BlrwestSiR

Such a cool looking tank when it first entered service. I should finish the AFV one I have.

Talk about intentionally trying to screw things up for the builder. Makes me wonder if I made the same mistake when I built my Revell Tomcat all those years ago. As for the lawn, that's one reason we don't have grass. Just lots of dirt, I mean ground cover. At least it was ground cover before Jimmy.

Great job on the canopy decals. I chickened out and didn't apply them to my build.

More progress this morning. Mostly, it's painting bits and bobs in white. I did get the ventral fin stripes done in yellow. Now to mask them off for the black.

Thanks Rob! I've used spreader bars on other builds. They can really help reduce or eliminate fillers later on.

Mark, I'd go with Phil's suggestions. A good quality kit built OOB. No research, AM or anything. Many folks like the Bandai Star Wars kits for that purpose. Or perhaps a Tamiya 1/48 kit, either armour or aircraft.

Sounds somewhat painless there Scott. On the Tamiya, the fuselage halves are screwed together with the screw heads very visible so mine are filled with epoxy putty. No way to take that one apart.

Time for an update. I've been mostly assembling and painting several smaller bits of the Tomcat. I got the vertical tailplanes painted. The nose cone was attached and the seam cleaned up. Lastly, I sanded out the canopy seam and polished it up. And the cockpit is all done.

Just checked the decal sheet and Scott is correct, there's two of the right side ventral tail stripe. Guess I'll be painting them on.

Wait, what??? I hadn't noticed. I'm going to have to look closer.

Scott, I hadn't noticed that. Thanks for pointing it out. I might just try painting it instead.

Fantastic work Ron. What are you using to make everything from? Is it all just sheet styrene?

Phil, I think you've got me confused with JohnB. Although at this point he'd probably be getting it ready for paint to be honest. The only half part of it for me would be the parts scattered across half my bench.

Happy birthday Martin!

That's warm alright. Not as bad here but very muggy especially with the amount of rain we've had over the last couple of days.

Bill,.the only thing you've left out is the dog ran away for it to be a complete c**k-up. That has to be one of the worst travel experiences I've heard. Hope you get better soon and get abother chance at your cruise. Carl

I think that's enough time to get my Tomcat done. Well, one of them anyways.

Nice progress Scott and interesting happy accident there with the panel lines. If you could even call it an accident. Not sure on the gender thingy but I've got two of them on the bench and they may have gotten busy while I was away from the bench. Take a look at what's behind the nose section...

Chris, thanks for posting those. Pics and taking the time to compare yours as well. I'm going to take another looka d see if I have the check mark inside the second one and post what I find.

This is interesting and explains a lot. I must have one of the original defective ones. I was doing a test fit earlier today of the Barracuda nose to the kit fuselage and noticed that the top of it was much taller than the kit in that area. The rest fit perfectly so I couldn't understand how it was that far off. When I checked the other nose set which I had ordered much later for a second kit, the fit on that one is perfect. Here's the first one I got. I'd just starting cutting the top cowl panel off planning to sub in the kit one when I saw your post. If that doesn't work I have a backup plan. That being the only hiccup I've experienced since I've got multiples of all his Spitfire stuff not to mention the Lancaster and Mosquito too.

Looking good there Phil. The nose gun bay looks great and the Barracuda ammo chutes will help since the kit ones don't have ammo moulded in them.

Fantastic job Rob. The weathering is perfect.

Thanks for all the behind the scenes stuff that makes this place great.

Wow! So, how big would that be? Asking for a friend.

Some really great work on the interior Ron.