The Little World

I should not have been so cynical about the KP moulders.

The wings of the Dewoitine D-510 looked a little unsure at the start – the tabs seemed vestigial. The fitting surfaces minimal. I foresaw structural re-enforcement needed. I was wrong.

The kit fits. The cockpit goes into the fuselage without trimming – the fuselage halves meet without steps – and the wings slide together with no gaps. The inner surface of the wings looks rough, but a sandpaper swipe cleans them, and the actual mating of them to the wing roots is near-perfect.

Adequate use of Mr. Cement on both surfaces and a quiet couple of hours in a jig sorted the basic structure – and set the tail planes on straight as well. They are fortunately braced on the under-surfaces so the whole is very sturdy.

This is also the first kit upon which I have employed the Mr. Cement SP B thin cement. Dyed black, it lets you see where it has run to to confirm cementation. If you are going to adequately cover the plastic with an undercoat, the black is no problem. The principle seems sensible.

Note that I would like also to praise KP for the geometry of the landing gear struts. I made sure the locating holes were adequately drilled clean and the struts just fell into place. There was no fettling needed.