BlrwestSiR

I stopped by the LHS yesterday and they had a pile of these in. I was. Very tempted but then the shop clerk said they had one ZM F-4EJ left so I grabbed that. I also picked up a Takom Panzer III for $29 CAD they had on clearance.

Mark, that is some very nice and clean work there. Carl

Very nice looking Tempest Dennis.

That's the only concern that Sue has too. That I might somehow actually finish what's in my stash.

Careful Martin. They're highly addictive. Plus you can build so many different variants from them.

Nice paint work on the body there Rob. Backing the clear with chrome is always a good idea. Makes them pop.

Some would a 12 gauge pump loaded with bird shot but if you do find something let me know.

I've got Tamiya Primer in a jar here as well as Mr Surfacer just need to use them. Not only that but I'll have more hair in the paint than I do normally from the pets.

Thanks Gaz! I thought of that when the first bit of paint lifted. This is the first time I've had paint lift since Model Master acrylic first came out and became SOP for that brand.

The only thing wrong is he's quite exceptional at it. So it helps to level the odds a bit Domestic cats kill a high number of wild birds so we're just trying to minimize his impact there. It also helps identify him as he wanders the neighbourhood.

Thanks Harv! I ran into a small hiccup. I masked off the lower hull and sprayed the black waterline mark. The port side came out fine. The starboard side I had a bit of paint lift. Not sure why that happened. But the bigger issue was how to fix it. I decided to try Post-It notes and fixed a section at a time. For the upper hull, I think I'm going to have to try some seriously de-tacked tape and hope for the best.

So a small update. I finally got the rest of the dark grey on. I ended up usng a different pre-shading approach. I decided to do vertical stripes of a darker grey and then sprayed over everything with the final colour. I think it works better than what I was doing before. You can see what I've done on the upper hull. Now to mask it off and start on the upper hull main colour.

Mine arrived today. Here's a couple pics of them. They're very nice castings. Well worth it. I've now got everything I need for my build so it may be time to try a 4 engine heavy. Carl

Actually it's a cat bib. It's supposed to help reduce their chances at catching birds. Supposed to anyways. Doesn't impede his skills at catching rats and mice though.

Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria!!!

Peter, I haven't used it for taking any of my build or RFI pics. It's up in our living room and since I pretty much have my phone with me all the time, that's what I use. Maybe my next bench re-do I'll add a their for shooting pics. I need to get it out and try it more. Otherwise I'll never get used to it. Carl

Peter and Rob, thanks for sharing all the info and tips about photography. It's something I've had a passing interest in but never took the plunge. Back in high school I had a friend's Nikon F4 for shooting the school yearbook and you're right Peter, it was an absolute tank. I had no idea how to truly use it, mostly as a point and shoot but it took great photos. My neighbour who was into photography eventually bought it from him. I bought a Canon EOS M100 a couple years ago for family trips and what have you but I still don't use it that much. I'll have to give it a try more. Carl

Awesome! Would be cool to see you hold one now.

Thankfully Sue's parents haven't compared me to any of her previous boyfriends or ex-fiance. And conversely, mine haven't done that with her. In all honesty, both Sue and I think that our folks are just relieved that we each found someone to get married to.

I'm their only son in law so does that make me their favourite by default?

The cats and dog go to my left and behind me.

Got these for Father's Day from my in-laws. I suspect they know my interests. Or Sue gave them a clue.

Having used the new bench for a bit, I've made a couple small tweaks to it. I finally put up the paint racks and started hanging up my tools and random detail bits. I've also moved the lights so there's less shadow now. On the work bench, I've also moved the lights slightly and put up a spare TV at the end. The T-34 is my son's most recent build. So I'm fairly set up now me thinks.

The ZM F-4EJ is $110 CAD at the same LHS that has the Tamiya F-4B for $135 CAD. They had the limited edition ZM F-4EJ Kai kit for $135 CAD.

I think I'm around the 200 mark. It's smaller than it was thanks to my boys raiding it and building stuff I most likely won't get to. I know one guy who has 5,000 kits in his stash and my LHS bought one at an estate sale that had 10,000 kits. As for what my wife thinks, Sue doesn't mind too much but is more concerned about where the finished ones would go. Carl