"Will it still start?" - Progress to plan

PE wheel well detail part secured on ceramic plate and ready to solder 

Flux paste applied to first joint to be soldered. 

Soldered wheel well PE detail part (visible inner surface). So-so job but I'll live with it for a first attempt. Hopefully it will look better after a little primer and final finish color is applied. 

Soldered wheel well PE detail part (unseen surface detail) 

Removing the kit's existing wheel well detail. This is needed to allow installation of PE detail parts. I'm using a Swiss made "palm sized bent chisel" (very sharp). The chisel is made for wood carving and was purchased from Woodcraft of Seattle.
The overall small size and width of the chisel's curved blade easily, quickly, and safely removed the kit's existing wheel well details. 

Project's parts box 

Test fitting PE wheel wells and removing kit flaps (right lwr. flap already removed) to allow installation of PE detail flaps. 

Test fitting PE wheel wells (very nice fit) 

Both kit flaps removed. Waiting for a Small Shop "Hold and Fold" PE bender to arrive. The PE flaps are too long to try and bend by hand, given that I’m such a novice with PE parts. 

Getting ready to build Eduard's PE seat for the P-40K. 

Getting ready to tack solder the seat's sides to lower pan. This is done before completing the remaining bends that are necessary to form the upward curving portion of the forward seat pan. I used Tamiya's small (74084) and large (74067) PE bending pliers and PE bending tweezers (74117) for all PE bending up to this point.

I had a small "hold-and-fold" type of PE bender that I purchased a few years ago (made by Ming? I think) but it's been lost to the garage monster. Two new PE benders are on order from The Small Shop that I hope will arrive early this week. I'll start working on the flaps after the new benders arrive. 

The seat's soldering has been completed. I use a Hakko brand FX-888D soldering station. I used a small chisel solder tip and set the iron to 850F. I tin and flux clean the tip before each use. These parts are so small. You can add a small amount of solder to the iron’s tip. The flux does all the work once you apply the iron's tip to the part's joint. The flux on the edges to be joined pulls the solder from the iron’s tip to the part soldering the joint. The solder flows where the flux was applied. If you apply too much solder it can be removed with solder wick or clean the iron's tip and let some solder transfer from the part back to the tip of the iron. Just make sure to NOT apply flux to areas that you don't want the solder joint to show.  

The seat's internal bracing part "#37" has been added. I'm amazed at the fidelity of detail that can be achieved using modern chemical milling processes to create small PE parts, especially in 1/72 scale. 

The seat assembly after priming with "Mr. Metal Primer." I'm not sure if this is really necessary. I wanted to experiment with the materials and processes. I intend to chip away some of the cockpit green color later and let the seat's natural metal finish show through. We'll see how it goes. 

Studying the PE flaps getting ready for assembly. 

One wheel well after priming with Mr. Surfacing Primer 1500 black. 

 

Planning for leading edge gun tube installation. I'm using Master # AM-72-124. 

 

These Tsunada TM-16 cutters worked very well for quickly removing the kit's molded gun tubes and barrels. I tried a number of tools to cut away the gun barrels, but these worked the best for me.

I collected a lot of small tools when I lived in Japan, but I believe you can still find these online (Amazon perhaps?). 

Some small holes. Learned a lot opening holes for the gun tubes. I'm hoping to improve on the other side. Three down...three to go. 

I'll have some more modification and assembly comments later, mainly about the details of the drilling process that I used to open gun holes on the wing's leading edges. I learned a few lessons about handling the small brass gun barrel tubes, too. I hope some of what I learned during this exercise can help other novices like me. For now, let me share that those tiny brass gun tubes are fragile so handle them with care. The thin wall at the open end is a feature that makes them appear realistic in this scale but it's fragile so be careful. I think I’ve discovered a method to help keep their openings nice and round during all the fitting and handling. You can insert a properly sized solid rod or drill in them to provid support. This will help prevent collapsing the open ends of Master's gun tubes during fitting and installation. I'm amazed by the machining of these beautiful little Master Model details. It's a wonderful time to be back in scale modeling.