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Thanks Rich. Haven't decided whether the canopy will be open yet. Will keep my options open for now. One thing putting me off is that the instrument panels are for an F-101B, not an RF-101B. But I might decide not to worry about that in the end! Thanks Col. This is turning out to be quite a nice fitting kit, provided I think things through. And yes it's big! Quite a lot of progress today. First job was to assemble the wings. They went together pretty well - a little filler needed, but not a lot. The instructions call for the undercarriage to be installed before assembling the wing - there's one strut which is attached to a rib and needs to be installed before the wings are closed up, but the main leg can stay off for now. The other deviation from the instructions was that they call for the intake splitter plate to be attached before attaching the wings to the fuselage - I decided I wanted to be able to adjust it after attaching the wings, so left the splitter plate off for now. Whilst the filler was drying on the wings I dealt with the weapons bay under the fuselage. The RF-101B had the weapons bay removed and faired over but the kit doesn't include the fairing. So I attached the kit part, filed off the details, and faired it in with plastic card and superglue. Here's how it looks - it's slightly asymmetrical because I'd attached the kit part slightly off, but I think it's going to look fine once it's been painted: Once that was done I cleaned up the wings and attached them. The splitter plates needed some slight fettling to get a decent fit. A bit of perfect plastic putty was needed around the splitter plates and in a couple of spots at the wing roots, but it was generally a good fit. So I now have a basically complete airframe, which seems to have happened quite quickly, and I can move on to attaching all the smaller parts. I reckon I'll be able to start painting next weekend. thanks for looking Julian

Got back to the RF-101B today. First got the cockpit more or less finished. The Eduard PE was a great time saver but I'm not really convinced by the colours, which are quite different from the colour I used for the tub. Not to worry, cockpit is going to be closed anyway. The front wheel well is attached but I departed from the instructions a bit here as they tell you to install the undercarriage before assembling the fuselage. I'm pretty confident I'll be able to get it in later, so I'm leaving it off until assembly is finished. Next I've assembled the fuselage. I realised the slight step I found on test-fitting was caused by the location pins at the rear of the forward fuselage, which seem to misalign things, so I left them off. Then I glued most of the forward fuselage together but left the parts behind the cockpit - I decided I'd be able to ensure the best possible fit with the centre section if I prioritised that rather than gluing the forward section together and risking a poor fit. Lo and behold the best fit I could get with the centre section resulted in a small (but easily filled) gap at the back of the front section, so I think that was the right decision. Here's the fully assembled fuselage. I'm moving on to the wings next - have cut them out and cleaned them up, and painted the wheel wells, so should get the wings on tomorrow. Thanks for looking Julian

Very very nicely done. Outstanding work Adrian

Looking good. Really like the look of the pitot set.

Very nice result James. Really must get on with mine.

Thanks!

People protecting their personal space on public transport. This morning I was part of a crowd of people squeezed like sardines in the space near the doorway on the train. Meanwhile there are a few people with plenty of space between them down the aisle who could easily move up and help alleviate the crush. All requests to move up were ignored. Now have a sore back from the awkward position I was squeezed into. Good thing I’m married to the woman I was pressed up against!

A non-political post about elections: Living in a very safe seat at election time makes me happy! A colleague at work lives in a hard fought marginal seat and says it’s hell - can’t move for campaigners and constant stream of leaflets in the mail box. Meanwhile where I live, the local MP is under no threat whatsoever and there’s barely any sign there’s an election on. Which is how I like it!

Excellent result Peter. Goes to show what a great model you can build from an Amodel kit. They make you work for it but they aren’t anywhere near as bad as their reputation suggests.

Lovely! Really great result. I like that a lot.

Very nice work @825

Might need a couple of these. American for a start. But I’ve been thinking about the NASA SOFIA SP for a while - wouldn’t mind having a go at that, with the door open and the telescope inside.

Thanks everyone!

I’ll be joining in in a couple of weeks with a 1/48 F-105G and maybe a Neptune. Don’t have the F-105G yet but I found the Hobby Boss kit at a reasonable price online the other day and I should have it in a few days. I’ve got some aftermarket on its way to me as well including Caracal decals for a shark-mouthed Thud and also some decals for a Neptune with shark mouths on the booster engine pods. The Neptune might be left until a little later though as I have a Hunter to finish, just started the Voodoo and I want to get cracking on something for the Lockheed GB (probably an F-104 - all of a sudden I seem to have a century series thing going on!).

Looks fantastic!