The kit consists of two vacuformed sheets, two canopies, a very complete decal sheet and about a pound (!) of lead alloy castings. Initial construction is typically vacuform: scoring, popping out parts and careful sanding. That is, for all vac parts except the relatively fragile prop spinner segments (spares are included) and landing gear fairings. The interiors of these first should be coated with cyanoacrylate (CA) or epoxy glue. I did two CA layers, each sprayed with accelerator just to be sure the plastic wouldn't fracture when the six circular prop bosses were cut out. Don't use too great a quantity of CA, though, or the exothermic--hey, I have to use my ancient chemistry degree for something!--reaction caused by the accelerator will deform or crack the plastic. Use a fresh No. 11 blade, and back up the work while making multiple gentle passes with the knife. Even with these precautions I still managed to break out two very thin plastic segments between the prop boss and spinner edge. After I CA'd the tapered metal spinner backing plates to the spinner shells, I replaced the missing segments with small pieces of plastic strip.

After sanding the fuselage halves and cutting out the two marked exhaust ellipses and three air inlets, I decided to make and pre-glue to the upper fuselage a plastic backing piece for the instrument panel. Since the panel isn't meant to fasten onto the cockpit tub anyhow, this procedure bypassed a potential problem in the later alignment and gluing of the painted instrument panel after the cockpit tub had been painted and installed; the panel would merely rest upon the backing. I also added an additional .030" firewall backup to support the metal prop shaft and the seriously heavy prop/spinner assemblies.

The vac cockpit tub is typically plain, with added metal side consoles. The consoles have raised detail but no throttles. Also in metal are the stick--I replaced mine with the Monogram A-1 item--and an unadorned ejection seat. The overall effect is too sparse for this fan of 'busy' cockpits, and I referred to Steve Ginter's excellent new Skyshark book. The seat was detailed by 'Dremelling' three horizontal corrogations across the seatback, cutting a seatbelt slot in each seat side and then adding photoetched Reheat and Airwave seatbelts. Fabricated throttles, plastic air cylinders behind the seat and various seat knobs, appendages and bulkhead panels--again, per Ginter--completed the effect. The raised details of the cast metal instrument panel and wear areas on the seat were highlighted with white and silver pencils which I prefer to normal drybrushing. A gentle touch or three of the sharpened pencil on each instrument, followed by a Kristal Kleer dot does just fine for a 1/48 panel that is buried under a coaming. Generic photoetched rudder pedals were glued to the vac 'bumps' on the floor of the tub.

The flanged vac tailwheel bay was glued to one fuselage half, and then both fuselage halves were permanently joined. Next, the metal prop shaft and exhaust outlets were CA'ed to the fuselage, and the three vac air inlet 'trays' were glued with Tenax. Next, the painted cockpit tub was installed, and the finished instrument panel CA'ed to the backing plate.

The one-piece lower wing has pre-molded dihedral. After cutting out marked gear door areas in this large piece, flanged maingear bays are glued in. Then, rather than using a spar, four thin (.030" X 0.25") reinforcing strips are CA'ed--NO Tenax or other solvent glues in this step--on each of the four inside surfaces of the wing. Join the upper and lower wings together with your glue of choice and move on to the most critical portion of the model assembly: the wing/fuselage join. Trim the joint areas gingerly, and, per the Dynavector instructions, make adjustments at the trailing edge/fuselage intersection. Even using due caution and Tenax, I experienced some gaps which had to be filled with thin plastic strip--but then, that's why they call me "Bondo". The properly dried wing/fuselage joint was wet sanded, masked down to a 1/8" strip and the strip puttied with 3M Blue Acryl.

