BloorwestSiR

Thanks Brian! It's been a favourite of mine as well since the early '80s and made more so with the original Red Dawn. Thanks! This one has been in the stash for a while but once the DN masks came out for the Tiger Meet scheme, it moved up a bit in the pile.

The belts look great Fanes! The Eduard fabric belts are made by HGW as well but are the more recent laser cut ones. HGW also makes ones now that are printed on both sides. Carl

That's what I usually do when assembling belts. These are HGW belts. The only challenge is sometimes the fret attachment points are in the way so it doesn't always work on these and Eduard belts. Wako design their fret with this in mind and even show you in their instructions on leave them attached.

Hi Kev, nice review on the kit. The tube of grease is for the sliding canopy. One other sprue that's different and that's the one with the MLG legs and the blisters related to the E wing versus the earlier C wings on the VIII and IX kits. Carl

Are the tariffs applicable to online purchases? If so, would they still apply within the de minimis limits on personal imports which is $800 for the US ($20 for us Canadians). I know many of us purchase kits and AM online from overseas sellers. If those purchases are indeed exempt then this just puts the bricks and mortars shops at an even bigger disadvantage, never mind the distributors. Carl

Thanks Dean! It is a shame to hide it all which is why I opened it on mine. Yep, that's the KH Kingfisher. I need to get back to it at some point. Just got too much on my bench. Carl

Even from the single pic you posted of the instructions, I can see they've fixed some of the Dragon instructions' errors. They've also done the engine cowls the way I did on my build which worked much better than what was suggested. As for the nose cowl, there is a seam on the inside to guide you in cutting them apart to show off the gun bay. It even fits in the closed position afterwards too! Carl

Lots of great progress there Chris. Carl

I would be up for an F6 conversion. It'll hopefully save me from trying to find an Echelon kit. Carl

It's so tempting but I've already got the 1/2700 Zvezda one and a bunch of AM for it. I might be convinced to change my mind once it's out though. Carl

Rick, they're only about 3" in length. They usually come in much smaller boxes and are box scale. This set has five of them in it. Here's a different kit from the same series to give you an idea of the size. I do have a 1/500 kit of the main ship and that's I think 70cm in length though. Carl

Maybe.... I've got the Yamato and Yukikaze already so it should fit in nicely.

Cosmo fleet in a box! There's three versions of the Andromeda class and two of the carrier version. Carl

I think I sighed loudly. Edward was 2 at the time so could hardly blame him. Afterwards he would ask me if I still had the one he flew. Thankfully he hasn't done that again. I had just brought it upstairs from my work bench and put it on the kitchen table to try and figure out were I could display it safely. I also wanted to do the RFI pics. This was about five minutes prior to its maiden flight. After the crash, I ended up packing up both the wreckage and the Tamiya Mossie I'd been working on at the same time. It was nearly a year before I came back to it.

Glad to hear it was only a brief respite for the Lightning. Can't be worse than when my son took my just completed HK Mossie for a test flight. The landing wasn't pretty. Carl

The finished city looks great Vaughan. Congrats on seeing something you made go into production! Carl

Really looks great Bryan. It looks huge even without a frame of reference. Carl

They've got a new 1/24 Lunch Box coming out. Might have to get a couple of those for my boys. Carl

Looks fantastic Vaughan!

Great start Mark. You're braver than I am. I've got a couple of their kits in the stash and I'm too cowed to start any of them. Carl

Really nice build. I love the depth of the paint. Carl

Thomas, there's definitely a floor in the back. I think Ray was commenting on the kit not having included one. Yours looks great. When I did mine, I glued on some fine grit sandpaper to replicate the nonslip surface. Carl

Thanks Kev! It was this or the SoD for a while. Once I fix the eye and other touch ups, I'll get onto French Kiss. Carl

Well, since I figured I had nothing to lose I cut a piece of tape to size and applied it over the batmouth and peeled it off. I then used this as my template to cut some masking tape to shape. This was then cut out with an xacto knife and applied to the model. I then sprayed white, followed by the red. With everything removed. I need a couple quick touchups but it's a much better result I feel. One of the eyes needs a slight touch up as well as part of it lifted with the mask. Carl

Thanks Richard! They've both been on the bench but ran into random issues with each one. The curves on the nose would make just about any decal be a problem.