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Back to the nose, I applied the white outline decal. This went on really well. It matched up with the shape of the blue base nicely. No air bubbles or silvering. I was happy. Then things went pear shaped when it came to the teeth. I had all sorts of splits, folds and bubbles. Which seeing the compound curves the decal had to go around shouldn't have been a surprise. Martin and I talked about some possible solutions when I decided to just peel it off and paint it on. So I used a piece of kabuki tape and pulled it off. This them became a template for a hand cut mask. The nose after getting the mouth off. Tracing the nose decal for my mask. I started with the white for the teeth. Then masked them off and sprayed the red. The finished results. I'm much happier with this impaired to the decal. I've lost a bit of one eye so that will be next. Carl

While the nose dried, I masked and painted the stars and bars on the fuselage. Since the paintwork on the rear half of the fuselage was done, I unmasked the waist and tail gun windows to see what they looked like after all the handling. The waist guns have taken a bit of a beating. One of the ammo cans fell out of the bottom crew hatch. You can't see it's missing so that's a good thing. The tail gunner's station fared much better.

Time for an overdue update. I finally got around to doing the nose art/bat markings on Betty's Dream. Zotz gives you a vinyl mask for the blue part of the nose. Which makes sense to me. Unfortunately when I applied it I must have stretched it somewhat as it no longer matched the white outline that is supplied as a decal. So I traced the decal sheet onto frisket film and made a new mask. Then it was time for the blue. I figured if I used gloss blue, I wouldn't need to worry about a clear coat.

Are you doing those by hand? They're so clean and sharp. I couldn't paint the rims that neatly by hand, especially that many. Carl

Looks like a nice place to visit. Especially if they have Makers Mark Carl

Those parts look fantastic. Ernie, do you know if Mike will be selling these as a conversion set for others? I'd be very interested in getting them if so. Carl

Hi Mike, I'd be in on this. Carl

In that case, how about Spirit of Thuringia?

Happy belated birthday! Avengers Endgame is quite the wrap-up to all their movies. Carl

Wardair? Man are you dating yourself there Jeff. I didn't think there was anyone on here old enough to remember Wardair. Canadian Pacific maybe...

Congrats on the wedding and trip Harv! Can't wait to see the pics. Carl

Jeff, they're not that hard to use. Just a bit tedious. Here's what my F-4D looked like when I was doing that one. I got to see this one in person at the London Airshow way back when.

Stunning there Smitty!

Thanks Gaz! Thanks Rob! Eduard came out with a PE stencil set for all the "No Step", "No Push" etc markings that are on the F-4 so I used those to mask off and paint them on. It's a bit time consuming but I felt worth it.

Thanks Smitty! Thanks Harv! I hear you on the stalled bit. I started my G way back when I first joined LSP and only got as far as the nose. Since then, I've picked up I think every version of GT Resin's conversion set as he kept updating them and adding more details.

This will be great to follow. Jeroen, do you have the Kagero book on the Ho229? It's got some great 3D images in it. Carl

Ok, I finally got around to taking some pics of my F-4E from the year before. It was just too big for my little photo booth. The base kit was the Tamiya F-4EJ with GT Resin's slatted wing, burner cans and Tiseo updates. Intakes and wheels were from Rhino Models. The SUU-23 gunpods and hardpoints are from AMS Resin. I swiped the Rockeyes from a Tamiya F-15E. Lastly the decals were from Speedhunter. Most of the stencils are painted on so I could avoid any silvering issues. After finding a chart showing the gun harmonization for three gun pods, I figured why not. That, and they were already in the stash. I still have a long gestating G to finish and one more E in the pile too. Then I'll finally be done all my Tamiya F-4s. Carl

Canada, where there's only two seasons a year: 1) winter 2) road repair Carl

Harv, do you a gun pod for your project? I think I have an extra one even after I used three on my F-4E build. Carl

Rog, I've got that one too with the extra hanger set plus the PE set that Bandai only sold in their stores. ... and the fighters too. I even have the old 1/700 cutaway kit. I think everyone wants a Zvarke (Sp?) in 1/72 but bandai won't do one for some reason.

Jeff pretty much nailed it with the photos, especially the last one. If I did have such a truck, I'd have to fight my wife for the keys to it. Although she's Scottish, she grew up in Northern Ontario so no luxury cars for her.

I think this could be a lot of fun. So many options for land and air, and maybe even some sea with the Italeri 1/35 LCM and torpedo boats. Carl

Actually, it's an easy one. Open the box, dump the contents in a shredder with a bottle of glue and you're done! It's out of the box and it's glued together Carl

I had this very combination in the stash but decided to sell it a couple years ago. Just didn't think I'd get around to it. I believe that Special Hobby may be planning to do a bubble top Tiffie to go with their Tempest kits. Carl

Something a bit different Always loved Space Battleship Yamato or Star Blazers as I knew it growing up.