A Homage To The Little Parts

I've spent the past few days working on the smaller parts, the landing gear, the propeller and the nose cone. I've actually finished the fuselage and it's ready for its clear coat of acrylic floor polish. Yes, floor polish. It's a standard modelling practice to use Future floor polish to clear coat your model to protect the paint job and give a glossy surface to lay the decals. I've had this bottle of Future for so long, it's not even called Future anymore. Which is not to say my bottle mysteriously altered its name whilst in my possession.

I thought I would keep you in suspense and post the progress on these important, yet not as exciting parts. Just like red-headed middle children, they need attention and love too, you can't just gloss over them. (See what I did there?) Yes, they are not as exciting and not as eye catching, but the landing gear hold up the plane and the propeller provides the thrust for flight. Enough with the wordiness and on to the minutiae!

The main landing gear in pieces. The struts and the wheel covers need to be paired correctly because they are opposites of each other. If I left them on the sprues the numbers would tell them apart. As you can see, they are no longer attached. I had to dry fit the parts together to make sure they fit the way they should. I checked, re-checked and checked again to be sure.

Now they are all glued together......so....hopefully it's correct. It would be a real bummer if they were backwards. My ability to hand paint wheels is not so bueno. Thankfully, the center hubs you see here were separate parts. Let's just say I'm glad the other side is mostly covered by the landing gear covers

Since the tips will be yellow, it's best to put some white down to brighten the yellow.

Yellow.

Attached.

Nose cone glued in place.

Masked off the yellow.

Blackened is the end. 

There you go, most of the little parts. I still need to figure out what I'm doing with the exhaust pipes. I don't have any appropriate colors yet. I'll reveal the final camo paint job in the next couple of days. I really want to build the antici....................................................................................................................