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The Skyraider was an absolutely huge plane, especially for a single engine prop. I built the ZM kit a while back and it went together rather well. I've picked up a second one to do. Carl

Guess I'll have to go to the local art store and find a couple.

I think she could poke an eye out!

My mom and a bunch of her colleagues all took early retirement at the same time a few years ago. The bank they (and me at the time) were working at decided to make some big changes to the pension plan as well as their retirement benefits. The biggie was a cap on prescription drugs. My mom is a cancer survivor and my dad has had 3 heart attacks so they've got a fair share of meds to keep them healthy. So my mom took a hit on the financial side but kept the old benefits plan. That was almost 20 years. They would have maxed it out by now so it was the right call. Meanwhile my sister has been there since she was 16 so she can retire at 53 (I think or maybe 54?) with a full pension. Carl

Thanks Phil! I'll give that a try.

Thanks Peter! The white stripe I think helps to break up the monotone nature of the paint job. I masked off the stripes and did a pre-shading of the conning tower. I used the same vertical pattern as I did on the hull. I had to be careful masking around the railing that's near the base of the conning tower. I then painted everything. And with the masking tape removed. The primer coat definitely worked along with do the stripes first. A quick dry fit on the hull to get an over idea of how it looks.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I've been working away on other projects (brakes on our car, fixing the hitch, a couple car models) but finally had some time to get back to this. I painted the white stripes that go on the conning tower. These were used to identify boats that were in training. I used Tamiya white as a primer so I hopefully don't get any more paint lifting and then used AK white grey for the stripes. I figured this way they won't be so stark. Once that's dry, I'll mask them off and start on the main colour.

My Border Models Tiger finally arrived. I ordered it back in January. Not sure which slow boat it went on. I checked for the QC issues that Gaz mentioned and my kit doesn't have the shell hits so I guess I'm good. Some more detail bits for my Scammell and some crew for the Type XXIII on my bench. Lastly some zimmerit for my Rye Field Sturmtiger. I haven't used PE zimmerit before so hopefully it's not too challenging.

My vote is go for it and enjoy life! The time saved on commuting alone will be worth it. Eight years ago shortly after our second son Edward was born, Sue and I did some similar live/work calculations. Day care was going to cost us $36K a year for our two boys. I was making $50K so after tax, about $35K. I was burned out at work, had a boss who had it in for me so it wasn't hard to make the leap to stay at home dad. There haven't been any regrets on my part. Carl

Peter, the cockpit looks fantastic. Thanks for the tips on brush maintenance. I tend to kill mine off and I'm lucky if they last a year or so. My boys don't mind as they get a regular supply of my hand me downs. The nose gear bay looks great with the little touches of colour you've added. Really makes them pop. Carl

Thanks for sharing the pics. Looks like a great day out indeed. The Chevelle looks purdy. Carl

Can't wait to hear your feedback on the kit Ernie and John. It's like buying a car and finding out the passenger side mirror is optional. Oh wait, that's what Honda did in the '80s. Maybe what Infinity could have done is offered two versions of the kit. One as a plain Jane basic kit, the other as a fully loaded special with the extra detail sets in it. Like Eduard does with their Weekend and Profi sets. Carl

1. Remove sprues from clear bags. 2. Place back inside kit box. Do not give in to temptation and use a larger box as it can throw off the fit. 3. Loosen bottle cap on a full bottle of Tamiya extra thin cement. If you're in a pinch, you can use regular Tamiya cement but no more than 1/2 bottle. Lemonine cement is out unless you like citrus. 4. Put lid back on box. Shake the box in a semicircular motion. If building a Spitfire, while shaking the box, repeat the sacred chant "Takka! Takka! Takka!". 5. After 1 min, open the box lid and pour a couple drops of the lower camo colours. Shake for 10 seconds. Then open the box and add a couple drops of the upper camo colours. Repeat. Let dry for 24 hours before the next step. 6. Finally cut apart the decal sheet and put those in the box. Give it one swift up and down motion. This is why Tamiya decals are so thick. They need to withstand the high G load of application. 7. For the last time, open the box and now remove your completed Tamiya kit and admire your workmanship.

Tamiya is supposed to be coming out with a revised Tomcat later this year. It's going to have new wings with lowered flaps and slats. Might be worth grabbing one then. Carl

Peter, I hear ya. Not always easy slogging through a kit that fights you at every turn. Hopefully it won't be too bad. Carl

I decided to get another Kitty Hawk Little Bird. I have their AH-6J kit in the stash already so decided the M was different enough to warrant getting. HLJ recently had a sale so I took advantage of it and got the Hasegawa Jota.

What Martin said!

Thanks for the update. I can't believe you basically started over on the nose. Looks absolutely stunning along with the rest of your work. Carl

Peter, great to see the start of your build. It really amazes me how Tamiya does things their way. Sort of like how Honda used to be when it was run by the engineers. I'm looking forward to seeing what you make of the Kits World seat belts. Carl

And case in point. It looks like I got a bit too heavy on the hood and the paint has pooled a bit. This means I'll have to strip it back and start over.

Rob you can get streaking and variations in the colour if you're not careful. This time around I thinned the paint quite a bit and did light coats. This gives you a bit more margin for error. Also use as wide a spray pattern as you can. The one challenge is that if you make a mistake, you have to start all over again.

I do now. When I run out I know where to get some so thanks for the tip Martin.

Strings Rob's excellent Ford GT, I've pulled a couple cat kits out of the stash/SoD and thrown some paint at them. First up is a Subaru Impreza WRC. I had to fix a lot small blemishes in the original paint and redo it. It's come out much better this time. That encouraged me to try painting a Tamiya RX-7. The base coat is Tamiya Titanium Gold. I've now started putting on layers of Tamiya Clear Red. I did this years ago with a 300ZX kit and it turned out great. Then the paint fully cured and spider webbed. Tamiya eventually changed the formula of their clear paints as it started to happen to other modelers.

I think I've made mine extra hard by swapping some Special Hobby bits into it. We'll see when I get back to it.

+2 but mine's not in the stash so much as it's scattered in various locations around my bench. Need to get back to it one day. Mark, you can glue some of the engine panels on and still be able to remove other ones if you want to be able to display the engines when you're done. Carl