Nothing fits!

You know what I'm talking about. There are a few producers whose products can elicit such a response. Classic Airframes is one of them. Late last year I was asked to build their Lockheed Hudson in 1/48 scale. I'd always wanted to build one of these but I was a little concerned in advance because I knew what it would involve..

I looked through the sprues and noticed the thick plastic parts with nicely engraved panel lines. There was a bagful of resin parts - alarmingly all bundled in one bag. The detail was very well rendered but packing them together leads to the inevitable breakages.

I set to with determination. The flight deck built up nicely and I painted it, along with its attendant parts. I'm all ready to assemble, but surprise surprise, nothing goes anywhere near the fuselage. It was the very acme of foolishness to suppose it would.... It was the usual Classic Airframe problem - overly-thick plastic fuselage and an over-wide resin flight deck. The only way round it was to assemble it Johnny Cash-style - one piece at a time. I dismantled the flight deck and started again, test fitting the fuselage at every stage. Of course, I had to fill and paint as I went. Painstaking? Time-consuming? Oh yes, but ultimately a job well worth doing. As a pal of mine used to say, 'there's only one winner'. And now to get the wings on.