BlrwestSiR

It was sent out from the US on Dec 12, arrived in Canada on the 22nd and was forwarded to Canada Customs for clearance the next day. It then sat there with no updates until this morning when they said it was out for delivery. I have to find an HK Meteor kit now for the base kit as well as decals. Thankfully the Zotz ones seem to be still around with a couple shops.

Just got this in the mail today after Canada Customs had it for two weeks.

The feds have announced after much back and forth that Canada will be getting 88 F-35s with an initial order for 4 to arrive in 2026. With all the cool special paint schemes the RCAF has been known to do our CF-188s in, it'll be cool to see the F-35 in something other than grey. Good thing Tamiya just released their 1/48 kit. I should have bought a case when they were on sale last month. Carl

Having built their Scammell, this should be a very nice kit once it comes out. Nice to see they're doing new subjects.

So true Peter.

That's looking really great. The gear does looks complicated.

Welcome aboard! It'll be great to see how you do the exploded view. Everyone so far has been buttoning them up. Carl

You're one of us!!!

There's also the 8 window nose but that's the movie version. Or was that the TV one?

Progress is progress Phil. Sometimes I have time to glue a couple parts on, sometimes I can finish a whole page of instructions.

Nice work on the cockpit Hubert. The punch set looks impressive too. I've got the Waldron set and have thought of getting the RB Toolz ones. Carl

I was reading about the Armoured Lorry on The Modelling News this morning. Definitely looks unique.

I think he's bought them all already and the shops are waiting on a restock.

As the Dark Lord himself would say: Impressive, most impressive!

That's for sure. There's also a XIV conversion coming for the Tamiya XVI kit. I'll need at least one of those if not 2. The XIV is my favourite Spitfire.

There was a documentary about ILM and they talked about when they and other effects houses started using CGI how the model makers either learned to do digital effects or were let go. One by one all the shops that did physical models were gone and so was the industry. What is interesting though is some of the managers have started doing things with miniatures again. They like having a physical model to reference and use and so some of them are getting back to their roots. Peter Jackson liked to use a combination of physical and CGI effects in his films.

Good call on the correction set. It'll make big difference.

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