K7 bluebird 1/43 scale build

Up until now, I have not found photos of the hydrofoil at the bottom to use as reference, so I just worked with the one that came with the kit. However the rear panel I made for the end of the hydrofoil seemed to be too wide for the speed brake and was forcing the placement of the static rudder (the part on the right side in the photo below) too far off to the right.IMG_20240824_131537.jpg

It was obvious the hydrofoil itself was too wide. Then I watched one of the Bluebird restoration videos and they had the bluebird upsidedown, giving a good view of the real hydrofoil.
Here is a screenshot and as you can see, the one on my model is too large, so I am reworking it at the moment to make it smaller.
At least the parts on the rear of the boat will line up once it's done.

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I've just finished filling in all the tiny pinholes and getting it ready for another coat of primer.
I added the raised panel line around the nose, as I sanded the original one away due to it being a bit rough and uneven.

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Painting the model with the sponsons on would have been awkward, but filling was needed where the arms attach, to the sponsons, especially the front arms.
So I filled in the big oval shaped recesses in the sponsons where the rear arms slotted in and cut the ends of the rear arms down shorter.
I drilled a hole all the way through the rear arms to the inside of the model and drilled a hole in the filled in area on the sponsons. Brass rod now runs through the rear arms and into the sponsons.
I also drilled a smaller hole all the way through the front arms and into the nose section.
I cut the very ends of the front arms off and glued the small cut off sections into the recesses in the sponsons and did all the filling work that needed doing where the front arms join the sponsons.
I drilled a little further through the glued in pieces into the sponson itself and added long brass rod through the front arms.
The rod running through the front arms lines up perfectly with the little end pieces that are glued and filled into the sponsons, because the hole was drilled before the ends where cut off.
This method has shifted the joint of the front arms to the sponsons a little further in and without the need of filler, so I can paint the model and glue the sponsons on last.

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I'm replacing the top of the fin, as the one with the kit has a pitot tube that just a pin cast into it.

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A little primer on the sponson to see what the new joint looks like.
I think it's acceptable as a panel line and its worth it to be able to paint and clear coat with the sponsons off.

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I've started to fill in the panel lines on the sponsons. As well as just looking wrong, they would have created problems with the K7 logo decals.
I'll probably re-scribe some panel detail, but finer than they were before.

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