The lessons learned, basically, were procedural (I assembled or painted some things second that I should have done first) and detail (I put lots of detail in places that were not visible at all when assembled and didn't detail some places that were visible).
Right now, it's being painted, but here are some process shots.
First is the hollowed out exhaust. It needed it as the original was not very deep. First the basic drilling:
Behind the fuselage, you can see this little guy. It's a hollowed out black sprue.
That's needed to fill the hole, but also add depth. Here, it's glued onto the inside of the fuselage:
Of course, you can't tell the depth from this photo, but it's there.
I also decided to make the control surfaces in non-neutral positions. The ailerons proved impossible, but on all of the photos I checked, they were in the neutral position while the elevators drooped. I didn't have a JLC combo knife so I just used an Xacto. Slowly cutting over and over until the piece came free.
I also decided to put a bit more detail into the wheel wells. Here, I drilled some lightening holes that are in the actual aircraft. I've since added hydraulic lines and a small bulkhead on the airframe.
I also re-worked the rear bulkhead. It was very difficult to find a photo of this section. But, between a few photos of Texans being restored, I managed to get close
Here's a bad shot of the original (those lumps are ammo boxes. Only used on Texans used for bomber gunner training):
and here's the re-built:
I'm really moving slow on this one. Working on my seam filling and other basic stuff. I'd like to get this good enough to take to Valley Con next spring. We'll see. One of the guys in my model club is a very experienced modeler who was a judge at the Nationals this year, so he can pre-judge my work!
