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Hello LSP Folks! Clearly I dont already have enough projects going on the bench but I have to say that of all 5 ongoing projects, this one is the one I looked forward to working on the most. A few weeks before Christmas last year (2011) my Girlfriend asked me what I wanted the most as far as model projects for 2012. Pastor Johns AIMS Conversion and a New Revell JU 88 were at the top of my list and so it all came to pass! I sent Pastor John the payment and he replied almost instantly ( he was awake in the UK when I sent my email and payment at "Oh I should be sleeping" thirty from Oregon and the first part of the plan fell into place with his timely ( less then 5 minutes after sending ) reply. Sprue Bro's came to my aid for the kit and then I figured I'd be waiting a while on the Royal Mail. NOPE.. Pastor John pulled off a Christmas Miricle and I had both parts of the project a week BEFORE christmas! I had already read Pastor Johns build log here at LSP a dozen times, Daydreaming etc. and was eagerly awaiting the box from the UK. When I opened the box all I could do was stare at the parts in amazement! I mean a picture is awesome but MAN he did some nice work on ALL of the parts of the conversion. All of the castings were FLAWLESS. The Photo Etch is TOP Notch, the decal sheet is vivid, clear, on register and WELL researched. The Vac parts are clear and distortion free and the rest of the details are simply put..divine. Pastor John and AIMS IMHO are exactly what I hoped for and have definitely exceeded my expectations in every respect in both product and service. I had never seen the contents of the JU 88 kit from Revell in the flesh until now and honestly, it lives up to all the descriptions Iv'e read here at LSP and now that I have one I already want another , perhaps a AIMS JU 188 conversion some time down the road. Ok Back to this build/ conversion : I just started this on 1/ 1 /2012 Pastor John did some refinements to the original castings for the replacement engine nacelles, they are now hollow molded with the engine faces/radiators cast as solid separate pieces. THANK YOU PASTOR JOHN! The less resin I have to grind, the happier I am ! Even with a respirator and vacuum running, it's still not fun to prep resin, but the parts cleaned up easily and no details were lost or damaged during the process. The first thing I wanted to do was get the main resin parts attached and then go back and detail/sand/ fill and file everything so that I could concentrate on the project as a whole. I cleaned up any remaining pour stubs, washed the parts with soap and water, then mineral spirits to de grease them, then washed them again in Oxy Clean. The AIMS parts lined up PERFECTLY with the kit parts and were attached with Gorilla Brand 5 minute epoxy and superglue. I taped the fuselage halves with the wing and tail spars trapped and floating inside, then built the wings. I modified the parts of the kit per AIMS instructions and "tacked" then glued the resin conversion parts into place. I worked from a totally flat and level surface to make sure my Dihedral was dead on, the tail surfaces were flat etc. and then used a 8 inch level, calipers and a few small steel "squaring" blocks and rulers to make sure all of the parts were going to be perfectly aligned. I held it all in place with rubber bands to temp everything in place, re checked my fit, then glued it all for good. BANG...dead on, First try! This set is so easy to use, even I can do it LOL! I will be done with work for the week this thursday and I'll set to work on the cockpit while also refining details on the nacelles with a minimum of sanding and filling. One thing I did do already to modify the parts of the conversion was to hollow out the air intakes on each nacelle. they are provided as separate parts with nicely recessed detail, but I wanted more! With careful use of micro drills and a Dremmel tool, I got them hollowed out and mounted onto the nacelles and the see though look is a nice improvement/ detail so far. I need to figure out if any of the Kagero JU 88 books has plans for the G6 in it that show the rivet lines, and I may rivet the whole plane as well. So this is where I am, I'm MOST incredibly happy with my progress and the kit and AIMS conversion thus far. If anybody reading this has any questions or comments, pointers etc, PLEASE feel free to jump in! I'm anticipating nothing more then modeling 101 and some mild scratch building from here on out but your support and suggestion are most welcome More soon, Paul