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The instrument panel, attached to the glare shield, is really good too and no doubt derived from the Hasegawa IP on the left. The Kitty Hawk IP on the right? Meh… The instructions don’t tell you what the heck to do with it and the kit even supplies a big IP decal. I have no idea what you’d do with it, because it will never fit this piece of raised plastic. Experts will note that the IP’s do not have the later RWR radar warning instrumentation. I don’t care. But would the Black Box resin cockpit fit the Kitty Hawk kit?? Eyeballing it for several hours, I decided that it had a very good chance. I have a Love-Hate relationship with resin cockpits and here’s the thing I hate the most. You are better to cut off a bit too much and shim it later than leave it too deep, which could stress the plastic. Next, you need to cut off the tabs on the side of the fuselage, which are amongst a moonscape of pin marks. Good thing they will all be covered later! After cutting off these parts including the rod antenna that isn’t needed and after LOTS of dry fitting and trimming, the side walls were glued into place. The fit isn’t perfect for obvious reasons and while the scalloped tabs on the top of the sill are on the resin parts, they don’t sit high enough to see them from the outside. The fix, which also covers the sidewall join is to use the kit PE brass, trimmed to fit some of the resin detail. Again, after lots of sanding and dry fitting, the cockpit slips into place as a dry fit. Note that the joins with the sidewalls will tighten up when glued permanently. Those fuse box thingies on the shelf behind the seat are just placed there to see if they cover any gaps on the sides. They do. The rear fit is pretty darn good considering this cockpit is made for the Hasegawa kit and I did not need to trim any of the top. With the front IP and glareshield dry fit, I wanted to see what the windscreen will cover. Compared to pics of the real deal, the fit is fantastic. Again, note that everything is just dry fit with plastic shims in place. Note the detail within the canopy hook slots, provided by the resin sidewalls. So there you have it. The Black Box F-5E resin cockpit not only fits the Kitty Hawk kit, but the detail is superb and the instrument panel blows the kit one away. Next up, I will try to fix some of the panels on the sides before I paint the fuselage walls. The lack of an AOA vane on the starboard side, which would fit into the wrong square panel rather than an oval one at the top, is first on the list. Thankfully, the Hasegawa kit has an AOA replacement! Cheers, Chuck

Hi The PZL P11 is finished, so I can do something easy and relaxing. This will be another model of a 1/32 scale racing airplane. This time, Wedell Williams type 45 from 1935, a beautiful machine with a nice aerodynamic line. The last racing plane made by Wedell Williams. More information can be found here: https://oldmachinepress.com/2015/07/30/wedell-williams-model-45/ Orginal Wedell Williams 45 ( photo from the site oldmachinepress.com) A replica of this aircraft in the Wedell-Williams Memorial Aviation & Cypress Sawmill Museum. I have some source materials that will help me during construction: I have a question, do you have any pictures of the interior of the pilot's cabin, silinics chassis and other details (can there be pictures of the replica)? I have an idea to use the elements of the Wedel Williams 44 hull from the Williams Bross (1/32) model, it is very similar . I mainly use the fuselage and maybe the engine, the wing fins and the engine cover need to be redone. in the hull also need to make many changes because in the model 45 the hull is bigger and has a slightly different shape. But quite similar, so it will be suitable for modifications. I once made a 1/32 model Laird Turner LT 14 "Meteor" with a larger model (1/30) so this time I will do with a smaller bit bigger. As for interior furnishings, it is very poor and simplified in the Williams Bross model, so it is not a good model. In addition, the hull frame in model 45 had to be significantly different because the wing structure was different and additionally had a retractable landing gear. This is how the hull construction looks like: To make the wings he used elements from a different model and plastic plates.

