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It's a great book. I was lucky enough to pick one up when we were. In Edinburgh last summer. Carl

I finished painting the lower wings. Here they are slid onto the wing spar. There's no glue holding things together, just gravity. The fit is nice and clean. I think the paint colour is ok too. The new AK paint covers very nicely too. Nice and smooth. Carl

Thanks Mike! I kept putting it off hearing how bad the instructions were, thinking that translated to the kit as well. Thankfully that's not the case. I've been there so I know how you feel. Hopefully you'll get the time soon.

Peter, You're welcome as always. Having picked up so many different tips and techniques myself from various forums, it's only right to share what I've learned. As for the boys, it's been fun working with them on their builds. They've already raided my stash for almost 1/2 dozen kits I'd probably never get around to so that's a good thing. They've gotten ahold of a pair of 1/72 F-4s, a Godzilla, space shuttle, and a Cute Yamato battleship. My wife even lives that they're doing this as it keeps them from watching the television.

For $35 it certainly looks worth it. Even if you have to wait a bit. Personally, I need to burn through the stash a bit more. Thankfully my boys are helping me out with that Ernie, I think the camo looks pretty good to me. Carl

Speaking of French Kiss, I installed the gun nose onto the fuselage. There was some seam filling so I took car of that tonight. Tomorrow hopefully I'll get to the re-scribing of panel lines and rivets. In the meantime, I painted the Neutral Grey onto Betty's Dream. Side by side:

That was a nice P-38 Harv. I just have to figure out what to do with French Kiss since the nose is all closed up. Thanks Martin! I don't think it's that fast but definitely moving in the right direction. Thanks Ryan. It's Gunze Olive Drab.

I found out that you should be be able to download it from their website. Hopefully the link below works. https://ak-interactive.com/downloads/

Wow, fast progress there John. Glad to hear there weren't any additional hiccups. Carl

Supposedly Profimodeler is coming out with a 1/32 Jeep. They've released the trailer for it already. No idea on a release date for the jeep though. Carl

The ones in the far back maybe? It says there's both Mk81 and Mk82 in the set.

Harv, can you get Xtracrylix where you are? I've got some of their paints and they're acrylic. In fact they don't like lacquer thinners of any kind, whether it's for thinning or cleanup. I have their thinner but other folks state they use tap water for thinning. Hannants will ship it overseas too if you buy it from them. It has a very tough finish when dry too.

Guys, I'll try to do a mini review of the paints in the next few days. I've picked up a few now. In general, they spray and behave like Mr Color paints. You need to thin them slightly more as they're thicker but otherwise they spray, cover, and clean up the same way. I even use Mr Color Levelling Thinner to thin them. I've got RLM 02, 65, 71 and their US interior colour set as well as a couple RAF colours. I may have a hard time with determining colour accuracy as I'm slightly colourblind but will do the best I can. Here's the RLM65 sprayed on the lower wing of my Bf110. Wumm, great article on chromate and its use in primers. Years ago, the police cars here in Toronto were painted a bright chrome yellow but they discontinued it as the chromium in the paint was toxic. In fact the old police garages where they did the paint work were classified as contaminated lands and were condemned by the city. They ended up doing huge amounts of remediation and cleanup before they could sell it. Carl

There's 12 in the second ZM set. Sprue Brothers has it in stock if your mugging is unsuccessful. http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/zkmsws007-m01.htm Carl

Great problem solving Ryan. I've got the Sea Hurricane in the stash so this will come in handy. Carl

Ernie's coreect. The Mk81s are in the bomb set for the A-1J Skyraider set SWS07-M1 http://www.zoukeimura.co.jp/en/products/sws07_A1Jskyraider.html Carl

Getting close to being back on the road. Just in time for winter... Carl

Thanks guys! You're right, I'll know it's there and the work I put into it. So after messing around with the assembled nose for French Kiss, I noticed I was having issues getting the gun barrels to align. The problem was I couldn't tell what was giving me issues as I'd sealed it all up already. Not to mention packed it full of pennies. Rather than repeating this issue, I decided to test fit the barrels to the partial nose for Betty's Dream and see what ,if any issues there are. It turns out the .50 Cal gun bodies sit slightly high. So rather than try to tweak each one and make them all sit level, I installed a couple pieces of styrene instead. By passing the gun barrels through their openings, I was able to mark the end points on the styrene and drill holes accordingly. With that done, I finally installed the nose onto the fuselage. I forgot to take some pics at that point as I was finally able to start painting. So here it is with a first coat olive drab on

Looks really good John. I never noticed the gunsight before so thanks for pointing it out. Carl

I got my bench back tonight and got back to work with some paint flying. Whoop, looks like I painted the wrong plane Here we go: This is using the new AK Real Colors RLM65. So far, I have to say I like the way it sprays. It's very similar to Gunze Mr Color in that regard. Unlike their armour colours, it also has a satin finish to it. Carl

I just picked up some paint for my BF 110 so I'll be using those shortly on my build. I'll let you know how well they work out.

Will do Harv.

So here's a quick update. The stash/collection has been sold as a single lot. I don't know the selling price as it wasn't my business to ask but my LHS were the buyers. They get possession in a month or so and then they'll be slowly going through it and getting it ready for sale. I've already put my wish list in so we'll see what happens. I was told that it's going to take them time to get it organized and it won't come into the shop all at once. Which I said was fine by me. Spreads out the pain to my wallet a bit more. Carl

Here's what they're working on. This is supposed to be Jeanne d'Arc heli csrrier Findlay wants to build more ship models so I'm going to have to find something better quality for him. I'm still shocked at how small some of the parts are and then the size of the sprue gates holding them on. Edward is.further along with his Folland Gnat. The paint scheme is his choosing. I have to say I'm really impressed with how well both of them have done on their first glue kits. I don't think I could've done as well at 5 1/2 (Edward's age) much less Findlay who's 8 in 2 weeks. I'm going to have to keep an eye on my stash from now on.... Anyways, I think I'll be able to get back my bench tomorrow. Carl

My boys have usurped my workbench from me so it'll be a bit later this week before I get some bench time. The little guy is building an Airfix Gnat and his brother is building some ship shaped blob of plastic. Sadly it's not a great kit but he is absolutely persevering with it. Carl