I dug this partially completed model out
of the storage box to complete it in time for the 2006 Western
Washington Fair. Most of the work was done a few years ago and it had
been boxed up when we moved.The camouflage was
hand painted by brush, and I think is pretty well done for a model kit
that is only 2-1/4 inches long and has a wingspan less than three
inches.
The side/wing crosses are decals, but I messed up the
kit tail swastikas and ended up repainting them (rather hurriedly) at
the last minute to get the kit entered in the Fair.
The rudder, flaps, elevators, ailerons were cut off
and repositioned. I also hacked up the thick canopy and stretched a new
one over the tip of a pencil. The front windscreen is very crude, but
the new open "glass" gives a view to the tiny scratchwork in the
cockpit. Some of the homemade details include an instrument panel, side
gauges and equipment, a seat and seatbelts.
Under the plane, I continued the wing armament in the
wheel wells and used paint to simulate depth. Other bits of plastic were
added to make the tiny kit seem more like the 1/72nd-scale kits I was
used to at the time.
The kit did end up winning
the First-Place ribbon for the adult division in the 2006 Western
Washington Fair.