BlrwestSiR

Thankfully they do line up. They were a real pain to install as these are the replacement brass ones. This is the stock part with the replacement brass tubes. Partway through their installation. Honestly, the biggest difference is that the inner pair of tubes are full length in the brass versus the stock part which is only partially moulded. Otherwise it probably isn't worth the hassle.

I thought the same thing and gave it a quick sanding along the underside. It helped a bit at the rear but not so much at the front. I took a closer look at the blast tubes and they're interfering at the front edge against the fuselage itself. I'm going to leave it for the moment as it's right where the front fuselage joins to the rear. Once I have the fuselage together I'll see what tweaking is needed.

Ok, I found a somewhat simple fix for the slightly too tall counter weight. Shave the inside of part F42 that sits directly below the forward tank. It's easiest to do this before you install it. Otherwise just use a scraper and scrape the inside edges down. Remove the fit tabs and sand flat the bottom of the tank cover. I then added some appropriate thickness shins to either end of the tank to hold it in place between the two bulkheads. Test fit to make sure you have enough clearance so that the tank cover fits correctly along with the upper panels. With the tank cover in place, you won't see the gap around the top lip of it and the tank. From below, the spaces between the tank and the bulkheads and fuselage sides are again too thin and dark to see anything. The shims keep the tanks from moving back and forth and let you glue it into position without the tank cover. The upper spine should now fit correctly without any gaps. Hope that makes sense. Carl

There's a new Mach 1 coming. And not an electric/hybrid either.

Dennis, I weighed the cast weight that ZM gives you. Hopefully with it just behind the cockpit, it'll be enough to keep the model from being a tail sitter.

Been meaning to ask Martin. Which conversion did you use for the 262? Carl

I got my order from Iconicair today. I ordered a pair of the Lancaster nose blisters. One of them is crystal clear and the other is almost as good. Really impressed with them. The other items are a Griffon Bose correction set and a Dambusters conversion set. The HK Dambusters Lanc is sold out in Canada and since I have two of the regular Lanc kits, Graham's set made sense to me. Carl

Fantastic looking turntable Rob. A neighbour had one that was around 500lbs. The weight was supposed to counteract the torque from the turntable's rotation as he explained it to me. No idea how but it looked cool nonetheless.

So I'm not the only one. Thankfully there's an easy fix so I'll cover that once I get there. I'm leaving it out for the moment so the fuselage is a bit easier to handle.

That's great to hear about the Xtreme Metal paints as I bought some for my CF-104 build. Thanks for letting us know about the need for a primer as I usually skip that part. Carl

Bill, nice to see what it looks like. I've got two of them on the way but everything I read says overseas shipments to Canada are completely screwed up.

I ran into my first problem on the build. ZM give you a counterweight that goes inside the forward fuselage tank. For some reason, the cover plate won't fit. It fits perfectly without the weight in place. I thought it might be the placement guides on the bottom but nope, the weight itself is too tall. Looks like they didn't machine enough off the top of the weight. There's enough room under the cover plate that I won't bother joining the two together. Since no else had mentioned this issue, I'm figuring it's a one off. Meantime, I started work on the lower fuselage. The rear section had an internal walkway that will be visible from the topside so I painted that with a wood pattern. Unfortunately the wood graining came out a bit on the light side. I then fitted the lower ribs. This goes above the ventral gun pack. After installation, it confirmed something I was concerned about. I had added the ZM PE details and brass blast tubes to the gun pack. They create just enough interference that the gun pack doesn't sit flush. Leaving the guts out, everything fits perfectly. With the framework and blast tubes in, there's a slight gap around the front and about 1/2 way down each side. I might be able to clamp it or I can leave it removable and live with the gap. Another option is leave the internals out and display them separately.

Hopefully I'll be able to still make Vegas next year. Carl

Trying to get a decent gloss finish is the biggest challenge. Preferably one without dust or hair in it too. It's kind of fun building a model of something we own so give it a shot Phil. So far, these are the models of some of the cars I've owned that I can find: - 1991 Honda Beat by Aoshima - 1988 EF Civic by Aoshima - 2000 EK Civic by Revell - 2002 EP Civic by Fujimi - 2006, 2008, 2009 FD Civic by Interallied and Hasbro. That last one is a Transformer. Just need to find a 1997 Dodge Caravan, 2011 Scion XB and and 2009 Honda FIT/Jazz and I'll have a model of every car I've owned. So far. Carl

Ok, the GT-R is all finished. As a kit, it's ok. Mostly press fit or screw together and heavily simplified. But being the inlet option, it's better than the other 1/12 Skyline GT-R kits out there as they say.

Try to find a roll of Dolphin tape if you can. I got mine from the paint store near my house. It's the same stuff as Tamiya tape but about $5-6 for a roll that's the same size as regular masking tape.

Really fantastic work on the dozer. I wonder if they had chromium in the paint. Toronto police cars used to be a very bright yellow as they used chromium. Eventually they switched to white as the chromium turned out to be quite toxic. The old police workshops ended up being declared as contaminated and were forced to close. Carl

For my next large scale car, a nice little Honda.

Almost done.

Don't forget smooth saucer or engraved one. They made both but I believe the smoothie is an add-on and sold separately. Carl

Thanks Ernie! Actually it was Sue's idea to get married. She asked me first. The best part was our parents were all for it. In fact, mine told me I no longer had a choice as they liked Sue's parents so much. Carl

Ok, the cockpit is pretty much done now and ready to be closed up. I painted and added the details to the cockpit sidewalls. The light grey sections were panels I added after the fact. They won't be seen thankfully. I then turned my attention back to the rear fuselage. I assembled the dorsal cannon. This was then installed into the fuselage. Not much will be seen once completed. I may leave the cover panel loose. We'll see.

Looking good! The finish is really good. How much touch up on the silver have you done if any? Carl

This pretty much sums up the reason I've been spending more time on LSM than LSP. I build more than just 1/32 aircraft and LSM makes it easier to find stuff and enjoy the other subjects that interest me. Carl

Really great progress Rob. I think I reinforced the main gear on my build but the traditional way of just using a metal rod. The nose gear on mine was partly scratched as the kit one didn't look like the one in the Kagero book.