Airfix 1/72 Tomahawk IIA - Part 8

Final component additions...
There are a few parts to still be attached before the model is - essentially - complete. These include the undercarriage, the exhaust stubs and the Pitot probe.

I am building the Airfix undercarriage 'as is' and not adding any scratch built hydraulic cables. So after cleaning up the components it's onto the spray booth for priming...

Then the parts are hand painted. I didn't have an 'aluminium' for the landing gear struts so I just mixed a little flat black with silver, the wheel hubs were done in the same Hakata 'Sky' light blue-green and - finally - the tyres were painted with a new colour I bought, Vallejo's Panzer Aces [306] 'Dark Rubber'.

I was very pleased with the Vallejo rubber colour and will use it by default on all my tyres from now on. It's a warm, dark grey with just a hint of blue (I think) and really is a wonderful base for creating rubber tyres.

The landing gear was assembled and glued into place, so I now have to be extra careful when handling the model in case I knock one of them off. I also popped on the prop - which I finished painting - but I haven't glued it on permanently as I want to make use of the hole for the prop as a means of supporting the model while spraying it.

Now I move onto the last two smaller parts, beginning with the exhaust stubs...

The obvious flaw with these parts are that the 'pipes' are not hollow, so the simple remedy for this was to drill out the stubs to make them more realistic...

Painting the stubs caused me some head scratching as opinions seem to vary about what colour they should be. Airfix seems to suggest using a dark grey, but my research seems to suggest a metallic bronze-brown...

Picture source: Tony Hisgett - Flickr: Curtiss P-40B (via Wikipedia)

Next up is the Pitot probe which is positioned near the end of the port wing. What is it?

'A pitot tube is a pressure measurement instrument used to measure fluid flow velocity...It is widely used to determine the airspeed of an aircraft...' [Wikipedia]

On the left is the US style Pitot probe [24] and on the right is the RAF 'cranked' probe [25].

Airfix provides you with two pitot probes, one for US aircraft and one for British. US Army aircraft sported the straight probe while the RAF fitted what was termed a 'cranked' probe, a sort of 'L' shaped tube.

Aside from a couple of small repairs - I finally managed to break off one of the delicate wing-mounted machine-gun barrels, it was inevitable - I am just doing some paint touch up to rectify some small blemishes. But otherwise that is the majority of construction complete - the exception being the cockpit canopy

I'm not sure when to attach the canopy. I could do now I guess and then mask it out to protect when I start weathering. Or I could wait until I've done the weathering then attach it...I shall have a think about that...