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Oh, I hate it when the carpet monster rears its ugly head. Otherwise the interior looks great and it looks like you're working towards a solution.

That would be a nice option. So far, it's about $30 more than the Meng kit so I'm probably going to wait and see which one to get.

Dennis, that looks very much like an air racer in that gloss finish. Sorry to hear about the family tragedy. Glad to hear things are returning to normal though.

Unfortunately the MFH tyres are no longer available. I missed out on them both times that they were.

Ernie, I think Peter hit it on the head. The RCN scheme, like a lot of early postwar paint schemes had a lot of visual presence.

One more thing, if you can find the MFH book on the MP4/6, it's quite good for reference photos.

Nice to see an MP4/6 build Rob. The Top Studio stuff is really nice. The plating is definitely an odd choice. You can strip the plating by spraying the parts in oven cleaner and then use a brush to scrub it off. Some folks have even used plain bleach but that might take a bit longer. I started the Tamiya 1/12 kit back in 1993 and still need to finish it. Hopefully you won't take that long on your build. In fact, the tires have now crumbled on it so they're useless. I've been conversing with a guy in the UK about doing some 3D printed replacement tires so may have a solution for that problem. Meng has come out with an MP4/4 in 1/12 and Beemax has announced one as well for next year. Based on their Lotus 99T kit, I think the Beemax one may be the way to go.

Thanks Peter! Took the masking tape off. There's a couple small touch-ups needed but overall I'm happy with the way it came out.

A bit of masking tape... A coat of paint.

I've got the Tamiya one as well. I'll be using the paint guide from that kit for this one as Takom doesn't include any paint references.

The Achilles arrived today. It's a big box...

A bit more done tonight. I masked off the gear bays. Then I hit them with a coat of interior green

Could be. Or the beer.

Some progress on the Sea Fury. One thing that I couldn't figure out was the holes in the fuselage just aft of the exhausts. It felt weird having this see-through section. I then realized that there should be a panel to cover them up. I finally found them in the parts which strangely are not mentioned in the instructions. This made much more sense to me. Honestly it's been one of the things that made me pause on my build. Anyways, with that sorted, I sprayed an initial coat of paint on the lower sides. I used the same paint mix that @Peterpools did on his Sea Fury build which is a 1:1 ratio of Tamiya XF-19 and XF-83. I found a couple spots needing some touch-ups so did those. Then another coat of paint. I also did the upper sides at the same time.

This will be something different. Are you going to use the new High Tech release with the gun bay or make your own as well as the engines?

That looks great. Some great weathering and wear.

While working on the Sea Fury and Mako One, I noticed an unexpected theme. Everything on my bench at the moment has a Canadian connection. Even the stalled stuff. The Sea Fury is RCN, Mako One is a CAF plane. I have an HK 617 Lancaster that had a Canadian crew, Spitfire XIV conversion flown by a Canadian pilot and lastly a CF-188 in 439 Tiger Meet markings. Certainly wasn't planned that way but interesting to me.

More paint work. Finally found a paint mix for the Sea Fury grey. So that got a first coat. Mako One needed some touch up seam filling so that was done and then a second session of paint.

Same here!

Looks really stunning Ernie. Thanks for paving the way. I'm sure the bomb bay doors will turn up. It's amazing sometimes how larger bits can go awry. Still haven't found the 1/32 Tamiya F-4 fuselage I lost.

Almost looks like he's at a rodeo riding a bucking bull.

Some really nice work on your build.

Would love to see the contents and maybe a build up...

Ernie, thanks for the offer. I appreciate it. My LHS carries ZM kits so I'll most likely wait for them to get it in. That will save me the shipping at least.

I got a couple bottles of new paint in to try. Dspiae is making paint now. I have no idea on the quality but it's a lacquer based paint. I bought primarily metallics to try out plus the bottle of fluorescent red. They also have a thinner specifically for metallic paints so I thought I'd try that too and see what difference if any it would make.