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I've only ever had one HpH kit and it wasn't courageous enough to try building it. Can't wait to see more. Carl

The Ta-152 was one of their first kits and I've read about the iffy fit on it in places. I have their revised version of it in the stash so we'll see if it's any better. I've only built one other ZM kit which was the A-1H Skyraider. Thanks Rog! I do like their kits.

Me too please!

Onto the new work. The outer wing sections have a duct and heater assembly. ZM provides this part but only include the upper part of the ductwork. There's nothing to fill in the lower section. When you fit the wing together, looking into the duct the appearance is odd. I mixed up a small amount of Apoxie Sculpt and pressed it into the lower wing. I then shapes it with a wet toothpick to match the upper duct half by holding the wings together. Next up, I have the ZM PE set for the cockpit. This is done by Eduard and still retains their weird idea of RLM 66. I went back and forth between whether to use it as is, try to paint it so it would match the rest of the cockpit or not use it at all. I went with option 2 figuring if I screwed up the painting, I would use the cockpit as is. I used Gunze RLM66 and thinned it down with some Tamiya lacquer paint retarder. It's not 100% precise, but I'm happy with the results. More importantly, it will match the rest of the cockpit. With that step done, I've started prepping the kit parts for the PE application.

I started my He219 early last year but set it aside at some point. I'm trying to clear up some older builds so it's back on the bench. I've been going through the box the last couple days to see where I'd left off. I can add the earlier So far,.I have the main wing and nacelles partly assembled. The same goes for the rear section of the fuselage and the engines. The last major subassembly I have is the ventral gun tray. This part probably caused the most grief mostly due to the addition of the ZM brass gun barrels and PE frame. If you leave the AM stuff out, it goes together fairly painlessly.

I was looking at the pics you posted of the J build and had a quick question. On the turrets, how did you glue together the two halves so neatly. The seam line looks to be be fairly fine. Carl

Rob, I had to check but I don't have a WIP so I'll start one. I was wondering about Peter. Haven't heard from him in a long time either.

I need to wait for better weather to paint the Skyline so the He219 is back. I've been spending the last bit figuring out where I left off. Hopefully I'll start making progress shortly.

When someone says Landover to me, I think of a Series III Defender. Those in Canada are a premium vehicle and are at least 15 years old so it can be imported. A friend has a 110 two door and somehow we once got 8 of us with our mountain bikes all inside it. At least the drive was short. Carl

He did indeed. Didn't help that I had a bit of disposable cash, the LHS had it in stock and the price was right. They are nice kits. I've got the He219 back on the bench as of last night so will be getting back to that one.

I think someone dropped a chimney stack on it.

I think that way it'll make a nice compliment to the Ju88 P-1 and Tse Tse Mosquito I plan to do as well.

Went to my LHS today. They're open for curbside pickup so I did just that. I caved to Ernie's subtle persuasions and picked up the Ki-45. Going to have to build it with the big nose gun. Carl

Yup, R32 GT-R. It's the Fujimi 1/12 kit that was reissued a couple years ago.

Rog, try to find the Red Kite book on the Dambusters Lancs. It's got some great 3D images of the plane. It came out in 2018 so hopefully isn't hard to find if you don't have it already. Carl

Thanks Martin for the offer. The kit is so basic that I'm not sure it would be worth it. I was a bit surprised considering it's 1/12 scale. It's actually a snap together believe it or not. Well, snap and screw together.

More progress today on Gojira. The chassis is all done. Now to finish painting the body. Which requires a trip to the LHS for a can of Tamiya spray paint.

Thanks Phil! I did throw some dirt at her! Just a speck or two but I did. Honest!

Looks great Tony! Just catching up on your build. Carl

Good luck Rog! Hope you can get it worked out. Great call on the HK Lanc too. If you know which plane you're building, you may want to look at the Iconicair nose blister. It's the larger nose blister but without the holes that the kit one has. Carl

Happy birthday Mike! Carl

Some more work on the GT-R: For a 1/12 scale car, the details really are a bit too simplified. But I guess that's why it's on my bench.

Definitely jealous! After my triple bypass last fall, I've had to watch my diet more. I so want to go and smoke something on our Big Green Egg. Maybe this weekend...

Ok, time to call this one done. I applied the few decals to the hull. They have a very flat finish OOB but I still have them a clear coat once they were dry. I then gave the tank a light wash followed by a quick dry brushing using Tamiya weather pastels. Here she is lined up with some of my other recent completed tanks. Overall, a very straightforward build OOB. Takom have a StuG III announced in the same series so that may be a future purchase. Carl

Very nice! That's the first Look IP I've seen in use. Definitely an improvement. Carl