The Little World

I admire Italeri greatly for including the interiors on their airliners – after all, these are planes designed to carry people for money, and just moulding up a bare interior is a slack way of doing it. I am prepared to put up with the absence of overhead luggage lockers as these can be made of strip wood if needed. In the case of the Friendship F-27 they would be a distinct obstruction. More of that later.

The seats are backless, but I have Plasticard and finishing them up was very simple. Surprisingly there is a spare seat in this kit – perhaps they forgot that they included a coat locker as well in the passenger compartment. It will come in handy some day for a private plane.

The assembly of the engine nacelles unfortunately needs the inclusion of the main landing gear legs at the time that the power egg goes on the wing. Thus is not too much of a problem as the wing and engine will be a solid colour – it just needs some adequate masking with foam blocks. But take a look at the very tiny tabs for the wings…

The basic interior tray is a near-perfect fit into the fuselage. No sanding or cutting needed. And despite the appearance of the fuselage halves, there is no appreciable seam when they fit together. This will be no putty queen.

Mind you, I shall be surprised if those ventral aerials last the distance. I think I’ll be cutting new ones out of Plasticard near the end of the build. Model firms are so silly to try to cut moulding corners like this.