Another case of a photo
etched set containing completely unneccesary pieces. I
used the cockpit parts, nose gear doors and main wheel
well insert from an Eduard etched set and that
was it. The dive brakes and inner gear doors weren't used
because neither of these were seen in the down position
when the aircraft was on the ground and I didn't use the
nose gear bay because I had serious doubts about attaching
the gear to it. The cockpit parts are very nice though
and include a complete ejection seat which is a vast improvement
over the kit seat.
The Panther is one of Hasegawa's
older kits but is still superb. Panel lines are a bit
faint in places but the hard blue plastic put me off trying
to rescribe them. I hate scribing at the best of times,
but trying to scribe lines in brittle, hard plastic is
about as much fun as ice skating on a sheet of glass.
The leading edges of wings and tail are finished with
Testors Metalizer and as an experiment I used Metalizer
Sealer as a final finish over the whole model. This turned
out to be one of the best clear coats I've tried and produced
a nice semi-gloss finish. Too bad Testors products are
as scarce as fans of Maggie Thatcher here in the UK.
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