BlrwestSiR

I tried removing one and the cowl came off easy enough. The firewall is recessed and I'd have to pry it out carefully. I'm going to see if I can when I'm back at the bench.

Ok, I found an easy fix and apparently one which some ground crews used. A barrel under the rear fuselage. She sits level now.

Kai, that's a pretty good idea. It would require a base of some sort which I'm not sure I'll use due to space constraints. Peter, the instructions say 300g of weight are required. If I recall, I added about 350g but then had to remove some to try and get the fuselage closed. That may have been my downfall. It's definitely one I'll have to keep in mind for other builds down the road. Much easier too than trying to cram all the weight in.

Good news. The legs are strong enough to hold the model up. Bad news, I threw the tailplane assembly on and she's still a tail sitter. Some quick messing about and it looks like I need about 60g more nose weight. No idea how I'll get that in at this point. Might just have to put a barrel under the fuselage...

I got a couple things in the mail today. First up is a KASL intake for the F-16. Much better detail and quality than the GT Resin one. Some circle masks in various diameters. A couple mask templates for larger circles and squares. Plus a barrel for the Su-122-54. Lastly a couple gas caps for the KH F-5 series. More tank barrels. One for the M18 Hellcat and another for the Titan 4. A small scale kit. I hope my eyes are up to it. Lastly, an even tinier scale model. One word, Vampire!!! Okay, Nosferatu but same thing.

Fantastic progress Peter. . I'm glad to hear you're going to give masks a try and practice with them some more. They may not always be easy but I'm sure you'll master it. Carl

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.

I figured it was best to see how the shark mouth fit and worked. Good thing too as the decal requires you to mask and spray the black background. There's no template provided so I tried to make one. I stuck a piece of Japanese style masking tape on the decal sheet and traced out the shark mouth. Well, when I removed it, something interesting happened. The tape pulled the decal right off the carrier film! You can see the round circle is mostly gone. The ink came right off the sheet. Time for Plan B. Which may have been more what I would have done anyways. I laid out the shark mouth on the nose using masking tape. I then filled in the centre just leaving the edge. Now it's ready for some paint.

Ok, as previously mentioned I've picked up and started working on the Lib again. I couldn't remember where I left off but I did have the superchargers sitting on the bench so I started with painting and installing those. Then, while going over the turret interiors, I found the misplaced Quickboost prop blade so I did those next.

So much for trying to reduce the fur in a coat of paint...

Mine is kind of stable at the moment. Stable in that it's not likely to topple over from more kits being added to it. Having two sons who occasionally 'borrow' 1/72 kits from my stash helps to keep it in check. Or creates more room for new additions. Haven't done a count in a long time. might be a bit afraid to.