January 9/19 A New Year and a New Model, “Kicked Up A Notch”! With my 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire put to bed, it’s now time to build another jet, since I like to alternate. My last few builds were the Spit, Tamiya F-15C, Trumpeter P-38L, Trumpeter A-10C, Tamiya P-51D and Tamiya F-4E, because I’m not a “Prop Guy or a Jet Guy”, but I am mostly a Fighter Guy, all in 1/32 scale. Looking through my fairly modest stash of 12 models, it was easy to pick my next subject, because I’ve made at least 1 model of the other 11. About 7 years ago when I was building my F-4E Phantom, one of the guys who tagged along was Scott R Wilson, who not only used to work on F-4E’s during the ‘80’s, but he photographed many of them with photo’s never seen on the ‘net before, including many close-ups to show that they were mostly quite beat up with SEA camo paint jobs left over from the Vietnam war. That changed later with newer “Euro Camo” paint jobs, but during 1980, the subject of my jet, they were heavily weathered. Anyway, Scott and I developed a great “cyber modeling friendship” as he guided my progress, while I tried to do as good of a job as possible. For those who might be interested, that build thread is here: 1/32 Tamiya F-4E, "Kicked Up A Notch" During this time period, Scott was trying to build a 1/32 Revell F-4, which is a fairly poor kit for a beginner, so I mailed him a 1/32 Tamiya F-4B, as thanks for all his help. He was very grateful and about 18 months later, he moved from the US Mid-West to the Big Island of Hawaii and while thinning his model stash, he sent me a 1/32 F-5E Aggressor, the subject of this build. Opening the Hasegawa box, I was immediately taken aback by the raised panel lines and relatively crude molding, so I started to have second thoughts. Two of my best models are the Trumpeter A-10C and Trumpeter P-38L, which are really bad kits, so I am up for a modeling challenge now and then, but after the precision of the Tamiya Spitfire kit, everything is going to look like crap right now, so I started to do some research. It didn’t take me long to find that Kitty Hawk came out with the 1/32 F-5E and later F-5F kits very recently and all of the reviews of this kit that could find were quite positive, so I ordered a kit from China in December and it arrived about a week ago. Doing further research, I found an excellent thread at LSP as the “Kitty Hawk F-5E/F Special Interest Group”, where, between complaints about the kit, I found a lot of really good information here: LSP 1/32 Kitty Hawk F-5E/F Special Interest Group Thread For a bunch of reasons behind the scenes and the fact that I’m now posting at ARC but getting most of my information at LSP, I have decided to post by build of this kit at both sites, much as I did my P-38L a few years ago. It’s a bit more work to do, so we’ll see how it goes and I’m glad to be posting once again at both ARC and LSP. I’m open to any tips and suggestions and as you help me, I’ll try to help you with this kit. In doing my research at LSP and other sites, there are a number of problems with the Kitty Hawk kits that I won’t go into now, but I hope to fix or tweak in the coming months. If things are just plain wrong, I’ll try to fix them, but if they are only specific to an F-5A, F-5B, F-5C, F5-D, F5-E, F-5F, F-5G, F-5S, F-5N or F-5T, I generally don’t care. There are so many different F-5’s in so many versions exported to so many countries, it’s really hard to keep up and even if I tried, I’d be sure to do something wrong. The purpose of this build is to create something close to an F-5E or F-5N as used by the US Navy as an Aggressor in the gloss black “Mig-28” theme made famous by Top Gun, similar to this bad boy: Nobody makes decals specific to this jet, which I believe is an F-5N, so I’ve got a bunch of decals from a bunch of different manufacturers that I will bash together to create a bit of a “what-if”, but still entirely possible. The Build Begins! I almost always start with the cockpit and one of the main shortcomings of this kit is exactly that, the cockpit. The starboard side console is flipped backwards, which some have fixed with a razor saw and the floor of the pit is way too shallow for scale. Although some have raved about the detail, I’ll give it a 6/10 at best. Thankfully, there is a ton of room underneath the floor with nothing but empty space! While nobody makes a resin cockpit for this kit yet, Scott Wilson also sent me a Black Box cockpit made for the Hasegawa kit, which is super rare right now. Like most BB resin cockpits, there are lots of tiny parts with really great detail and really bad instructions. Thank you Scott! Here is the base kit cockpit on the left, compared to the base resin one on the right, before the addition of many, many, tiny parts. Using the rear shelf as a reference, note how much deeper the BB pit is. The resin set comes with a really nice seat, with both early and late head rests. Here’s the later version glued to the top of the seat. Even the back is highly detailed, although you will likely not see much of it after completion.

