Peterpools

John Surely will be cool looking

John Nice choice of subject and you certainly did your homework. Going to be a terrific build and will be in my front row seat.

Gaz Hope she finds her way back to the bench and completion as you have already done so much work. 🤞

Carl Thank you so much for taking the time to photograph the competition tables, as the work was topflight. I always feel guilty picking out a favorite but the cutaway Space Shuttle was simply brilliant and I never saw the shuttle built to that level of detail. I always seem to come away from competitions wishing I had the skills, room and time to build just one large scale ship.

Wishing Harold well on his retirement and dealing with his medical issues. He has been a huge, positive influence on our hobby and hopefully AIMS will be sold to a new owner with the same passion.

Gaz I've used them on a number of builds in the past and echo what Carl said - they are excellent and well worth the cost.

Chris Please follow your doctor's advice to the letter and I know you will make a full recovery. I'm not the picture of health these days and I know how the uncertainty is hard to deal with. We're here to help in any way - and no question you will be fine.

Pete WOW, simply stellar

John Never too late to change and enjoy what you're building rather then banging your head against the wall. My fingers are crossed and I know you will be off and running tomorrow with the D-9.

Scott Just a different way of organizing the work done for the day.

Martin Six months sounds just fine

Hubert Still looking and finding those small gaps but eventually, Mr Surfacer 1000 should do the trick. Thank you for your well wishes on Thursday procedure.

Martin Thanks for removing my ZM Skyraider trade.

Thanks John and that is surely reassuring to know. Hoping by the weekend to being close to priming and starting for me, the fun part of the build - painting.

MAKING PROGRESS The Empennage I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to correct the vertical and horizontal stabilizer issue as it seems ZM missed the mark depicting the empennage. I've been studying quite a few photographs and have realized (hope I'm right) the aerodynamic plate (thanks Hubert) in between the fuselage and the horizontal stabilizer should not be attached to the fuselage and only attached to the horizontal stabilizer as it is part of the trim system and a bit too thick for scale appearance. This led to fit and appearance issues. I thinned down the aerodynamic plate as best I could and cleaned up the balance of the assembly … not perfect but at least appearing a bit better. ZM should have molded the aerodynamic plate as a separate part and the modeler could have thinned it down to whatever thickness was desired. Seems to me to be a better solution and at the same time molded a more tradition tail. The wings – what can I say, nicely done and molded in ZM’s normal style, there are a lot of parts that need to be very carefully assembled or the wing skins will not fit properly. The upper skin is one piece plus the wing tip and the lower skin is three parts plus the lower wing tip. What took time again trying to understand the isometric drawings as to what is actually being shown for parts orientation and location was a chore. The wheel wells were a nerve-racking experience. I gave up following the instructions for this assembly, added the lower wing panel, directly under the wheel well and the assembly was then easy as pie. Geeze if I could figure that out as a much easier method, why couldn’t ZM? Here I deviated from the construction sequence, first adding the front and upper wing fairings, which helped align and locate the wings. The wing fairings had now dried for a good 24 hours and time for cleaning up all the seams and test fitting the wing – not bad at all. What made this portion of the assembly finicky was the need for so many parts to work together and of course, a good portion of the underside detail parts were now closed up and hidden away. Just so much work goes into all these parts and not knowing what will actually be seen and not seen, adds to the uncertainty. I'm not sure how much progress I’ll be making this week as I have surgical procedure scheduled for Thursday and as we get closer to the date, just too nervous to do any work.

It's here, my Kotare Spitfire. Would not have been possible if it wasn't for Carl jumping in and saving the day.

Thank Martin for the very kind comments. Finally test fitting the wings and an update later today.

Thanks Phil, much appreciated. Still plowing ahead, making slow progress but it's progress in the right direction.

Nice buy Harv Hope you get all settled in and then it's Man Cave Time and hopefully the new Airfix 1/24 Spitfire

Kev Who doesn't love B-25's?

Paul Clear the bench and start building, going to be an epic build for sure.

🍀🤞

John Nice work on adding the True Details resin cockpit and the security/safety bar is some nice insurance to boot.

Mark Brilliant work - looking so good.

The background Bio and history adds so much to the thread - thanks you for posting.