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My plan was to enter this GB with the Humming Bird and enter another model only after the first almost finished. But I doubt the I ever started this one without the extra stimulus of this Group Build, so here we go... Aircraft in Miniature offers a lot of very interesting kits of the Golden Age, but we were almost always mismatched; Or the kits were available and I had no money or I had some to spend and they were out of production. So I felt very lucky to acquire this one second hand (from here in Britmodeller if I remember well) but the anticipation of the work needed always made me return it to the stash every time I opened the box. Until some days ago. I forget to take a picture of the contents before starting it, but you may have a look at it with only a few work done: The kit is composed of vacuformed fuselage halves and cabin transparent parts (in double), resin flying surfaces and metal detail parts. A bit of 2mm thick plastic card is included as well. Decals are included for three aircraft - you may see profiles at AiM's page: http://www.aim72.co.uk/page174.html The fuselage parts were pre-cut and pre-sanded, although I had to finish the task. (I think that this was done by AiM, but I don't exclude the previous owner). I would have preferred the more common white plastic and parts not cut, so I could control better the sanding process. The black plastic doesn't help either. The canopy plastic yellowed a lot and will not be used. As you may see, the engine nacelles, wheel pants and wheels are all in one piece. I don't like that, as it makes detailing and painting more difficult, so I will take the wheels off and will open the wells. (The nacelle fronts were included but I already took them apart - they are probably hidden bellow the instructions in the photo above). All the outer panels were warped. The white metal parts are still in their bags and will need a lot of cleaning. As for accuracy, the kit is good enough. Scale drawings are included both in an article by Graham Simons in Wingspan #63 (April 1990) - drawings by Alf Granger - and in a booklet published by GMS Enterprises (the publisher of older books of Arthur Ord-Hume). The quality of the photos printed in this one is truly awful but the plans are very similar to Granger's with a few differences. I scanned, printed and measured granger drawings and they are on the spot on span dimension but 2 to 3 mm larger in length. As you may see bellow, the wings have a good dimension (with some difference at the tips) but the fuselage is way to small, about 6 mm less than the drawings, or 3 mm less than the true dimension. The fuselage is a little short comparing with the drawings in the booklet, that are themselves more than 1mm short. The kit was probably produced having these drawings as a basis. I will not worry myself with the small difference in length and I still must decide if I will correct the wing tips. * * * I began cutting the engine nacelle fronts to open the intakes and place inside the first cylinder but I think I will cast copies of the Airfix Tiger Moth part instead. This is work for later. Then I straightened the warped wings. I confess I was a little worried about that, but it was fast and simple. I just put some boiling water in a mug and put inside the warped portion for a few seconds. When the resin was soft enough I placed the part in a plan surface (my faithful mitter box) and let it cold under cold water. In one case I had to repeat, but it worked well and fast. Sorry, no photos of the warped parts. Probably because there was not a clear definition between the inner end of the outer wing panels and their casting blocks, both inner and outer wing panels had a very noticeable misalignment taking the leading edge as a reference. It was tricky, but I managed to solve the problem this way: * first, I measured and drilled holes for two spars made of steel rod. I used started with a thinner drill and enlarged the hole until the rod diameter, 1.2 mm, taking care to alight the drill with the leading edge in plan view; * Then I glued the pins in the inner panels, using super glue; * When I offered the outer panels to the inner ones there was some misalignment, but then I could enlarge the outer holes with the drill until both panels were aligned against the edge of the mitter box. This time 5 min. epoxy was used to join the wings, which game me time for adjustment and filled partially the gaps. This was much easier to do with the upper wings, as I could place both panels against the edge. With the lower ones I had to trust in my eyeball... I managed to swap upper and lower panels! I knew that the aileron actuators were in the upper surface on the upper wing and the contrary on the lower... but I only noticed after gluing! No big deal, as they were a little rude and the only other difference were the flaps in the upper wing that were in the wrong position anyway. Next I opened the windows. This is problematic to me, as I previously almost ruined a few vacs because of careless cutting, so I decided to be *very* careful this time. I scanned and printed the frames from the decals, cut them carefully by the upper and lower line of the windows. The windows must be correctly aligned between two stringers, and have as reference the port door. I put a spot or two of tube glue to fix the paper to the plastic and then put scotch tape over. Then I cut the paper by the inside of the frames, drilled some holes conveniently away from the frame and took a looong time to cut, replace dull blades, and finish with files. I must confess that aligning the wings and cutting the windows were the main tasks that put this kit far from my workbench for so long. Now that this is solved, the rest should be a walk in the park! Carlos