Afternoon all Some more progress on the Sunderland to update you on... One of the main problems when building big vacs like this the fact that due to the nature of the plastic and the fact there's no interior provided, the fuselage lacks structural integrity - especially when it comes to adding the wings and tail, etc. Therefore, lots of internal reinforcement is needed to provide enough strength for the model to be able to support itself. So it was out with the profile gauge and thick plastic card, and slowly bulkheads began to emerge... DSC_0039 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr For anyone familiar with the internal layout of the Sunderland, you will quickly see these bulkheads and floors are far from resembling reality, but considering next to nothing of the interior will be visible I went for strength over accuracy. The centre-section 'bomb room' as well as the nose section and cockpit are more in keeping with the real thing, however: DSC_0035 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr The other fuselage half... DSC_0037 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr ..now slides nicely over the other... DSC_0041 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr ...apart from the fact that the starboard fuselage is approx. 4-5mm deeper than the port - a bridge I'll have to cross at a later date! The sheer bulk of the fuselage and the size of the real aircraft is quickly becoming apparent: DSC_0043 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr A few more bulkheads to fabricate, and then it'll be on with making the finer details of the interior areas that will be visible. Until next time, Tom

Airfix now has the colour options posted: Looking good!

Thanks for the kind words guys, I appreciate it. I had time today to take out the scroll saw and work on the bottom of the front fuselage. Draw it and saw it. Sand sides nice and even...………….. This is just the buck to form the plastic around so it has to be .030 smaller so that the plastic card on the outside of the buck will be the same width as the rear fuselage. My plan is to make the bottom of the fuselage out of 3 pieces of plastic card, the bottom and two sides. I've never tried it this way before so we'll see. The difficult area will be the front of the fuselage. If all else fails then I'll vacuform it. Here you can gauge the size that it will be in it's final form. That's it for now, little by little. Thanks for looking in. Mark

evening folks & thanks for stopping by Yep, thanks Jay, I spotted that on the drawing, it was just easier to start with a rough shape and get rid of the form to capture the intake - please keep your notes coming though as I easily miss things! I think it might be - it's certainly directing airflow somewhere:) so, more mustang mayhem... ..after shaping the basic filler construction of the airscoop, next was cutting out the air intake on the roof - I made a template from the drawing.. ..then with filler & dremal work I got the rounded sections done.. ..after this I had toreskin the inside as the skins I put in earlier had a join line down the middle and the real one doesn't. To dothis I lined the interior with tape and drew out the boundaries to when I remove the tape I can unravel it and get a template for one piece of rivetted litho to dress the inside in one go.. ..next I wanted to get the positioning right so I can partly skin the scoop in aluminium and fit it so I can add all the fuselage skinning later on.. This took the entire morning to get right as it is such a critical feature of the airframe (not helped by the plans I was using having it in the wrong position too far back...) I put tape on the mating faces and added tiny drops of CA to hold it in position so I could add the filler - this process was then reversed to I make the part match the fuselage - the net result is the parts fit together seamlessly... ..it was also braced inside before I started so the filler didn't collapse under load... ..then the fist bit of ali skinning on this model - coincidentally the first on my Spitfire was also an air intake.. ..hard to see whats going on here, but on the right hand side is a sheet of soft ali under some masking tape - it is being held, rubbed,, stroked and tapped with a tiny hammer to start to conform to the shape of the roof. the black tape borders can also be seen at the nose - these leave an imprint in the ali so I know where the borders are. Its a tricky shape as not only the shape of the scoop, but also the flaring at the top where it fairs into the fuselage... ..I end up with a useable part that has adopted the shaping well.. this was added with contact adhesive... ..then the other side - this time with the added complication of the intake aperture.. ..it proved impossible to do the little intake in one piece so I added another in the inlet,,, then after cementing all the tape is removed and we have the base layer of ali down... you can see it's quite rough and creased in places, but this all sands out... after sanding aout all the defects the first sking is done & just needs finessing & rivet details but I will leave that until later ..the intentionj is to get all i can done while I have access (so a bit of the wing surface where this sits needs to be done too) and then fix the scoop in place,, the nose intake is next and that is going to be a real challenge TTFN Peter

I'm new to this forum and new to model plane building, but I thought I might share some pics of my previous project. I'm just getting ready to start a Model Airways Sopwith Camel. My intent is to replace all of the pot metal parts with scratch built pieces in brass, aluminum and copper. Wish me luck.

I'm in with the venerable Revell Mosquito. These old Revell kits scream for additions; I'll be using the OOP Paragon Designs cockpit. I'm unsure of markings at this point. This is a placeholder for now; I have a few other projects to complete before I start.

The main build is done.The fit wasn't that bad for an oldie. Some filler needed.Not that much. Still more work on the LG,cockpit and clear parts. My next Me 110 (new Revell) will take longer to build. Already primed with yellow identifications.

