Trumpeter E-25; paint is on

I've managed to get some time at the bench today so I touched up the black undercoat then sprayed the base coat;

I've used Tamiya XF-78 Wooden Deck Tan for a basecoat as it more or less matches the German Dunkelgelb which was used in the later stages of WW2 plus it will darken with weathering.
You might notice that it's shiny, this is because after applying pin washes to the very matt finished SS-23 I had no control over them and they left 'tide-marks' everywhere on the model.
This time around as an experiment I added Tamiya X-22 Clear varnish to the base coat rather than gloss the model after so we'll see if this method works better for washes. Camouflage-wise I'm thinking of an 'ambush' style, hardly original but a scheme I've been wanting to do for ages. I may put some unit markings, crosses and numbers on too.

Airix C-47; Milliput-not just for gir...erm... figure modellers :o)

Before the lower wings were fixed into place I glued a length of 4mm square styrene inside between the top and bottom joints to give extra strength and prevent any flexing of the wing roots.
Once everything had set firmly Milliput epoxy putty (I use the white stuff) was mixed together, rolled into a 'sausage' then worked into the wing joints;

Using an old paint brush the Milliput was worked into the joints and smoothed out;

Finally any excess putty that had gone into the panel lines was just scooped out with a needle and there you have it! The joints made good without losing any detail through sanding if regular model filler had been used;

Using this method of filling a joint is only possible if you have a firm area to work with, any flexing will just crack Milliput as it does'nt bond to the plastic unlike Humbrol or Revell plastic filler so it's a good idea to strengthen joints like this.
By the way I got this tip from Brett Green, editor of Hyperscale and Model Military Int'l so I take no credit for the idea, just passing it along to you lot out there :o)

Airfix C-47; wings glued together

I glued the lower wings today but after a dry fit of parts there were a couple of minor issues to deal with before they would join together properly. The first one is the raised locating strips on the insides of the wings near the landing light as this prevented a good join, once removed the joint was much better;

The second one are the small locating pins on the insides near the wing tisp as these prevented the wing halves from joining so they were removed too, lastly there are a couple of raised mould-pin marks on the inside trailing edge and these were rubbed down just in case;

Once all these items were removed the wings were glued together, taped firmly and left to set;

The join between the lower wings was actually very good and just needed some liquid glue along the joint and more tape just to stop them springing apart.

Airfix C-47; Winging it

To cover the gap between the wings and wing-roots I've glued a strip of sheet styrene on the inside edge of the wing-roots then glued the upper wings in place, making sure they were glued to the styrene strip as well.
The idea is to use Milliput rather than body filler as I can shape it with water, that way I won't destroy any surface detail plus with the styrene sheet underneath both sides it *should* stop any flexing which would crack the Miliput.
I also took the opportunity to fix the tailplanes in place so by the time I can work on the model again the glue would have set firmly and all the joints can be done at the same time.

At least it's starting to look more Dakota shaped :o)
In case you are wondering I'll be painting the gear bays before I stick the cowlings on as I worked out that I could still get in the areas with an airbrush.

Airfix C-47; Wing roots

I dry fitted the upper wings tonight and oh dear...

The gaps at the wing roots are horrendous, particularly on the port side. I did think that the wing root inserts were the problem as I fitted them flush to the fuselage by mistake and they need to protude a bit but not to that extent.
Admittedly its just a dry fit of parts but that must be the worst fitting wing joint I have ever seen in over 40 years of modelling...wow! Hopefully when I glue and tape the wings to the fuselage it will improve but initial thoughts are that it's going to need a LOT of filling. Hmmm.....

Airfix C-47; Putting the wings on...sort of.

While the fuselage was drying I thought I would begin fixing the wings. The lower fuselage and wing section was glued into place although the fit at the front was'nt brilliant and had to be shimmed to avoid a step between the forward lower fuselage and wing.
There are inserts for the wing roots and it's quite tricky here as the cabin floor pushes them out too far. I scraped some material from the backs of the inserts and the fit was a lot better but I may have lost the slight steps where the wing roots meet the fuselage but I'll worry about that later as detail is going to be lost when the gaps are filled (and there will be a few gaps surprisingly).
I've taped it up and again it will be left to set so there won't be any updates for a couple of days as I'm back to work this weekend.

Airfix C-47 fuselage buttoned up

The cockpit has been painted and although it does'nt look much it will be adequate for what you can see through the cabin windows. Now that's done I glued the fuselage halves together so once it's set I can clean it up.

I tend to use Humbrol Liquid Poly for this as I want the glue to ooze out a bit because when it sets it can be sanded without using filler (most of the time anyway). It may take longer to set than Mr Hobby or Tamiya stuff but it works for me and I ain't in any rush.
If anybody is interested I sprayed Tamiya matt black first then did the cockpit in XF-5 green, lightly dry-brushed (yes I said dry-brushed lol) with a lighter green by Vallejo. The seats were painted with Vallejo Cavalry Brown and the seatbelts with Iraqi Sand.