BlrwestSiR

A small update. I did some test fitting on the turrets, and got them to go together. So I will finish the assembly, paint the guns and install them. I also got the MLG legs together. I used the Aerocraft brass inserts on those. The inner part of the kit legs needs a bit of shaving to get a good fit but easy enough.

The M18 kit really is nice. I just ordered a Master barrel for mine. Carl

Wishing for a happy recovery Kaiser.

Mark, I use this which is the same stuff John mentioned.

How is it? Looks nice.

Peter, that's an odd reaction you've had with the kit decals. If you don't hear from Tamiya, let me know. I have lots of Spitfire roundel decals and can drop some in the mail for you. As for masking the roundels, let me know what issues you were having and I'll see if I can help you out. Carl

Some impressive work there Ernie. The paint on the Corsair is different too. Is it one of those half and half rebuilds that occasionally showed like Little Miss Mischief?

With the F-4G coming out, hopefully a slatted wing E won't be too far behind. That could push me over the edge into 1/48 jets.

Same with Mercedes from around that time frame.

No kidding. I had a 2000 Civic SiR. Bought it new for less than sticker ($22k CAD, list was $23ish) which shocked the sales guy. Sold it 2 years later for just over sticker and last year's someone sold one for $80k USD. A Honda Civic....

The shark mouth was an interesting challenge. I decided to trace the decal onto some tracing paper. I then copied this onto some masking tape and cut it out by hand. This was repeated for the top and bottom and both sides. The teeth were then applied to the model, trying to line them up as best as possible with the red outline. A bit of black and a moment's hesitation, then I pulled the masks off. A small bit of touch up is needed but it worked.

The wing profile on the kit is definitely off. The work to fix is way more than I wanted to do so I'm living with it as is. It's a huge kit, that's for sure. It dwarves the Lancaster.

Thanks everyone! Don't know how I missed this but I appreciate the good wishes.

When you said out back, you weren't kidding.

At this point, I decided to mask off the roundels and the tailplane fin flashes too. The problem here is I didn't have a dedicated set of roundels for the Lib so I hunted around in my stash. I thought Lancaster ones might work but they're much larger. I then found the correct diameter ones in a Tempest kit. But they were old and a bit warped. Not wanting to wait, I used them anyways. This is not something I recommend unless you have patience and experience using masks. They have to be carefully re-aligned and it still won't be 100% perfect fit. To remedy this I sealed the masks between elements so any possible gaps were covered and I sprayed them out of order. I started with the red centre, then the yellow border, then masked the red and white and sprayed the blue last. The wing roundels were easier as they were just two colours. These I cut by hand to the correct diameter from frisket. Lastly, the fin flashes were done just using plain tape to mark them out. After all that here's what I ended up with. The shark mouth still needs more done but the red outline worked out.