The pitot tube was crafted from brass stock, and tapered to a point in the front.  I drilled a hole in the front, then inserted two sections of telescoping stainless steel tubing.  Turned out A-OK!

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I drilled in two holes in the nose, then inserted aluminum tubing for the two .050" cal. machine guns.   I used railroad train lights for the wing landing lights.

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Using this photo of the main gears (above to the right), I started building the two gears using the kit parts (above center).  This did not work out very well.  I scraped them and re-built everything out of aluminum and brass stock.  A friend by the name of Jack Calloway sent me several sizes of "O" rings. I used one size for the main gear tires, and a different size for the nose wheel.

I hand crafted all the gear doors using different thickness' of flat styrene stock.  When finished, they looked like the real doors!  "WHAT DO YOU THINK ?"

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I hand crafted the dive flap as well!  This flap is on the bottom of the fuselage!

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The nose gear is no good, so it's scratch building all the way. I used aluminum tubing, and some brass as well.  Time consuming. but the end result is well worth the time spent on the gear.

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I made some plaster of paris molds for the windscreen and new canopy. The end results are quite nice.  They looked like the real thing!  I also crafted the support arms for the canopy, it its' open position. (look as the two photos side by side).

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Stay tuned to ARC for part 3 of this article