BlrwestSiR

Nice progress Gus. The way you are fixing the wingtip is perfect as I have the same problem on my kit.

There's a slim chance I'll make it. We're going to be in Chicago that week visiting family so I may go for the day. It's a 3 hour drive so do-able from that standpoint.

I thought I'd best check the seams and see how much clean up was going to be needed so I sprayed a base coat of Stainless Steel. I thinned down the intake lips a bit. You can the difference on the top ones (right side) versus the lower intakes on the left.

@PanzerWomble, I'm not sure about a diorama. Just want to do something simple.

Looks like there's decals for the Czech Vipers now. https://cavupublications.com/en-ca/products/cp35-01-zulus-back-in-black?fbclid=IwAR1r8tF_WQNCIuUoXafUQd0Csv22MjgK1zCZCk5XjhdT3Mw_vSwVX3lK9PA

A great summary Rog. It shows that not only is the hobby not dying, but it's expanding into new areas and revisiting older ones. Kit companies are taking the plunge into new subject areas for them and expanding others. The new 1/16 armour kits have been something I didn't expect but having picked up a couple now and seeing their continued rollout is amazing. A couple omissions from your list. - Andy's 1/16 M10 and Achilles. He has an M8 Greyhound coming out in a couple months. - X-Plus released a Jurassic Park T-Rex 30 years(!) after the movie came out.

There's not a lot of parts so hopefully this goes faster than my other builds. Panel lines are engraved and of the Airfix style. Slightly deep but not bad. First step was gluing top and bottom together. Here's a size comparison to an F-15J in the same scale. It's also by HMA and shows the progression the company has made. Next up was the upper and lower nacelles. At this point, I noticed that they include the option of the gear being deployed or in flight. I then conveniently found a small display stand from a Bandai kit. So now I'm considering doing this in flight.

Okay time for another fictional subject, this one from the Clint Eastwood film Firefox. The kit is from HMA and I think it was the first kit they ever produced. Talk about simple packaging. Two sprues in black and one in clear. The instructions are a double sided photocopy. There's also a tiny decal sheet comprised of Russian stars. That's all there is to the kit.

Me too! Just need to mask the canopy off again.

40K definitely has some different looking subjects in it. My LHS started carrying 40K just before the pandemic started and they say it's one of the things that helped them stay in business through it.

Okay, canopy was giving me fits with the uh, fit. Solved it with some chopping and ripping out of bits. Much better now. It will still need a smear of filler but way better than before. I also threw some paint at it and of course, I shouldn't have unmasked the canopy yet so I'll have cover it up again.

That is the funniest looking squirrel I've seen.

Back on topic, I've made a bit of progress on the Eagle. MLG bays are glued in. Which lets me add the fuselage sides. This are a bit fiddly but fit reasonably well. Martin pointed me in the direction of a cheap Testor's YF-22 kit so I bought that for the engine nozzles. Just need to pick it up from the LHS. Hopefully that will save me a bit of time on the build.

And of course he had to confirm this: Mmmm, cheese.

If it's any consolation, years ago I was building an Airfix Wellington. Glued the fuselage together and found I forgot the cockpit. Pried it apart just in time, stuck the cockpit in and glued it back together. At which point I saw the rear turret sitting on my bench. Repeat, this time adding in the turret. Needless to say, that build ended up being quite the glue bomb. More recently, I did a Revell Spitfire and found the cockpit side panel a couple months after I'd finished the build.

Neat to see them in the same spot. Such different design philosophies behind each one.

To be honest, he's 1.8/1 if that makes sense. We hoped he was going to be a 60-70 lb dog but he decided to be an overachiever and is 115 lbs. On all fours, his head is well above the height of our dining table.

Peter, sorry to hear the kit got the better of you. Especially when it's the only option for a subject. Hopefully you'll come back shortly with something that requires less head scratching and more enjoyment.

He loves having a cushion or pillow.

Nice paintwork and definitely better with the flaps only slightly dropped or not at all. I must have a body shop worker in a past life as I tend to paint around openings before bits go in to simplify masking just like you do.

Looking good there Martin. Glad the new airbrush is working out.

Paul, it's actually white with the nose keeping the original camo as an anti glare panel. But it looks good either way.

Great work John. Hopefully you can find the decals you need.

You should have seen him last night. He was snoring away so contentedly.

Looking at the 1/144 model that I have (probably should have done that sooner), the top is definitely more rounded. On the actual F-15 Active, the nozzles were basically squared off. I think I've had that look in the back of my head this whole time. At this point, I'm going to leave them as is.