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Glad to hear you're back at it Harv. If those are the stencils I'm thinking of, they definitely aren't the easiest to use. Carl

Rog, sounds like you're getting quite the collection of Hornet stuff. For the B canopy, unfortunately it's a separate part not attached to a common sprue so most likely won't be in the box. AFV Club used to sell them separately with a sort of prismatic finish but I can't find one at the moment. As for the landing gear, I've heard the stock gear holds up as long as the metal inner support rod is glued in securely enough. That's the route I'll be taking with mine so hopefully that's accurate. Carl

Does that mean the Hataka paint worked out?

The light blue surround on the insignia does look odd. I presume that was specific to the plane you're modelling?

The Achilles was an upgunned M10 tank destroyer. The Brits yanked the 76mm gun and dropped in their 17pdr the same way they did to the Sherman to create the Firefly.

Happy birthday Doc!

I found the B-25 book helpful on my builds of the HK model. Carl

This arrived today: I've been wanting to get an Achilles for a while so I'm glad Tamiya finally came out with one.

Glad to help out. The clear parts you need are on their way today. Couldn't find any envelopes to put them in so bought a pack.

I can't recall if the tanks gave me any issues. I think the firewalls might have been reversed as far as which one goes on what side but other than that, it went together nicely. I had just finished building it and left it on the dining table while I tried to figure out where to put it. He was around two at the time so kind of hard to blame him.

Ryan, is that the IV or the later version? I enjoyed building my IV. My son enjoyed taking it on its maiden flight almost as much. Carl

Talk about things just piling on. Hope things go well for your uncle. I was in the car with my dad last week and I'm really starting to think he needs to look at giving up his license. Which he won't without a fight. Carl Edit: just saw your post. My condolences to you and your family.

Thanks for the update Ernie. Carl

He's incredibly affectionate. He ended up sleeping between me and Sue last night which was unexpected but very nice. He's almost certainly a house cat as he knew how to use a litter box and just seems so content being indoors. I hear you Phil. I don't think I could come home to an empty house.

Well, not an LSM and very unexpected. We went to a dairy farm today with some friends on a trip for our kids to learn and have some fun. Got to watch Sue milk a cow which was worth it alone. Needless to say it being a farm there were barn cats and one of them recently had a litter of kittens. All the kids were bonkers over the little fur balls and there were many proclamations of wanting to take one home. Talking to one of the owners about the cats and kittens in general, she mentioned there was a cat that had recently been abandoned on their farm. He was being bullied by the barn cats and they didn't think he'd last because of it. Sure as rain, the little guy came along and upon seeing him we couldn't say no. So this is Sunny. We figure he's around 6-7 months old. At least he isn't a calf or adult dairy cow Carl

We actually one of each at our house so doesn't make it a difference to me.

Tiger Meet schemes for me. There's so many variations that the individual squadrons have done over the years. Hi vis, low vis, peeling/bursting out of the standard camo, cyborg. You name it. Carl

Must not let the wife see this or she'll want one. Thankfully I'd have to wait till it was 15 years old before I could bring it into Canada.

So, anyone going to do the one Richard Dreyfuss flew in Always?

Thankfully it's not the gun nosed variant as I'm running out of shelf space. Carl

No, it's boobies.

Beautiful Tempest Rick. I like option 1 for the weathering. That and I usually prefer lightly weathered models. Carl

Really? Wow, must have had some cushy slippers on too John. I dropped my PCM Hurricane by accident when it was nearly done. Sadly it didn't survive in a salvageable state so I was p!asked at that one.

Poop chute?

That will be pretty awesome Ernie. The polished NMF looks great on a Lanc. Plus you'll be on the way towards a 1/32 Clunk. Carl