Hi all,
Just a quick update.
Looking at photographs it's difficult to see detail for the interplane struts on this aircraft.
Some look to be of wood construction only.
Others seem to show a tubular reinforcing tube that was fitted to the leading edge of each strut with wood aerofoil struts attached to its rear edge.
Also what appears to be four 'wrappings' of either linen or metal around each strut.
Normally strut wrapping would be linen and these were used to help prevent the wood struts from splitting under stress.
Anyway, the kit 'wrappings' were over sized so I decided to modify all eight struts.
The 'wrappings' were sanded off and the leading edge tubes, which are not represented on the kit struts, were scribed.
Base coated with 'Tamiya' Deck Tan (XF78), then clear coat sealed.
The wood areas were masked off and 'Alclad' Steel (ALC112) was airbrushed over the tubes.
Clear coated again then 'Flory Models' Dark Dirt clay wash applied.
Clear coated yet again and 1 mm wide strips were applied from the ‘Xtradecal’ Parallel Stripes (White XPS2) set.
A final clear coat was then applied to seal everything.
The cutout in the two inboard, rear interplane struts, are to allow the wing warping control lines to route from the fuselage to the outboard struts.

Mike