TJTX

I hate trumpeter, but I see a fire bomber for my collection....

So far my Sufa is nice. BUT, it certainly ain't Tamiya nice. There will be plenty of putty used.

I think it looks fantastic Mark. From the pictures the decals look great to me as does the rest of the build. I think you might be surprised what the judges do and dont see. I can point out about 10 things on my P-40 that should have knocked it out but for some reason they didn't notice. If your gonna have a problem area, the bottom is the best place!

I dont know if you believe in reincarnation or not, but that is one beautiful sign to me.

I have always been of the opinion, take care of your employees and they'll take care of you. Herb Keller (Southwest Airlines) is a wonderful example of the successful implementation of this concept. My last employer couldn't seem to wrap their head around this. They're now hurting immensely because they entire work force has been leaving in droves and taking their experience and knowledge with them. I'm blessed to now work for an owner that expects a lot, but most certainly treats his guys fairly and honestly. Mark, I am so very sorry to hear of your situation. From all our hangouts at Tolberts and elsewhere I can tell your a genuinely good person as well as intelligent and hard working. If I hear of anything through the grapevine that might help I'll be sure to think of you. I know there is no consolation in this, but having been in your shoes many times in this stupid industry that is aviation, I have always been able to look back and realize it happened for a reason. My life has always become better from the bumps in the road now that I can look back at the road I've traveled.

I'm very interested to see how those pencils work. How much were they?

I want nothing more than a 1/32 C-47 to build my grandfather's plane. However I can't justify that price. I'd be scared to work on it and mess it up.

Yea, I'll be honest I took the easy way out on that one. When I noticed you could put the panel there without the holes I just chose to use that. Theres a few other concessions I've made in the build as well.

Now she's coming to life. The decals go down beautifully. HOWEVER, once they go down there is absolutely no moving them so you'd better get it right on the first try. There's still some touch up painting and more decaling to go. I'm hoping to have this wrapped up in August. This will be the last WIP update because there really isn't anything else to share.

Didn't want the resin one, but this might show up in the stash.

That is how the white looked to me in the photos, and I figured if they were running surplus drop tanks they might very well of used the insignia white of the time too. I had to put down a 3rd treatment on the filler port, but that should fix it for good. Then I can finish painting and then get the decals on. I'm VERY anxious to see the name go on the nose.

Prop is done. I couldn't successfully cast it in resin, so I just went ahead and built up all 4 blades. I'm quite happy how it turned out and that it sits well into a slightly modified spinner.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Seriously Martin, I have no idea how you find the things you find. Those are awesome.

Next section of white is on. I still need to do a bit more work on the filler port after priming it again. Once that gets wrapped up I can keep painting. This is only the first coat of white, it will get cleaned up and I'll spray over this again.

What black is that on the stab?

Yea, that's what I meant to describe. I'll use leveling thinner to remove almost all of the mr surface leaving a little band that hopefully looks close.

Spine and tanks are on. Mr Surfacer will make an excellent representative sealant like I see on the conformal tank photos.

I'm very happy to see this one back on the bench. Keep it going!

They have all kinds of colors and metalizers. Is it enamel, lacquer, or acrylic?

If he was holding an exacto knife instead of swords thatd be great.

Realized the fuel filler port was still showing after a coat of primer. Out with the Tamiya putty.

Started working in cleaning the spine and rescribing lost areas. I also installed the gun port and started to work in cleaning it up. To me, the spine and conformal tanks are stand out features of the "Sufa" look so I'm really trying to make sure if get those looking clean. I also started to clean up the Zacto intakes. These are absolutely beautifully crafted parts.

Yup, I see a dirty greek birdy in my future.

It looks nice. I dont know variants of this kit but I do like the general look of the Mirage. Count me in for one.