BlrwestSiR

And worth every Loonie. Sorry, pennies aren't legal tender in Canada any more.

Saw this cockpit upgrade set for the ICM CH-54 and decided to get one. It's absolutely stunning. It basically replaces the entirety of the kit cockpit.

That sounds like Vancouver. Being in a rowhouse, we have 16' of sidewalk and the path up to our house to shovel, so maybe another 10' there. The city finally added sidewalk plowing to our neighbourhood after doing other ones in the city so that technically leaves even less for us. Plus we can get the boys to do it. It's definitely real. One of Sue's friend's husband had one shoveling. Thankfully he knew something wasn't right and got treated in time. Which has made Sue paranoid to let me do any shovelling after my triple bypass 5 years ago. Stay safe everyone!

Great to see you're still working on this Mike. No snow here in the Great White North but the temps have dropped.

Chris, that should make a great project. The Italeri 104 gets a bad rap but It's not as bad as some folks say. I've done two so far, one in NMF. It looks like you've got the weak spots covered too. Carl

That's a bit annoying there Scott. More so with the paint reaction too. I've never of clear lacquer reacting to decal solutions and I've even used Tamiya X-20A as one without paint issues. Let us know if you figure out more.

Me too!

You got yours already?

Seeing your progress on the Cobra is like watching car restorers working on a real one. Testing the fit of the body panels, making adjustments and repeat until perfect.

I didn't notice the missing pedals. Thanks for pointing that out. That is a bit odd.

Phil, congratulations on retirement and glad to see you back. The Bedford boxart looks like it might be inspired by your plans.

I debated getting this kit but the price was too good to pass up. Thankfully I found out the kit has marketing for a Canadian one.

What a bunch of jokers your removers sound like. Glad you held firm and got through it. Enjoy your new home and bring able to share it with Jane!

Amazing metalwork Hubert. Is there anything you can't do? And don't say basket weaving.

Great idea like the others said.

Decals are now on. They're nicely thin but a bit brittle. I had a couple tear but not too badly. They are a bit translucent though. You can tell with the roundels over the stripes.

Air brakes are on, as are the wingtip lights and all the little probes and protuberances. For the air brakes, I lost one of the rods so I replaced both with styrene. Now to let those dry a bit and then decals.

Almost certainly the last kits for this year. A couple more Gundam kits. Not sure why the sudden urge to get them. First up, is my second favourite Gundam design. This one has been tweaked by Hajime Katoki who is a Japanese mecha designer. Another one from the Ver.Ka series of kits. This one I got to go with the earlier Psycho Zaku i picked up. I figured if I'm going to have a Zaku in Beast mode, I might as well have a Gundam in the same. These boxes are fairly big. They're similar to a Tamiya Spitfire box but much deeper. And they're absolutely packed with sprues. And yet, they come with stickers instead of decals. Although the Unicorn Gundam has dry transfers in the box for some of the markings.

Jimmy would probably like one for all the squirrels in our neighbourhood.

Rog, that's some great news there. I know what that level of panic can feel like when you're suddenly without work and have all sorts of commitments. It was lucky that it worked out for me (twice!) and it looks to be the same for you. Hope the last couple stumbling blocks aren't that big. Carl

Border Models has announced a new figure model- Tesla trooper. Looks like Elon is branching out from cars into power armour.

I got the rockets painted. Dark green and then when dry, I installed them onto the wings making sure the pylon colours matched the underside location. Then the flaps, and wheels. So the dive brakes, wing tip lights and decals are left.

Got a German Shepherd today. Trying to decide if I let him have the MG34 the sidecar can be armed with. Also got a detail set for the BTTF DeLorean. I don't see the Flux Capacitor though.

Next up, time for the prop. A bunch of parts for this. Assembled in place.

Trumpeter makes the underwing rockets in three parts. Each one is tiered so you get the rocket bodies and launch rails as one part and the fins as two parts per mount. So lots of cleanup on the fins. I painted the mounts in the underwing colours first. Then I glued the fins on. When dry, I'll mask and paint the rockets themselves. I also got the MLG installed. The wheels need cleanup and then they go on next.