EricP

And I hope you don't mind me re-using one of your build images, I've done a quick edit to show what I mean:

Let me help ... in simple terms, cut/file off the smaller bits that stick out the back of the wing Have a look at a photo of an A320 wing : http://www.airliners.net/photo/Bangkok-Airways/Airbus-A320-232/1822452/&sid=fe6f69a7ba2336087babad51c51bfe3e vs an A321 wing : http://www.airliners.net/photo/Turkish-Airlines/Airbus-A321-231/2152695/&sid=9639199e8b6df9fc3d6131c84ae0da3e

I'm going to follow this with interest! Looks like you'll have the parts for a B747-400F after you're done with this build.

The fit looks ok from your pictures, but perhaps that's because you already fixed the issue there! I hope you can get this done by next week, I'm looking forward to this one too!

Thanks, Alpha-Delta ... you've been a great host to this GB!

I wanted to put this on an acrylic rod on a base, but did not have a drill bit that's big enough ... my old drill is a Tamiya Router (the difference between this and the blue-colored Tamiya Drill is that this is not geared down, and spins faster), but it only holds bits up to 3mm. A fellow modeler offered a Bosch IXO cordless screwdriver for sale, with a drill chuck that can hold drill bits of up to 6mm, perfect for my purpose: Comes in a nice little case as well, this is an older model, the newer ones just have a metal tin to hold the screwdriver and accessories. Back to the model ... I sprayed Gunze gloss white as an undercoat, then after several days (weeks!) of drying, started masking: I then sprayed another light coat of white to "seal" the masking tape, to minimize paint bleeding for the subsequent colors Silver went on next, this is Tamiya Flat Aluminum Then the silver areas were masked off, and Lifecolor Orange went on. One thing I discovered ... thinning ratio is very important to Lifecolor, you must experiment on a scrap piece of plastic. I'm used to thinning paints heavily and building up the color layers, no such luck here. I waited for this to dry a bit, about 2 hours, then went back with less thinning and lower airbrush pressure ... and eventually produced something acceptable. And after another 2 hours of drying, the part that fills me with anticipation and dread starts ... removing the masking! Fortunately, the paint bleeding was minimal ... and it was all orange, as the Lifecolor paint went on a bit too thick. I think I'll stick to Gunze and Tamiya from here on, you just have to stay with what you know. One other thing I discovered ... Lifecolor odorless thinner doesn't have any effect on Gunze Hobby Color paints (perhaps because it's lacquer-based), but will remove Tamiya's water-based paint. So the white is unaffected when I used a wet q-tip to wipe the orange off, but I'll have to touch up the silver. And this is likely where I stop for this GB, though I'll complete this and post another thread in BM later. I'll have 1 day between business trips next weekend and will not have time to fix it up (i.e. re-mask and re-spray, plus decal). Thanks for the encouragement, guys, I look forward to more of you completing your builds for the GB!

Long overdue update, my apologies ... and I gotta say upfront that I'm unlikely to get this completed by the deadline, as I'm on a business trip to a country that's about to be hit by Typhoon Tembin in a couple of days Hopefully all that happens is that it gets slightly more humid (i.e. rain!). This is a great GB, and I'm humbled by the quality and productivity of the folks here. On to my update ... I didn't like the look of the rear bulkhead of the kit, so I just added a thin sliver of plasticard to it and trimmed to size: Then the wings and stabs went on, and I made a quick simple jig out of blu-tack ... on hindsight, next time I'll use bits of sprue gates held in place by blu-tack. This method still works, though, as the blu-tack doesn't deform even in tropical heat. And after everything's nice and dried, it starts to look like an aircraft! Then, of course, disaster struck ... the aircraft must have thought "I have wings! I must fly!" ... and it flew down towards the floor ... fortunately my reaction was fast enough, unfortunately I reacted by using knees to catch the flying model (hands were holding paint stuff at the time). With several (scale) metric tons of pressure, the aircraft grade aluminum deformed slightly but was able to be bent back into shape: ... to be continued ...

Great work, Gary! A few more days to go! I'm not going to finish mine in time, but will post an update this weekend.

Looking forward to this build too, Dan. If I may suggest, you'd probably still need to get the warp out of the wings even though you're doing it in flight ... it will still look a bit funky or lopsided if not corrected. Do show us how bad the warp is, perhaps some of us here can help with a way to fix it. Without seeing the issue, maybe I can start "blind" ... get a metal rod of suitable diameter and stiffness, and superglue it to the bottom of the wing straighten the warp ... Hawks don't have a dihedral so this probably makes it easier.

Looking forward to this build too! Those Hasegawa decals are quite par for the course ... the whites are never "white", not even when new, so the best thing to do is to paint the white areas.

I'd like to join too, perhaps with a 1/48 (Classic Airframes) or 1/32 (Hasegawa) TA-4J Blue Angels #7.

I'm keen to join, perhaps with a 1/48 ER-2.