Buying portions of a kit will not work. First of all, as you can clearly see in the top left corner, the offer to buy "part runners" is available to Japan only. Secondly, when ZM gets the kits from the factory, they get full boxes ready to sell. There are no separate runners, in a pile somewhere, ready to sell individually. When you ask for "part runners", they take them from a kit box, which suddenly becomes an unsaleable product. They will simply refuse to sell you these parts - they are under no obligation to do so anyway. Radu

Thanks for looking in....but shock horror, i have found a short shot in a WnW kit But its ok its the hidden petrol tank so I'll probably do a bodge job pack and move on. To be honest the 3 petrol tanks are not what I have come to expect from WnW, the seams are way out and the parts concave, i have seen other builds where people have used plastic card discs to cover the whole diameter, but i dont have a punch so i'll fill and sand

Here is the finished revell model Hope you like it. Will post photos of the finished Dragon model another time.

Okay here are some pictures of the Miramar "Whale". Inside of the main wheel well. Forward is to the left. Front wheel well. Tail bumper Wing spoiler Cockpit gear There you go, Dan

For a while I was on a Ferrari Formula 1 kick. I built the 126 C2 and 643. LOVE building Ferrari engines.

P-51K Maj. Leonard "Kit" Carson 1/32 Tamiya HGW wet transfers & belts Barracuda wheels Colors MRP, Gunze Sangyo, Alclad

I think we ought to leave John some room to post his ongoing build.... Matt

You know the BB cockpit fit wasn't a surprise to me and after seeing a couple comments on it found my experience may be helpful to share here. Since I'm creating a T-38A out of these I happen to have 3 different versions of the old Hasegawa kit and both of the KH kits. You know ALL the parts I've tried so far fit into each other no matter who boxed the kit! That may bode well for any other aftermarket already out there like the BB kit. Maybe that will help someone out in the future.

I've got the three sets of belts completed now. I might give them a wash to bring out the details a bit more. From here, there's the IP to finish and some other small details. Then I'll be able to close up the fuselage. Carl Carl

some more bits and pieces before the painting started. Brand new engine just out of the crate. It would be supported on c-channels to be taken out of the crate and moved around Note also the temporary legs bolted to the exhaust outlets. Painting beginsScratchbuilt antenna mounts for the revell G4. the actual antennae are from Master. That's all as far as the build goes, next photos will be of the finished birds.

Happy New Year everybody! It's about time to post the pics of my finished 1/32nd scale Viking. The background is not ideal as the photo booth is too small. No way to take photos of the diorama either - I'll have to wait for better weather to take these photos. Anyway, no need for a lot of text this time - for those interested in the building process, here's the link to the WIP: Comments, critique and questions are welcome as usual!

Competing with my Mustang build is this wonderful kit. Red Baron by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Red Baron by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Red Baron by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Red Baron by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Red Baron by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Red Baron by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr

Now that the majority of the major work has been completed it was time to start to focus on some of the smaller details. Close examination of photos reveal details that by themselves are no big deal but combined will certainly add a lot of realism to the model. Not sure what role it performs, but there is a small round circle under the cockpit represented with an engraved line on the kit. Most pics show this to be inset and not flush with the fuselage skin. I drilled it out and installed a flat disk punched from plastic card. The next detail that I wanted to add was the small fold out step used to gain access to the cockpit. Like most tail draggers, entry is by climbing up over the wing and this step is right where it’s needed. Represented on the kit by a nicely engraved panel. I chiseled out the hole required I made the step by filing down some brass plate and added the outer cover from thin aluminium window blind shaped to exactly fit the previously chiseled out hole. Dry fitted A small but important detail that will bring the model to life.

I had to cannibalize parts of the undercarriage to repair my ECR Tornado when it suffered a collapse two years ago. Now it was time to scratch the uc door actuator arms and some other parts. Meanwhile I also painted some of the undercarriage parts and ejection seats and weapon pylons. I light weathering was done with pastels. Enjoy Nick

