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Peter, if you can find pictures of the ILM workshops from when they were working on the films, they look like hobby shop warehouses. They'd have tens of copies of the same models so they could take parts from them and use them to detail the filming miniatures. Lots of Tamiya kits of tanks, ships, F1 cars you name it. There are guys who made it a mission to identify the various kit parts and find them in real life. Very different from these days where it's all done in a computer. A completely different set of skills.

Ernie, it's really looking great. I see what you mean about the turtle deck compared to the pics. Never knew how that retracted so thanks for that lesson. Like you and Peter, I'm starting to make the switch to 1/48 for jets. I'll (hopefully) build the 1/32 ones I already have in the stash but I'll move down to 1/48 from here on.

Looks very nice indeed.

Wow Maru, I never thought I'd hear you of all people get banned. We're definitely more relaxed here so I think you'll have a great time with the rest of us characters. Carl

@DocRob, here's the Jagdpanther hull. This is the engine deck for an M48/M60. An F1 transmission half With the main hull finally done, I started on adding the small details onto the model. These are called greeblies in the SF model world. Looking at the instructions, I realized I was page 30 at this point with another 20 to go. Yeeesh.

Mark, the pre-shading to me looks fine. Like Peter said, it may be a bit on the light side but it's there. Carl

That'll be a solid base for the Seaview.

Peter, the P-40 looks great. Really captures the lines of the plane with the cowls on. Something that would be lost if they were open. I've had the similar mixed results with Molotow markers as well. I use Hasegawa mirror finish film. Think of Bare Metal Foil but much shinier and much more durable. It even has a bit of stretch to it. Carl

My boys are the same way. They really enjoy the big Lego sets. Our oldest wanted the Hogwarts castle set so much he saved up hm to buy it. It helped that the grandparents knew what he was doing and gave him a bunch of Lego gift cards.

Nice job on the wiring. When I read the "Bright Lights" bit, all I could think of was the movie Gremlins.

Rob, that's been one of the fun parts of the build: trying to identify the various kit parts they used in building the original filming model. Lots of tank parts and F1 car bits too.

Nice to see this Bill. My Kingfisher is not only also on the SoD but has it's own drawer in my tool rack for some of the completed parts. Just lost interest more than anything else.

Thanks Peter. The dynamic pose on the stand is what made me decide to use the figures. The kit stand is fairly static and just holds the model level. I only saw the movie a couple times in the theatres. The first was on a school trip. The second was when they re-released it with the two sequels and did a marathon showing of all three back to back.

I mocked up the main cabin real quick with some tape and placed the flying bridge section onto it as a comparison of the kit part to the one I just made as well as check the fit. Stock: AM: The brass one definitely makes a huge improvement. I've also found a couple crew figures so have orders those.

Thanks Peter! Can't wait to see you make a proper start on the Kingfisher. It took me a long time to figure out how to get decent results with PE. Mostly it was CA everywhere and badly made folds. Some proper tools really made a difference.

Thanks for sharing that Nick. It seems there's a few of these lurking in people's stashes. At the moment, I'll probably built 77 as I don't have much (any, in fact) reference material to pick another option. Some of the other camo schemes do look much better though.

Interesting talk about the appeal of Atlantic vs Pacific camo schemes. The tri-colour has always held an appeal for me especially compared to the overall GSB later in the war. At the same time, the white and grey Atlantic scenes carries a similar level of interest. Then you have the RN Temperate Sea Scheme...

Phil, it looks like Royal Models do a PE and resin detail set for the PT boat. There's one on eBay for sale at the moment. https://www.ebay.ca/itm/201564236121?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=d3gYxXf7SiS&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=J7xpuL_STvq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY Lion Roar also do one but I can't find it anywhere at the moment. Carl

I painted the recessed bays on the upper hull and added them. The cockpit tube was finished and then I attached it to the upper hull. I then finally added the upper hull to the lower assembly. It's really starting to look like the Falcon. I also got the upper jawbox painted.

I thought I'd get more done over the Christmas break but even though I was off, we were busy with family stuff. I finally got the cockpit done. This was mostly applying various decals over some well detailed panels. I had to use a lot of decal solvent to get them to conform. I then painted the figures. I decided to use the crew layout from when the Falcon escapes from the Death Star. This puts Leia and Chewbacca up front, Han and Luke in the gunner seats. To fill the rear seat, I added C-3P0. The rear panel of the cockpit door I felt was a bit too deep to cover easily with the decal so I cut that part of the decal out and painted it. I oddly don't have any pics of the finished panel. Whoops. Finally I painted the canopy after masking it off. At this point, I found a clear stand I'd bought for the Fine Molds Falcon. The fit isn't perfect but it does hold the model so I might use it.

It's going to together nicely. Quick too. Carl

Nice work so far Chris. I'm impressed by the paint still being good. I didn't get the Model Master Acryl paints to ever work for me. Many went off in the bottle before I could even try them and those that didn't, wouldn't stuck. Glad you've had success with them.

Same here, this will be the first one I've seen done.

The yellow looks fantastic like the other have said. I've never had an easy time spraying gloss yellow.

Thanks guys! This is definitely a challenge. I've been reading the instructions (sacrilege, I know) and there's more insanity to come. Like adding 156 bolts to the torpedo tubes. Anyways the flying bridge is done. That's about it for tonight. @CANicoll Chris, I'm using a CA applicator called the Glue Looper. It's a thin stainless hook that you dip in a puddle of CA and touch to the seam. It really helps keep the mess down.