BlrwestSiR

Getting close to the finish line. I got the canopy painted. I put the canards back on. It will be most likely in the up position so the less than perfect fit won't be noticed. For armament, I assembled the Eduard AIM-9X missiles. This went better than the AIM-54s on my F-14. Ness to do the detail painting.

Nice work on all those stencils and the paint work. If you need a replacement canopy, I have a spare one around.

Peter, I'm not sure what happened but I think the mould may have either gotten damaged or is worn out based on the flash present. Anyways, I sanded off the huge seam lines. Then I polished out the sanding marks. I think I'm going to mix and match the canopy parts. Used the tinted front section and the clear rear one. The rear still needs some trimming to make it fit better but it doesn't have the sink marks that the tinted one does.

Ugh, I feel your pain there Chris. I'm currently working on the Eagle's canopy myself. Looking at the break, it seems to be just the frame is missing and not the clear section. You could try using styrene to patch it but you'd have to be careful around the clear bits. The biggest challenge with the kit pieces is the spot that they attach to the sprue. I would recommend cutting it off the sprue leaving a stub on the part. This way you don't get the splintering effect. Then carefully sand off the stub. There may still be a small scar showing but I hide that under a coat of paint to replicate the sealant that goes around the edge between the glass and the frame.

I need to keep that in mind.

Looks great John. Might have to get one of these as well.

Oh, that's got to be so annoying. Hope they can get you replacement parts and have you back at it.

Fantastic work Rob. It looks like the real thing.

Chris, happy to help out as always. It's easier to fix it now rather than later with possibly all the stencils in the way. Peter, I cheated a bit. It's the ZM F-4EJ that I'm doing as an RF-4EJ. Those are the kit decals over the moulded on details and a coat of flat clear. So quick and (sorta) easy.

It's subtle but there's definitely a difference in the prop blades so nice touch there John. When I was still at the bank, we had Windows XP on our laptops. The "big " leap was going to Windows 98. This was around 2006-7. A friend in the tech support dept called me up and asked if I wanted to guinea pig Windows 2000. She said I always found interesting issues that drove IT nuts solving so she thought I'd be great for it. I said sure and soon after had it installed on my laptop. At that time she told I was one of 3 people running 2000 in the entire bank on a live computer ( one fully connected to the bank's servers). No pressure. Lol. And yes, I hate Windows 10 nevermind 11.

Just checked and they're $50 off Amazon.ca so not much cheaper than a pair of Godhand or Dspiae nippers.

My vote is M134!!!

More F-14 goodies. First up is a Big Sin set for the Tamiya F-14A late. I'm going to be doing a bit of mixing and matching with this one. The burner cans and wheels will go towards a late -A build but the cockpit is going to be used in a -D kit. This will get me most of the way towards a -B Tomcat which Tamiya doesn't do. I could get the GWH -B but I've already got a pair of Tamiya -D kits in the stash. Here's decals for the late -A build. It'll be Miss Molly from VF-111. Shark mouth, rising sun, nose art, all on a Tomcat. What more could you ask for? Next up is some Aizu tape and Gundam markers. I'm curious to see how well the gloss and matt clear works. Might make for easy instrument faces. Lastly, paints for an RF-4-EJ and some thin brass wire.

Nice couple of kits there Paul. And more Egg Girls. Have you seen the Little Armoury series? They're a bit bigger I think but the girls all carry various firearms which you can buy separately.

The canopy is up next. The kits I had were and early release an a much later re-release. One of the changes they made was the canopy in the later version came in clear plastic rather than tinted dark grey. First thing to deal with is the huge mould seam. That sprue connection has to have some of the thickest flash I've ever seen on a part. I had to use a razor saw to cut it off. The mould seems to have deteriorated a bit. The framing on the clear one washes out in places. Here's the fit of the tinted one which is older. Now the more recent clear version. You can see the poorer fit compared to the tinted one as well as the much fainter to non existent framing.

Thanks Peter! Originally I had broken off part of the seat but since this is a whiffer, it didn't matter so I made use of them.

Looks great there Chris. One thing in case you're not aware of, the rear bit of the lower fuselage should be metallic as well.

Good news I think. I finally took a look under the hood of the Element and it looks like the return hose is the culprit. The lower half of it is covered in power steering fluid while everything else looks dry. So I've ordered the required part and just need to wait for it to arrive. I'm hoping it won't be too hard to get it swapped out. This generation of Honda's has the steering rack mounted halfway up the firewall behind the engine so we'll see.

Nice Benz there PW! W123s are supposedly indestructible.

Fantastic work Rob. The chain really is a test of perseverance.

Nice work. These things are so tiny. Harry Metcalf from Evo magazine owns one and recently brought it to a shop in London that specializes in 500s. He has a couple videos posted on YouTube as he's getting an engine rebuild.

That was a fast build John. I hadn't even noticed it until today and you're already done. For the wings, I think Revell split them that way to try and accommodate as many versions with their different sized bulges as possible. A logical move that just needed a bit more finesse to pull it off nicely. Which in your case you've done.

That's an interesting detail. Never would have noticed that.

The engine in my Beat has less displacement than a single cylinder in either of your 'Vettes. I think I can step on all three pedals in the Beat with one foot. Makes heel and toe easy since they can be on the gas and brake at the same time without moving.

Bang seats are done. Almost forgot the seat rails but added those in. Followed by the seats.