Thanks! More work. I wanted to depict the wings extended to give an overall impression of the size and unique shape of the aircraft. I am not a huge fan of folding the wings on my models as you lose the look of the real thing in its flying form. Although this would save a bit of space in my bursting at the seams display cabinets it was extended wings for me. The kit comes with some resin pegs to position the wings folded or extended and are a nice fit bit I needed to glue the wings in place and wanted to make the fit a bit more refined. I also needed to make the join stronger to avoid it snapping off if the model was picked up by the wingtip as it is now fairly heavy. As can be seen, there isn’t a whole lot of surface area to hold the two parts together. The first thing I did was make the peg significantly stronger by drilling and inserting brass rod along its length. I then drilled a hole into one of the sides of the aileron and inserted a short piece of brass rod that had been sharpened to a point that sat just proud of the surface. This then enabled me to push the parts together, leaving a small mark (just visible) on the other side of the aileron. The short rod was removed and replaced with a longer piece and a hole drilled where the mark was. As I am using superglue to assemble the model, there is very limited time to locate parts against each other. Not only does the brass rod provide greater strength across the join, but it allows precise alignment of parts whilst assembling them given the short period of time that superglue allows for fixing errors! url=https://ericgalliers.smugmug.com/Attacker/i-9srVLpF/A][/url] The wing tips joined to the wings. They join up O.K ish , but as is the short run nature of the kit, some rescribing of panel lines was required so that everything lines up. I didn’t want to re scribe the wing where it folds through the original joint, so I scribed a new line very close to it so that I wasn’t running my scriber through superglue and resin. url=https://ericgalliers.smugmug.com/Attacker/i-wmKpNb6/A][/url]

I don't think it would need to be a drastic change in price. It seems to me that the folks who like the current SWS will keep on buying them anyway and the folks who like their kits but don't want to build or pay for the extra details will buy the Basic. Quite simple. I don't think there would be much crossover between the 2 camps. What appears odd to me is that it looks like there won't be any subjects offered in both SWS 'and' Basic. Probably has something to do with sprue arrangement.

Had a bit of a shopping spree when i ordered the decals; I couldn't resist the Eduard cockpit and nose interior color PE. Nice sets. Got the decals as well. And surprised myself with the resin wheels from squadron; I forgot I ordered them (I blame the Pinot Noir). Don't know why, the kit wheels look fine to me... Some reference materials ;-) And I have jumped in to begin construction; this is my first HK build, I like the plastic so far, very nice. Worked on the R-2600 engines, removing the offending second set of pushrod rubes. Thanks for checking in! Jimbo

More pics... Red Baron by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Wash Started by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Untitled by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Red Baron by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Ready for Belts by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Red Baron by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Ryan

I'll give that a try with the fuselage roundels Carl. Mean-time; where we're at - fixed wings and all: Progress! Blue skies... Iain

Hi, Before listing the correction to be made on the model, I started today on the scribing to make thinner. The skin of a Crusader is quite clean. This is how I proceed To do so, I start first by using the Trumperter's one as a guide with a dry point Then after I sand the surface to reduce the width of the original scribing The here below pics show the result. I used panel liner to hilight it for the picture. Stay tuned I come back soon Eric

I have no doubt that some of these machines were indeed in RLM 81 Green and 83 green or something like that - almost back to square one of RLM 70/71 in 1939, early 1940!!!!!!!!!!!! It is also clear that some of them were monotone like the self destroyed G-10. Yellow nine in the background is very dark showing no contrast at all like the destroyed one so I am happy to have less work to do haha. My own theory is that the last batch of Erla G-10s were made with simplified camo scheme on top of which the Erla style small fuselage and upper crosses and decal style maintenance stencils were applied only where absolutely necessary it would seem judging by how few of them you can see. I see no evidence of field painting judging from the markings applied and the decision to wrap the colour around the lower cowl and rear fuselage on some of them - an odd thing to do in the field I would say. But!!!!! this is only my thinking and not based on any RLM directive to Erla that I am secretly sitting on and not sharing - I am just happy to make a 109 not in RLM 76/74/75! Also if painted like this in the field / maintenance facility using the best parts why not paint the replacement RLM 76/74/75 engine cowls at the same time or shortly afterwards? Seen on Jg 301's Green 7 and I personally think the JG 301 yellow 5? But I was not there, I do not know what happened - I just like modelling the chaotic paint schemes of 1945 because I was turned away from art college and now have aspirations to rule the world!

...

This has absolutely no relevance to your question, but I see "Packard" and my brain goes back to another lifetime, another war. I was an engineman in the US Navy, my first boat had 4 Packard V-12's for main propulsion...nothing to do with the aviation engines, just flashing back...LOL

I may be inclined to use something VERY fine to strain the paint through after taking the AB completely apart and cleaning every square mm of it. On several different occasions I have seen weird stuff from dirty ABs. Not saying that is the cause, as the blemishes are strange indeed, but good to eliminate something like a dirty AB or contaminated paint. I might even try to shoot something completely different through it, to see if there is any change or blotching.