Proper stabilizer dihedral is achieved with a preformed vac tongue which slips through cutout slots in the fuselage. I wanted a tight fit here, and the friction between the tongue and slots tended to pull the fuselage halves together in an abnormal 'pucker'. I first Tenax'ed the tongue to one fuselage half and allowed the joint to dry overnight. With this joint now firmly anchored, it was easy to adjust the unglued tongue/fuselage joint to a pucker-free cross section before gluing. After sanding and joining the upper and lower stabilizer halves, the inboard stabilizer ends were bevelled with a flat sanding board, and the assemblies were slipped over the tongue and glued to the fuselage. The completed outboard and centerline external tanks were Tenax'ed to the lower wing at this time; the primer and subsequent gloss topcoats help to add a small fillet to the joint.

After the metal props were sanded, painted and decaled, they were inserted through the previously cut holes in the pre-painted spinner segments and CA'ed to the metal spinner backing plates--front and rear props are appropriately stamped-- using a clever self-alignment feature built in to the boss castings. The completed prop/spinner assemblies simply slide over the metal shaft; no need for glue.


The engraved canopy is formed from a very clear, flexible plastic, but this rubberlike flexibility makes edge sanding 'adjustments' rather difficult; instead of flying off, the abraded particles just curl over, still attached, and a knife blade must be used to trim off the 'fuzz'. Since an open canopy was selected, I fashioned a sheet plastic bulkhead and floor plate for the aft canopy section. These strengthen the canopy,and allow it to rest on the fuselage 'deck'. Attachment of these parts to the canopy was by RC 56 radio control canopy glue.

The model was primered in grey lacquer-filler, and Blue Acryl putty was applied to remaining surface irregularities. After sanding--make sure you get all the little raised 'dots' used to ensure proper vacuforming--and re-primering, two overall coats of 100% thinned Model Master Glossy Dark Sea Blue were airbrushed. The advantage of starting with glossy paint comes at decal time, because I'm rarely able to achieve the same degree of glossiness over flats, even with multiple coats of Future or any other glosscoat. I've found it much easier to start out with very glossy color and tone down later with semi-gloss or flat clearcoat. The air intake areas, exhaust outlets and wheels were masked and shot with steel non-buffing metallizer per pix of the third production aircraft in Ginter.

The casting ridges on the metal landing struts were filed, retraction links CA'ed, flat black paint applied, and then the entire assembly CA'ed to each gear bay floor. Monogram A-1 wheels were substituted because the kit's cast metal wheels--they appear to be Monogram clones--were unuseable due to seriously offset halves during the casting process. Separately painted gear doors were added last.

Dynavector furnishes a very well-printed decal sheet, including what must be every stencil used on this bird. And, the resolution is so good that all stencils may be actually read--no jibberish! Unfortunately, the white--and about 99% of the decals are white--is slightly translucent, especially noticeable in the larger items. I chose to use Superscale national borderless insignia, and the difference in opacity is obvious. In comparison, the nearby Dynavector "NAVY" markings look somewhat dingy; think 'Aftermarket'. And, the font for the large, underwing NAVY seems too "fat". The real heartburn with the decals, though, is the water-soluble adhesive. No matter how much soaking was applied to the larger decals, there was an invisible, tenacious 'drag' that often made it necessary to run a blade under the entire decal and then physically lift it off the sheet rather than slide what would normally be a slippery decal off onto the desired area. In surprising contrast, some of the tiny stencils would practically jump off the sheet way before one would expect the glue to release. Some slight silvering occurred in items with significant clear areas such as the prominent vertical parallel red turbine warning lines on each side of the fuselage. Solvaset and judicious pricking of the clear area made most of the silvered areas disappear. I hope Mr. Tominari will do some serious conferring with his decal vendor.

After the large underwing "NAVY" decal dried, the locating pins of nine (count 'em) metal weapons pylons were pressed into pre-drilled holes in each wing (all mounting pin locations are conveniently molded in); I opted not to do the included rockets. Other various metal pieces such as the large tailwheel arm and strut, guns, catapult hooks, ADF antenna fairing, arrestor hook and flap hinges were mounted in similar fashion.

Finally, three metallizer shades (exhaust, jet exhaust and burnt iron) were airbrushed sequentially on the sides of the empennage. Don't spare the exhaust residue; this was a really dirty area.