Italeri S-3 Viking

I know I know! Yes the Fokker D.VIII is ongoing as is the E-50 with Heimdall turret and other bits and pieces but having got the this kit out for another look I just started to do stuff to it and lo and behold it's off again.
The particular aircraft I want to do dates from around the late 1990's so some changes will be required to reflect this but more about that later. What I have done so far is some basic improvements to the fuselage sides before they are glued together as it's so much easier working on them.

The first job was to make a small oval hole next to the APU exhaust. This area was then thinned down from the inside so that a piece of mesh could be glued in as close to the surface as possible. The APU exhaust was removed as it is too small and all the panel lines filled in as these are complete fiction;

One of the steps on the rear starboard fuselage was filled in and a new one rescribed as it is off-set to one side;

 

 The next job was to add strips of 0.10" styrene strip for the formation lights on the tail and fuselage sides plus a funny-shaped raised panel below the starboard cockpit;

A square of styrene sheet was cut out and four holes drilled into the corners, then the centre piece was cut out, the part cleaned up and glued into the crew entry hatch;

There were a couple of panel lines both sides of the fin that needed filling and new ones scribed in plus rivet detail was added in a couple of places using an RB Productions rivetting tool;

The resin cockpit was from True Details (formerly KMC I believe) and although it's OK the floor was badly warped so rather than destroy any detail I made a new floor from 0.40" styrene sheet, cut out the centre and side consoles and glued these and the rear bulkhead to the new floor;

Phew! That was a good couple of evenings work and the fuselage still is'nt glued together. To be fair the resin cockpit required more hacking than I thought as the curtain divider between the front and rear cockpits was removed as well to allow a bit more light into the rear. I know you still won't be able to see much but it keeps me happy as I know it's there (it's a modellers thing) :o)