Glad to see you starting a new build thread. I have enjoyed all the previous builds and learned many new things. Thank you for taking the time to post your work!

Seeing how I've never built an airplane in my life, I'd be happy to get a ribbon at my local club build night! Part of my excitement to get into planes is that (A) I love them and all the mechanicals that go with them and (B) the IPMS doesn't really seem to appreciate classic cars the way they do aircraft and military armements. After I campaigned my Alfa Romeo, I swore I'd never enter a model in another model show ever but, I must confess, I do miss the competition.

As badly promised!. Here we go, not the best photo’s as they’re from my mobile. I don’t know how long these cabs are around for so if you want anything specific, let me know. Steve.

The BB pit fits surprisingly well into the KHM kit. This gives me hope that someone in the AM community can give us a full BB-esk type pit set.

Yeah... it's massive. It'll be fine until the wings go on, then all sorts of problems will begin The ID Models plastic is thicker (averages around 1mm) than most other vacs I build which is really useful. The latest releases from Tigger also use nice, thick plastic and it makes such a difference - so unlike the cigarette paper Combat Models use!

Wow Tom that pic w/your hand in it really gives an idea of the size of this beast!

Thank you everyone. It's great to be posting here again and although I haven't posting anything here since the summer, I've been lurking now and then to keep up. Although I have found many of the trouble spots of this kit already, please feel free to point them out to me anyway, just in case I missed a couple. After this build is done we should have a good "Tweak List" for future builds. I'm going to have the gun doors closed to keep the smooth lines of this fighter in tact, which means lots of tweaks up front already and I'm debating whether or not to leave the gun vent doors open as they are molded already, or replace them with a flat and closed part. Also, the big engine louvers can be open or closed and I have the Eduard PE kit which has nicely detailed louvers, so I may go with "detail over accuracy", just to make this jet look more interesting. We'll see. Me too. After checking out the KH kit cockpit, I decided that there was no way I was going to complete this model with that pit, so I either got the BB resin pit to fit, or I was going to put the entire kit back on the shelf and wait for an aftermarket one, if ever. The back shelf to instrument panel distance was about the same as the kit parts, the width was about the same and there was lots of room underneath the kit floor, so I knew I had a good chance, but there was no way of knowing unless I just cut everything and gave it a try. Obviously it worked and to tell you the truth, it was easier to fit than the Black Box F-4E cockpit I used before, which was actually made for the Tamiya kit! The only bad news is that this BB kit is very rare and hard to find. I'm sure there are lots of them in model stashes all over the world and with the new popularity of the KH F-5E kit and the fact that it fits, I bet the ebay prices just went up! Cheers, Chuck

i hope the delay was caused by the correction of the spine.... its may not be an issue with the twoseater. that being said i thought there would be parts for an F in the boxing too

That roughly $74 American for all the sprues needed by Jan's assessment. Certainly doable for a second plane.

How is that taking advantage ? Buying sprues is better than buying nothing.

I don't think the bands would allow the bomb to hook to the pylons, unless they used an extension, and the how would they stabilize it? BTW, Kev, have you figured a scheme yet? I have the Zotz sheet and only will use one scheme...

Thanks! I think you're right on the wash making things pop a bit more. Thanks Erwin! Yes, this is the same kit that Revell will be releasing later this year.

Finished the IP and attached the HUD glass. I think the superglue worked out a bit better than the clear part. Unfortunately, the film behind the panel fell off and I had to re-glue it back on but I didn't get it lined up right. I didn't notice this until after everything was glued together.

Just to show I am making some progress ...... I have both engines assembled ......some components can be removed for paint and I left off a couple of lines on each for painting them separately (call out for red and blue on those. No that I am looking at these .....I should of rotated them and got pictures from the other end ....will do that later and post them. Thanks for looking ! -Scott

This arrived in the mail today. Very happy with the quality of the PH and decals.

last, but not least the references. i collected a lot of pics, but wartime photos are scarce. the restos of the doorguards and museum planes have to be used with a grain of salt, most are later electronic warfare aircraft just painted black. the books (all very necessairy): 004 by karl holubar, auf Flickr havent built a full airplane vac in large scale (only 72 and armor), so this will be quite a challenge