Lightspeed

Thanks all for your kind replies and input, I really appreciate the wisdom in the written words here. I will pursue the kit build albeit will be a fair project to take on, if I can trust anyone to complicate things its me After reviewing your words I am going to abort some of the PE for several reasons, the biggest being fragility, the next being depending on position application of a veneer over the existing styrene and I am not going to remove 10 thou of styrene just to replace it with stamped tin and then paint over it anyway. So I will divert my attention more toward scratch built detail utilising and adding to the original parts which are reasonably correct profile and scale. If I get desperate for things to do I can roll out foil or thin plate on my rolling mill and cut out and detail rivets, score and grave panel lines in a solid metal like silver, malleable but strong and use the existing kit part for profile etc, jeez am I jewelry making or plastic gluing lol, got the gear to do it so I am only limited by skill and determination. We will see where we end up but at least now I have a heading. So thanks to all LSP members who kindly responded, appreciate it. Kind Regards B.

Absolutely correct, personally i am a bit of an introvert, not really seeking for admiration of what i do, sure its great to have positive feedback on our chosen hobbies, possibly i may look at things a little differently to the mainstream as i am pretty critical of myself and demand the best i can do but this is for myself and my own sense of achievement and after ward i can reflect and admire the works of my hands. True i have seen and done OOB kits that look fantastic just with time spent and careful application throught the entire build and yes throwing money at a projest or problem is definitely no guarantee of solution or a quality result. oh, one more thing, how do i "Like" comments?, i cannot seem to find the icon

Hi all, new here. So long story short, i have jumped in the deep end with the purchase of a 1:32 Trumpeter F14D , yeah i know, not another Cat right. My question relates to the seemingly never ending aftermarket list of bits n bobs for the aforementioned kit. I guess a few hundred Aussie for the kit is pretty normal and not the first time i have splurged on plastic or resin with a Fine Molds Millenium Facon and a huge Korbanth SSD Resin kit, only i am a bit perplexed over the cost of aftermarket bits, i am not the sort of guy to just see something and pull the trigger without research first both on quality, application and price. This has led me to a quandry over where do you fellow members draw the line over practical application of aftermarket goodies? We all want to do the ultimate build for detail and some kits simply just drop the ball here or the aftermarket sector would not be flourishing, so here i am with a $220Aud kit, have already purchased an out of production Teknics F14D superset but for the Tamiya cockpit, this was before after research i decided to go with the Trumpeter (why o why, my brain hurts just thinking about that decision now) also grabbed some Reskit burner cans and a few JDAM's etc and paint mask. Now the list is getting out of control, we have the Zacto intakes and pallet correction, Wolfpack resin update set, Vulcan Cannon in brass and PE, Eduard exterior PE, interior PE, armamnet PE, undercarriage PE, Airies Resin Wheel bays, cockpit, Red Fox Studio F14D cockpit panels and the list still continues, to the extent that i have calculated that aftermarket extras without going and getting everything available is worth more than 3 times ( infact nearly 4 times after shipping costs the original kit price), just the Zacto intakes and pallets are equal to the kit price alone. All of this without so much as even unboxing the kit. So advice please on where do we draw the line regarding aftermarket detail and is it even worth it? i know its a subjective question and everyone has their own ideas, i have never applied a single bit of PE in my entire life lol. although i have searched i have not seen alot on Eduards PE external, interior cockpit, undercarriage, armamant PE or if the Red Fox cockpit panels are a must have, they certainly look lovely in finish. Horrible first post i know, outwardly without knowing me the written words and questions indicate "this guy has bitten off more than he can chew" but surely someone can give me a little bit of guidance or advice, i do not want to invest in all that PE etc and have a model that looks like Frakencat.