The third step in the build is the rear fuselage. This step took 4 hr 13 mins.
I divided the work into sections: engine bulkhead, rear fuselage, and empennage.
Engine bulkhead
This sub-step was straightforward, so let’s get to the pictures.
Rear fuselage
As is the case with injection-molded plastic, you’ll find circular depressions called injector pin marks that will still be visible once painted. Given this part of the fuselage is the air intake, it’s possible they may be visible later. Some sanding sticks, elbow grease, and time do the trick.
The front part of the rear fuselages form the air intakes, which are white. I’m typically a huge fan of Vallejo Air paints, as they’re pre-thinned for airbrushing. The hobby store had some white paint, but it sputtered pretty badly despite having a clean airbrush and proper PSI. It could have been a humidity issue (even though my air compressor has a humidity trap). I ended up switching to Tamiya XF-2 white which I thinned with acrylic thinner.
Because most cements work best plastic-to-plastic, I sanded off some of the paint. An alternative would have been to use CA (cyanoacrylate), a.k.a. super glue, which bonds any surface to any another surface.
This part took longer than expected because multiple angles need to be right, and there’s not enough purchase to keep the bulkhead in place while you glue it. I tried poster tack, but that didn’t help. Brute force: eyeball it, glue it, and hope for the best.
It was important to get the bulkhead aligned on the bottom, as you probably can’t see the top by looking down the intakes. Plus, once the two fuselage halves come together, that gap may resolve itself.
I test-fitted the two rear fuselage halves and used Tamiya masking tape to hold things together. The beauty of extra thin cement is that capillary action takes the glue under the tape.
There’s a small window on the starboard side that’s nearly 1×2 mm of clear plastic. I gave it my best to trim it down to fit inside the fuselage piece.
After twenty minutes, I punted and used a trick of placing a piece of masking tape inside the fuselage, then filling the window’s gap with Model Master clear parts cement. The product dries clear, so you can essentially make your own window. It will take several applications, as it shrinks as it cures.
Empennage
The APR 38 at the top of the tail was straightforward.
The alignment was good, but there wasn’t much to hold the APR 38 in place for gluing. Masking tape seemed to pull it to one side or the other. Brute force again: apply glue, hold it where it looks straight.
One of the highlights of this aircraft is the downward sloping stabilizers. Again, the fit was good but there was a lot of play in two directions. I started on the port side because it had the tightest fit. Regular cement was used while I held it for a few minutes; once stable, I used extra thin cement to lock everything down. I eyeballed the starboard side and think I did a fairly decent job.
Next step
Step 4 is where the kit starts to look more like an actual aircraft. The bottom fuselage and center wing sections combine with the front fuselage (from Step 2).