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A stunning debut indeed! All of your work is stunning; the E-100 is a knockout!

Very nicely done! I love the "let's just roll right out of the factory to the front" primer scheme.

This is one of those "I really don't have any superlatives to begin describing what I feel when I look at these photos" situations. I'll just say that you have my utmost admiration and respect for your talent (and patience!) and leave it at that. Ed

Kudos! I love it! The painting and weathering are both restrained and convincing. I've built a number of tanks since returning to the hobby twenty-odd years ago, and NONE of them look as good as this, your first effort. I am especially impressed by your treatment of the tracks and muffler/exhaust. Finally, the simple base is most effective. Regards, Ed

"Stay tuned: the forum will soon undergo a massive transformation!" Color me... intrigued!

Thanks Guys!

You have a sharp eye Jeroen...yes, it is indeed missing. It took a dive down the floor vent in my workshop. Short of crawling under the house and pulling the duct apart, I doubt that it shall ever be seen again (an Iwata airbrush nozzle and many other kit parts are likely residing there as well). I e-mailed ICM asking if I could purchase a new clear sprue, and received a very nice reply stating that they were "looking at the best way to resolve my problem". That was in May, and apparently they are still trying to "resolve my problem". I may try the age-old white glue trick to fashion a landing light cover but given the contour of the leading edge of the wing I'm not sure it will work.

As I ranted in an earlier "works in progress" post, this was not the most pleasant build of my life. Overall, the fit of the kit is OK, except around the engine nacelles. Part of that, though, may have been the result of my own poor planning and engineering. I achieved near-perfect fit around the nacelles with the help of some sprue "spreaders" that I placed just inside the wings around the join with the nacelles. However, a couple of them apparently became dislodged after gluing the nacelles in place (judging from the mysterious rattling about inside the wings) and the gap returned. Covered in shame, I will not show photos of the underside. The kit decals are awful...don't use them if you build the kit. They shattered, they silvered...you name it, they did it. I understand that Hasegawa is reboxing this and I'm certain their decals will be much better. I ended up using some old after-market decals for the national markings, and painted on the red "nicht betreten" line thingy with Tamiya X-7. (I know...probably not the best RLM match but I was completely over it and just wanted to be done with it). Having said all of this, I'd like to build the Revell night fighter boxing, as I think I know my way through the minefield now.

Erich Hartmann's mount. Completely OOB. Gunze aqueous paints, thinned with Gunze leveling thinner. Testor's acryl flat coat. Delightful build with no reportable vices!

Revell He-162 with Aires cockpit. The cockpit was a bit of a bear to get "seated" despite the fact that I scraped away all existing kit side wall detail to such an extent that I left the fuselage at near-paper thinness. RLM76 underside and RLM02 wheel wells painted with Vallejo Air (my first and last time using them). I know others love them but i just couldn't get the hang of them; I experienced constant airbrush clogging with them. In fairness though, the finish was quite good. Decals were from the kit and were excellent. I'd like to build this kit again but completely OOB. I also added a bit of plumbing on the engine, though certainly not as much as on the real thing.

My second kit completion of 2016. All paints were Tamiya, thinned with Gunze leveling thinner. This was the mount of Russian ace Nikolay Shkodin in 1953. Decals courtesy of "Hi Decals". They are excellent decals, and react beautifully to MicroSol and MicroSet. Other than the decals, 100% out-of-box.

Just started on this last night. I had originally intended to do this one "buttoned up", but the cannon isn't half bad and with a bit of plumbing and wiring I think it might look impressive to leave the cannon bay open. Test fitting of the kit implies excellent fit. [/url]

Guilty of lurking as charged. I've had a relatively prolific (for me) kit-building year so far. I'm on my fourth kit (a Hobbyboss Me-262 "Pulkzerstorer"). I haven't posted much due to the overall "suckiness" of my cell-phone camera efforts, but as I'm pretty proud of my work so far this year (especially the ICM Do-215 I just completed) I would like to show off at least what I've been working on in 2016. I have had a bit better luck with the use of some white poster board as a backdrop and some workshop lighting manipulation so I'll post some pics later tonight. Regards, Ed

Hi Kahuna! Thanks! The RLM 70 and 71 (Black Green XF-27 and Dark Green XF-61) are Tamiya. I laid down each of these as a base coat, then I added a bit of XF-60 Dark Yellow to each and randomly lightened them. The "RLM 65" underside is a base coat of Tamiya XF-23 Light Blue which was then over-sprayed with random squiggles of Gunze Aqueous RLM 65. The red "Nicht Betreten" (?) lines along the upper fuselage wing root were masked off and painted with Tamiya X-7 Red (the decals for these shattered immediately upon placement in water). The RLM-02 for the cockpit and wheel wells was Lifecolor Acrylic. This was my first experience with LifeColor and I was very pleased! Like your Techmod decals, the lineage of the ICM kit decals was highly suspect! Regards, Ed

That is a STUNNING work space, and the Tivoli radio system is a very nice touch! Regards, Ed