Wip He177A-5

The project: He177A-5 Wnr 054 KM+UD with Fritz-X bombs. 

The Fritz-X bombs from Yamamoto models are simply the best you can find!  

The real thing... 

... Vs the kit. One can really see the wrong size and position of the kit canopy.  

The first issue to address is the canopy: windows are positioned too low and they are rectangular instead of nearly square. It makes the nose looking odd and leaves a too large area atop. Another big mistake that comes from confusing documentation is that the canopy is always represented with a large window atop, but it is wrong because in this area is located the overhead panel. Pictures of the real plane shows clearly this.  

The canopy after rework. 

So I cut the canopy in halves and move it around 2mm up to realign the windows with the nose glazing. In the central area I cut-off around 3 mm to reduce it in width. 

Now the top windows are really upper windows and not mid-side as per the box. 

Work has started. First job was to create locating tabs for the half fuselage to mate correctly together, and it works pretty well.
Then I started with addressing the central area. This area lacks a lot of details, and even though little will be seenable through the turret, there are things to be corrected and to be added. I grind the pseudo structure off the walls and rebuild the frames (stations numbers are the real ones, Heinkel documentation). MPM added a full floor and this is wrong. There was a structure similar to a platform and a walkway directly attached to the frames and longerons. The area hosts the entire set of oxygen tanks for the crew. They were attached to station 27 (forward bulkhead) and on the right wall. The tanks will add some interesting color in the area. I will limit the effort only to the visible details. 

Bulkhead (station 27) to station 32 added. I won't proceed with other station because it is the only area visible through the turret coupola. Next step, longerons, beams and the platform.