncommon (for me, anyway) for multiple pulls to be necessary (and waste a lot of material) to get a usable copy. This time I thought I’d done it on the first pull!

Silly me.

In the following photo, you’ll notice that on the side of the canopy, it looks like a paint drip/run. Hmm…but there’s no paint on it! I wonder what…on…well…guess there was a freaking hair on the part (or plastic, I dunno) and it showed up:

::facepalm::

While I had it on the model (temporarily), I checked to see if it would do what I was pretty certain it would do, which is slide back as far as it needs to and sit as low as it has to:

Yes…I know it looks as if it’s only partially open. I’ve seen another modeler’s build of this kit and he thought the same thing, going so far as to remove the antenna mast and move it towards the tail of the aircraft. That is a mistake. Looking at references shows that this is normal for this bird. What’s also normal for this bird is how that sliding section of the canopy fits, now. I just have to make one without hair!

Challenge met:

For this pull, in addition to being sure no hair was included, I wasn’t especially thrilled with how the folds of the hot plastic came up too close to the canopy for me with the last pull. I added a pedestal (made from scrap resin that the engines were cut off of) and that little bit of difference gave me a part that was substantially easier to work:

There were a few more little things to do before painting. One of which was adding brake lines to the main landing gear. I used 0.025″ (.635mm) solder. While I was doing that, I managed to drop one of the wings. One part fell, two parts were picked off the floor. The part that broke off was the section of the landing gear strut at the bottom of the oleo. Okay, annoying, but not the worst part of that day…until I tried to glue it back on. It wouldn’t stay correctly aligned long enough for the “instant setting” (::snarks::) superglue to set. Finally I figured out how to balance the part, correctly aligned, long enough to put a SMALL touch of superglue in place to hold the part there long enough for me to add more superglue. This turned into an example of, “tools are what you need, not necessarily what you think they are”:

Cut to the point…it worked.

And speaking of “cuts” and “points”, this aircraft had four weapons (not counting rockets or bombs), four 20mm cannons and four .50 caliber machine guns. What the kit didn’t have was any shell ejection ports. So references showed me where they’d go, they were marked, and much annoying cutting with sharp points added them:

With all the handling and mishandling (I plead caffeine deficiency), the antenna mast broke off. This was the standard fix-it, add a pin and drill a mounting hole:

After seeing another builder reposition this mast, I checked references, particularly period-correct references, to see if this was correct or if it should stay where it had been molded. Even though it looks wrong, especially with the canopy open, it’s not. This is what Grumman sold the Navy.

As I’ve mentioned in other places, the thing that drives a build changes as the build knocks them off the list. What’s been driving the build since the last update was having all the subassemblies ready to attach so that I can get down to painting this kite.

Mission accomplished (I think…see the next post, here, to see how incorrect I probably am):

Hell…I just might have this done by the end of February!