Thanks, Tony, I'm aware of that thread, though I hadn't been back for a few months now. I've been meaning to post scans of my photos taken back in about 1980 (yes, I still have them!), just had not gotten round to it yet. Anyhow, not to detract from discussing your builds, they are simply superb, these kits are teeny tiny and you did a great job with them!

Very nice, Tony! I have a soft spot for Pitts kits as well ... I have a whole bunch of the LS/ARII molds, and am searching high and low for the 1/32 Airshowmodels multimedia kits. I particularly have a soft(er) spot for the Rothmans Aerobatic Team colors ... saw them when they performed in 1980 or so, I even had a poster that was signed by the entire team, which sadly is long gone after several house moves. When I build my kits, at least one will be in Brian Lecomber's mount ... G-BADW, or as he called it (at least according to news reports), "Bad Whiskey"

Looks like your surface prep paid off, that silver coat looks great! Following this build with interest.

That's a beautifully-molded kit! It looks like they printed the yellow decals the same shade as they usually do for Blue Angels ... I'd love to see how the shade changes as you put them on a dark base. Looking forward to this one too ... and I can't believe it's your 4th build just for this GB!

Nice builds! I like what you did with the interior, too bad most of it won't be seen after everything's closed up. You must have had a hard time masking the nose and tail on the P-51!

Thanks for the comments, guys! @Cliffb ... ... @Gajman ... that's a great deal you got on the kits, Gary, I would have bought a carton! Ok ... Friday the 13th, everything went swimmingly throughout the day, came back home to continue a bit of work on the kit ... and Murphy's Law struck. The carpet monster swallowed the airbrake some time after I had started the kit. And I don't even have carpet at home! What to do? Go to the hobby shop, buy another kit just to get that par.... no, no, no, tempting excuse, but no! There's a little flat piece on the sprue gates that seems to fit ... a bit of work with the razor saw and ... Hey, it fits! Mr Murphy ... The nose wheel well is pretty deep, and I can just imagine the gear door dropping in and staying stuck inside, so a few pieces of sprue gates come to the rescue. Stick on the nose gear door. Now to wait for it all to dry, then careful sanding to preserve the panel lines. I did a test fit of the wings ... and there will be gaps. I sort of anticipated this after seeing Gary's build.

Very nice! Looks like the decals are conforming to the curves nicely, I'm sure it wasn't as easy as you made it out to be!

What a beauty! It should be a stunner "in the flesh", as Grant had mentioned ... it'll likely top any club displays! More photos, please!

Very nice! Those Matchbox trench lines don't look bad under a coat of paint.

Impeccable metallic finish, Grant! What black enamel did you use for the base coat?

Nice progress so far. As for the missing elevator, why not just make it out of plastic card? Nice angular shape, so should be relatively easy to trace and cut, then sand a bit of an aerofoil shape in, and scribe some lines to match the other side.

Very nice, Gary! I'm building the same kit, but progress is a lot slower than you ... even though I'm building just one, not 6! I'm looking forward to seeing all the schemes on your builds.

It has been a long time since the last update, my apologies. The last few weeks have been eventful ... I left my old job, took a week off where I completed cataloguing my stash and moved the unbuilt kits to a storage unit, freed up space in a study corner at home where my kids can do their homework, and most importantly, I can build kits after they're done (!), and started a new job. Phew! That didn't leave much time for building models, so I got some help from a professional: She has more than 5 years of experience with miniatures, mostly scale models of blondes with impossibly slim waists and limbs. Here she is helping to wet sand the wings of the Macchi. I intend to have this model gear-up, with a clear acrylic rod holding it aloft via the jetpipe, so some work needs to be done ... here's the jetpipe part and some thick plastic card. Backed up the jetpipe with extra plastic so it can hold the rod. And installed it in the rear fuselage. The gear doors were glued close ... they weren't a good fit, so Tamiya putty was applied and sanded. I'll re-scribe the gear doors later. A flying aircraft needs a pilot, and the kit doesn't provide one, so I enlisted the help of a pilot from an Airfix SAAB Gripen kit. This guy is half Swedish, half Australian, so let's just call him Flt Lt Bruce Svensson Bruce was painted with Vallejo acrylics thinned with water, a 000 brush, a magnifier, and very little coffee. Bruce fitted well into the front seat, but needed some space for his size 12 boots, so a bit was shaved off the instrument console. Here's another angle, the seats are also painted with a "that looks about right" color mixed from Vallejo acrylics. The decal instruments don't actually look too bad, should be quite convincing under the canopy. Apart from that, most of the parts needed have been trimmed and cleaned up, and the canopy has been Future'd and is drying in a dust-free container. I've also bought the acrylic rod and a rectangular wooden base from an arts store, I'll need to buy a drill bit of the correct diameter to drill into the base and the model. Till next update ... hopefully it progresses faster from here. I've started gluing the fuselage halves together, carefully to minimize seams so that I can preserve the delicate raised panel lines.