PZL-Mielec An-2T "Colt" Latvian Air Force 247

As usual, construction starts with the cockpit. I have built the An-2 kit by Trumpeter, and it has its issues in terms of fit and accuracy, but I hope it turns out better this time. For a change, I applied white on the handles of the yokes, according to photos. 

Fuselage halves painted on the inside (Mr. Hobby H1 for the passenger cabin and H67 for the cockpit). White is troublesome to work with, and after applying three layers, I decided that I had already wasted enough paint for a part that was only going to be visible when lighting the inside of the model with a lamp. I'll paint the cabin floor black. 

Hint 1: you must clip the rectangular parts from the bulkhead, or else they will obstruct the rear cockpit door. I thought there was no need for precision with this work, so I did it with a pair of diagonal pliers. 

The fuselage halves went together perfectly (with just a little sanding at the vertical stabilizer), but this is where the easy part of the assembly ends. I'm going to paint the inside of the engine compartment with Mr. Hobby H339 (Engine Gray), as with my previous An-2 models. I'll use H302 and a mixture of 67% H312 and 33% H6 for the two-tone green camouflage. 

Hint 2: the air intake on the top of the engine cowling is too large, and it's incorrectly placed by the attachment pin. I cut almost half of it in height (I might have overdone it this time, my bad...), and removed the attachment pin. It should be placed about 0,5 mm behind the panel line that runs around the cowling. 

Hint 3: the position of the oil radiator on the bottom has to be corrected, as the attachment hole is far ahead of the position it should be (according to the real An-2). The front of the intake should be about 8,5 mm behind that panel line in front of the cowling, which means it's right above the attachment hole, so the hole needs to be filled. I solved this by cutting the attachment pin from the oil radiator part, and glued it into the hole (the fit isn't perfect, but I easily filled the gap around the pin with a little glue). The other problem is that the side of the radiator that's adjacent to the fuselage is completely flat, so it won't fit; however, this is also easy to solve by sanding it with sanding paper attached to something cylindrical. I also find the shape of the radiator itself incorrect (the original is not cylindrical in shape), but I made no attempts to correct it. 

Done with the painting on the engine (I may make some corrections before assembling the engine compartment). Cylinders are H76 (Burnt iron), and the central part is H56 (Intermediate blue). 

Wheels painted; tyres are H77 Tire black, wheels are H302 Green, and tail gear leg is H45 Light blue mixed with H1 White. 

Propeller painted and put together with the engine; I used H56 (Intermediate blue) for the blades and H329 (Yellow) for their tips, plus a bit of H8 (Silver) at the hub. I know it's going to be harder to handle the model during the rest of the building process (as I'll have to pay attention to the blades all the way), but the propeller must be installed before the engine cowling is assembled, if one wants to make it rotate (make sure that no glue goes anywhere near the propeller shaft, and that's one of the trickier parts of building this kit).