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Harv, I can only echo what's been said. Embrace the memories and feelings of happiness. See you when you're back. Carl

Definitely mean. Nice rubber upgrade too. Carl

Great paint job! The squiggles really make that scheme stand out. Carl

She has claws and doesn't hesitate to use them. I have the scars as proof... Besides, this is her right now:

Here's my bench this morning. I'm trying to keep her fur off the bench so it doesn't end up in my paint. I'm failing badly.

Next up, I turned to the engine nacelles. There's no mention of the instrument covers (H3 & H4) that go into the upper nacelle covers. Brett points this out in his errata list. The two parts are handed but they're clearly marked as to which side they go on: There's a small R and L on the tabs so you can't mix them up. Nice touch by Dragon but then they leave them off the instructions. However, they're frosted on both sides so reading anything through them will be a challenge. I installed the ones that will face outwards as they're painted over so the frosted finish isn't an issue. For the inner ones that face the cockpit, I'll see if I can polish them or find a suitable substitution. Another omission from the instructions is the engine instruments themselves. These are part G16. There's a hole on the engine cradle that needs to be drilled out for these to fit. But you only drill out one of each and make sure they're the ones that face inward on the assembled engines. These parts aren't mentioned on Brett's E & O list.

Success! I got the other side of the canopy on without getting glue marks everywhere. I painted and glued on both vertical tailplanes. For some reason I decided to cut apart the nose cone so I did that and then added a small bit of strip styrene to make up for the lost material.

Is that the Tamiya one? How do you like the kit? My LHS has one for $60and we're thinking of getting it for my son. It's actually cheaper than most of the 1/700 capital ship kits. Carl

Speaking of plastic issues, I started mounting the canopy sections to the fuselage. The section immediately behind the pilot has a slight warp in it. Which is more fun being clear plastic and naturally brittle. So I've glued one side first and hopefully will be able to get the second side on and aligned properly. Carl

So not melted but crumbled. Sounds like what some folks have experienced when using enamel washes or thinners on bare plastic or bits with a thin coat of paint. There's been a lot of talk about this occuring on Bandai Star Wars kits. The builder puts a wash on the model and later on finds the plastic has crumbled, usually around joints or alignment pins. They think it has something to do with the spirits in the washes/thnnier leeching out the plastic binders. There's even a warning about this on the bottles of Tamiya panel line washes.

That's a bunch of progress there Cees. I took a quick look and do have some extra intake bits leftover. I have the outer sections as well as a couple splitter plates if you need them. Carl

The paint on the Panzer IV looks great. Same with the Jeep. Carl

Especially if you paint it black and white. Or go super easy and get one of the Meng World War Toons tank kits. No worries then about shapes or panel lines.

It wasn't the RyeField Panther was it? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the near 2000 part count. Carl

Nice! Mudflaps? Going to take her rallying? That would be cool. Carl

Thanks Nigel! I'm using Mr Color Leveling Thinner with the AK paints. I have a couple bottles of it so I figured I'd use that. Good to know the AK thinner is hotter in case I do try it out. Thanks Harv!

Thanks Rob! Here you go: From the other side: I think it's good for a first try. I did add a drop of black to the RLM02 to darken it slightly and give me a bit of contrast to the upper camo colour.

Thanks gents! I started on the upper side camo with RLM 70 over the RLM02. Next I did the fuselage sides in RLM 65. Then I started on some of the squiggles. I need to add some squiggles in RLM 02 next.

My favourite Firefly, the 1C hybrid version.

Great project Cees! Will be fun to follow along. If you need any spare intake trunking, I may have some around leftover from my several F-4 builds. I may even have a spare Jfuselage somewhere. Carl

Oh, I'd install that on the Beat in a um, heartbeat but I think I'd be filling up at every gas station I passed since my Beat only has a 15 litre gas tank. Carl

Thanks Gaz! Your philosophy pretty much sums up my approach to paint colours. In fact, this is only the second time I've done any real comparison of what I've painted a model with regards to the colour. Carl

Really great work Nigel! This will be invaluable when the time comes to starting mine in the stash. For the wings, I recall having to do something similar on their Mosquito which also has a one piece wing. Carl

I've spent the last couple nights at the bench masking off the canopy bits. I'm using the Eduard pre-cut set which has saved a bunch of time but there's a couple mistakes in their design. On the windshield, there's a brace on the upper section that's on the inside. Eduard designed their mask to leave this free for paint on the outside. Which means you have to filling the outside gap and then mask the inside on your own. Fortunately it's a straight brace with no bends so easy enough to do. Never having been a stickler for complete colour accuracy (probably due to a touch of colour blindness) I don't have a lot of reference material on colours. One of the few I have does have colour chips in it though. After painting a couple parts I compared them to the colour chips inside. To me, they seem a good match. This is a section from the canopy painted in RLM02 The lower wings previously done in RLM65 It's definitely not scientific but I'm happy with the results. Carl

I know, it's almost a tease. But the tiger stripes might be a bit more than I could manage without a proper template.